Ok, I'm normally a Caddy person when it comes to American luxury, however I've come across what appears to be a great deal. There is an older man, (late 40s, mid 50s) who is selling a 95 Lincoln Mark VIII. It was originally $4400 on this guy's lot, but it wasn't his car to sell.
I started it and it seemed mostly good but had a bit of a roughness to it. Come to find out, it was the MAP sensor and he replaced it. He lowered the price down to $3700. It has 81,000 miles and the only issues are the rubber around the back windshield is slightly worn but it does not leak.
The story behind the car is that a guy who owns the local flea market (Very large flea market) bought it new. Then he sold it at around 40-50k miles to an old lady. That old lady got cancer and died, so the car was inherited by this guy who has it now. He said he drove it some, but then he got cancer. So basically, he didn't drive it, he just went out every few days and started it, let it idle, checked everything, and turned it back off.
The only thing I know is problematic with these Lincolns are the air ride suspension which I know runs for $1500 to $2000 to fix. This one seems fine, but I'm a bit leary on trusting a Lincoln since it is made by Ford and my luck with Ford hasn't been stellar. Does this sound like a worthy deal or should I just save my money? Thanks for any suggestions or advice.
1. You like Caddy. GM has the worst rep for reliability of american cars with their Pontiac brand save for Dodge, who's Chrysler and they don't count LOL j/j
2. From what I've experienced personally, Lincoln is a decent car. My coworker had a Cadillac that gave him nothing but headaches. He's put 150k miles on his Lincoln Town Car and never had ANY problems and those are both highway and city driven miles.
3. It's a big car. Bigger engine. Poor gas mileage. It is a major issue these days. Something to concider?
4. Ford has made great strives in reliability versus GM and Chrysler, who's sales and reliability results (according to Consumer Reports, an independent researcher) have slumped. Now, I know they're getting better but Ford is still ahead, albeit trailing Toyota and Honda.
If I can make a suggestion, get a Honda Accord or a Toyota Corolla. They're not too small but not too big and have better gas mileage than a big ole' Lincoln and their reliability and ease of use are above anything america can produce yet. And as for that whole "it's cheaper to fix an american vehicle because you're in america"...it's bullshit. My Ford Ranger costs A TON to fix yet my g/f's honda is soooo cheap.
The only thing I know is problematic with these Lincolns are the air ride suspension which I know runs for $1500 to $2000 to fix. This one seems fine, but I'm a bit leary on trusting a Lincoln since it is made by Ford and my luck with Ford hasn't been stellar. Does this sound like a worthy deal or should I just save my money? Thanks for any suggestions or advice.
is it air ride? thats what they have suspension problems with, if its air ride i wouldnt touch it, if it doesnt have a problem now, it will soon, it feels good when it works but when it goes out it does weird things that are very embarassing in traffic
1. You like Caddy. GM has the worst rep for reliability of american cars with their Pontiac brand save for Dodge, who's Chrysler and they don't count LOL j/j
Hah! I've never seen a Ford with nothing wrong. I've seen plenty of GMs with nothing wrong. Why is it that I've heard Thunderbirds (The 90's ones) are just 100k mile cars and then you throw them away? My Grand Prix's only problem was leaking a bit of oil. Now that I've fixed it, it's perfect and it has 120k miles on it. My 96 Riviera has near 140k miles and runs better than newer cars I've looked at. Northstars may have problems, but GM by no means has as many problems as Ford.
2. From what I've experienced personally, Lincoln is a decent car. My coworker had a Cadillac that gave him nothing but headaches. He's put 150k miles on his Lincoln Town Car and never had ANY problems and those are both highway and city driven miles.
Town Cars don't break because they're so bland and boring. It's hardly a luxury car, all it has is a nice ride with mushy transmission. No power at all. They're too expensive to buy compared to how nice they are. I mean nothing screams OLD PERSON like a Town Car. Ugh, no thanks.
