To each his own and you don't have to be sensible about it.
I am loyal to no marque out there, but I can tell pretty quick when somebody does something in a better way. I have only have been with Ford since '74, but I can back up everything I say since I have never paid for a single car repair in my entire life. That includes my own automatic transmissions and engines coming out my ears. I have never paid ever for wheel alignment, I do my own. I typically fix parts that break at far less cost than most of you, often fixing what's there without buying the part at the parts store. I stayed with Ford longer term because I understood the way they used their computer but can do other brands as well. I've been reading OBD since '91. I don't speak badly of the cars just because of a gut feeling, I have personally seen the bad things Ford does and if you can't handle it then so much the worse for you. I can see engineering fault in the simple parts I pick up almost instantly, most other people grousing about this or that would not have a clue if I simply threw the part at them and said tell me what's wrong with it?
Talk about rust? Modern Fords rust so quickly up north they typically rust nuts and bolts to not even be removeable in 3 years. The cars may be missing floorboards in five. Dangerous suspension corrosion by then too. I lost a Tempo control arm to corrosion in '97, car only 3 years old and here in Texas where NOTHING ever corrodes to ruin. Why? The engineer who located the moisture spit hole on the muffler aimed it right at the arm, brilliant!!!
Best Ford I had as far as reliability was a '74 MII, only changed a timing belt here or there. The Focus cars have something go wrong every 20K miles or sooner and began doing it at under 50K. Endless troubles and thanking my stars I can fix it all with no great cost to me. The Contour was better but broke a lot of cosmetic stuff, the trans had known issues and exploded at 125K miles. I rebuilt it to be running fine now since '07. One of 3 Tempos shelled a trans, I fixed it for a $16 pump driveshaft and $5 pump insert and been running after that since '05. One other Tempo began to slip badly in 1 and 2 and I modded the servo piston using a thirty cent washer and trans ran from then (around '98) until I just sold it last month. Of course the shop I took it too on a whim said it needed a 'complete rebuild' and what they do. One Focus began to slip going into OD, fixed with a $5 bolt to make a band adjuster and running fine now some 8 years later.
Things like that, I have never spent over $100 on anything except maybe engine components to rebuild an entire engine. Most of the time $25 or less. Today I fixed a Focus a/c clutch with a twenty cent washer and fixed a Focus window regulator for $10 in parts, they shell out about once every two years or so. The Ford branded ones are no better than the low dollar Dorman ones at parts store, just like the stat housings and plastic rad pipes that break every time you turn around. I made up copper ones from Home Depot pipe at less cost than the original and they will NEVER break. I use bulk hose only and no custom molded factory hoses other than upper and lower main rad hose. That alone makes over $100 out of thin air.
I'm ignorant too, I don't accept virtually anything told to me about how to fix a car, and then I do other things to fix it far more cheaply. They could not believe how little money I spent when I was working at the parts store and they got fairly upset when I told people how to fix their cars without having to buy the expensive parts. I can find things wrong with almost any car out there and what I do well. I then will come up with ways to fix them that have nothing to do with how the 'normal' world does things since I don't play well there.
Two Focus and one Contour at 200K+ miles, I change oil at 9500 OCI and using Walmart oil, can't kill the cars. However, every other little thing on them breaks other than engine/trans, and what I'm talking about. The small things are calculated to frustrate the owner into getting rid of car due to nuisance issues that mount up to drive one crazy. Still, I will be able to keep them running until I give up to let them go to the yards.
Brand loyalty is retarded in my view, it only clouds one's vision. But then I grew up with American Motors cars, no one ever realized how great they could be and we made up plenty of parts when you couldn't get them like for the Fords or GMs. The AMCs were well known for crap bodies, the doors and windows were always problems, the one ATX they had was crap (Ford had an exact copy that was not that great either), we routinely tore them up with 300 hp engines. They could not be modded to be any stronger either. Later they went to Chrysler ATX and even later GM and better trans then.