3. It's a big car. Bigger engine. Poor gas mileage. It is a major issue these days. Something to concider?
No it isn't, It's right next to the size of my Riviera. The Riviera has a supercharged six cylinder and I get 22 mpg easy and thats with city and highway driving. Compared to these sons of bitches in UVs with 12 mpg and these giant ass trucks, no I have excellent gas mileage. So this point is not valid in my case. Plus, I'd rather have a big 2 ton car versus a ton and a half car in a wreck. You can't tell me you'd rather be in a Corolla on the other side of a Mark VIII
4. Ford has made great strives in reliability versus GM and Chrysler, who's sales and reliability results (according to Consumer Reports, an independent researcher) have slumped. Now, I know they're getting better but Ford is still ahead, albeit trailing Toyota and Honda.
HAHAHA! I'm sorry, but there is no way in hell you'll ever convince me of that. Chrysler still makes broke down junky cars, but everyone knows that. Consumer Reports, now thats a good one. They're so biased, they only like Japanese cars. They give anything American or European way lower scores than Civics and Corollas. The points they've made of why they don't like some cars that I've been in and driven, are completely irrelevant and are in no way a reason to dislike a car. I still see late model Fords breaking down on the expressway and whatnot. I've yet to see any newer GMs broke down.
If I can make a suggestion, get a Honda Accord or a Toyota Corolla. They're not too small but not too big and have better gas mileage than a big ole' Lincoln and their reliability and ease of use are above anything america can produce yet. And as for that whole "it's cheaper to fix an american vehicle because you're in america"...it's bullshit. My Ford Ranger costs A TON to fix yet my g/f's honda is soooo cheap.
I don't mind Accords, but they're so expensive compared to what I've looked at. I can't find any with a 6 cylinder and I hate 4 cylinders. They're all buzzy and shuddery in those Hondas. Not seen a 4 cylinder run smooth yet, and their timing chains go bad on them every 70-100k miles and most people never replace them. Plus Accords are still not that big, they don't feel very solid. Now Corollas are tiny. They all have sputtery little 4 cylinders and absolutely no features at all. I don't give a damn about gas mileage as long as I'm not filling it up every other day. I prefer to have a car I enjoy driving over "Hey I haven't filled up in a week, but my car is so slow and boring!!"
And one important thing, I live in an extremely domesticly ruled town. GMs, Fords, and Chryslers are EVERYWHERE here, and I've never had to spend much fixing any GM here. I have heard lots of horror stories about Euro cars but that is to be expected. I've also heard people telling me bad things about Japanese cars, that if they're not meticulously maintained they won't last at all. If taken care of they do. I've looked at so many cars though, that look as if they are ready to fall apart, and with only 70k miles. People don't take care of their cars.
I'm not at all saying I prefer American cars over foreign, but practically, they are much more reasonable. My biggest dislike of Euro cars is the extreme costs to fix them, although I love everything else about them. Japanese cars I love the reliability for the most part, but they're just not that fast and they're almost all 4 cylinders and small. Corollas are great because there is nothing on them to break. They have spartan interiors, cheap plastic EVERYWHERE, and the wimpiest plastic bumpers I've seen. I leaned against a late model Camry (2004ish) and I put a permanent dent in the back passenger quarter panel. I don't call that a very sturdy car.
Nah, I'll stick with GMs until the other companies get their problems worked out. I've never had major problems with any GM and I hope to never have any.
LOL I think you need to get out of your town j/j ;-)
Having worked on many different brands, I find Jap cars to be easy to work on and have BETTER quality parts, inside and out, than those of american cars, in particular Dodge and Pontiac (speaking from personal experience). Also, my mother had a 1984 Honda Civic hatchback that never had an oil change to my knowledge and lasted 280k miles. She never took care of it. My g/f's 1996 honda civic is almost 190k miles and all I do is change the oil, filter, and air filter. Japanese cars have a tremendous reliability rating and a low maintenance rating (very recently I changed O2 sensors on my truck at nearly 50 dollars a pop for Bosch. My g/f's O2 sensors cost HALF that for Bosch. Also, the mechanic wanted 210 dollars to fix my O2 sensors on my Ford Ranger. But, my g/f's car would have cost 70 bucks when she took it to her dealer...I'm glad I did it myself). You really need to look at third party, indipendent magazines like Consumer Reports and see what they say and read their records. Having worked in a library during my college years I read all the magazines from Car&Driver and Consumer Reports to 4x4 Weekly. Do some research on that car. Who knows, maybe it stinx I'm a big Ford truck fan but NOT an american car fan (unless you talk classics ;-) ) but it all comes from the way I grew up and what I've experienced at work, what I read, friends cars I worked on, etc etc.
Although I will admit a Chevy truck does ride nicer :lol:
yeah American deisel trucks are best (and only) for now, but Toyota might take that over too in the future, Frod has reliability problems but they have the most powerfull truck now, the truck itself is also the strongest with the highest payload and towing, dodge has the most reliable motor but thats only because they didnt have a hand in making it, i wouldnt trust their trust for crap, chevy is the all around middle man, nothing realy wrong except the price tag
We use Ford F350-550's at work, all diesel. We have no problems with them and everything holds up pretty well: i.e. no rust, no fabrics tearing, nothing falling off inside or outside. We did just get a brandnew Chevy 3500 with Duramax Diesel and an Allison Tranny. The guy who drives it says it's slower/weaker than his old Ford F550, which had a similar size engine but heavier body. I really don't think Chevy is the middle man in this because of it's price tags and engine realiability. You have to take into account that the Duramax is really an old 350 engine converted to diesel and they had TONS of problems when that first came about. One of my classmates at college loves his chevy's and swears by them. I totally ripped into him when he had to replace a brand new engine (7k miles on it) from his 3500 Duramax.
Now, Ford doesn't have as nice of a ride as Chevy, but it's pricetags are a little bit better. I think the Ford trucks are really geared more towards industrial/commercial owners while the Chevy tailors towards individuals based on what I've seen at my job.
Dodge = horrible. They don't make the Cummins engine, thank god, but everything falls apart on their work trucks. My father's company bought a brand new Dodge Cummins truck and the interior fell apart within 3 months! The ceiling came off, the dome light didn't work, one of the handles broke, the vents broke, the radio stopped receiving FM, and the airconditioning broke after 2 months in the summer!!! I mean, COME ON. that's horrible and it didn't just happen to one truck, either! All the dodges the company bought began falling apart within a year, let alone a few months. I will never EVER buy a dodge. It just won't happen.
yeah the only thing i like about the Dodges is their engines and looks, well untill the 2008 Ford super duties came out that is. not to mention looks mean just about nothing when it comes to trucks. id have to agree with you about the Dodge trucks, my dad has one and right after he bought it the paint started peeling off and now its almost all peeled off the roof and hood and its covered in light surface rust and just looks like shit even though its not all that old. were about to have it repainted because it has about zero sale value when it looks like that. plus now that your talking about company trucks, you almost never see Dodges being used as company trucks, theyre almost always Fords and sometimes Chevys.
That old Lincoln air ride system will always give you trouble unless you replace the whole system, & still can be an ever present problem. I'd sure double check that story about the lady that had the car & then cancer got her. Sounds similar to 'the little old lady from Pasadena'. If you buy that old Lincoln count on replacing all the rubber, hoses, seals, etc. Pay close attention to the door & trunk seals; a trip to the car wash could cost you.
Japanese cars are about to take over the common market. Their quality control is better than most & they are making top quality vehicles, for the common market. The Tacoma truck was Motor Trend Mag's Truck of the Year, recently. Think about it, the US invented pick-ups & the Japanese make a better one than any US half ton series.
I have a heavy-duty 4WD extended cab Chevy Silverado with 8 foot bed. If the Japanese start making heavy duty trucks; I'll sure look before I buy another Chevy; as much as I hate to say that.
yeah, sorta ironic how Toyota supports America more than any US car maker simply because all cars sold by Toyota in America were made by Americans in America
my aunts old Linclon had the air ride go out on it, when moving it wouldnt inflate and lift up, but when you stop it would bounce
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I'm a big Ford truck fan but NOT an american car fan (unless you talk classics ;-) ) but it all comes from the way I grew up and what I've experienced at work, what I read, friends cars I worked on, etc etc.
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