Like what's happening with Wall Street?

If nothing else, we're subsizizing 2 industries...

Marty, I think you'd be OK with any of the big 3. I grew up in a Ford family, even though we've owned Chevy, Datsun and VW along the way. My personal experience has been that Fords tend to do great for about 120K miles, then problems slowly start developing. We've gotten about 180K out of every vehicle before we get a new one, though I couldn't honestly tell you how long they would have lasted. Yes, I know the allure of an Asian car lasting 200K or more is tempting, but as someone said, they mostly do that in the smaller cars. I'm kind of eyeing the market right now too, and like the Nissan XTerra, but like some of the GM and Dodge trucks too. I'd stick with an Explorer if Ford hadn't wussified it and made it a glorified minivan (personal opinion of my dad's 2007 vs my 1999 Explorer).

Anyway, given that folks can find parts to a '55 chevy, tons of classic Corvettes, or WW2 era Willy jeeps, I think you'll be fine finding parts for something that's only been out of production (if the company totally tanks) a few years.

you have no idea how many times i come home and there's 3 or 4 unexpected extra kids around...we have the house that seems to ALWAYS have a massive amount of kids around...and it's only planned now and then.

7 passenger is our "EDC" for the vehicle...

Thanks everyone. After all of this input and with careful consideration, we have decided....


...to do nothing.

We're going to run the Ford until it completely breaks down and we've set $4,100 a year as a budget to keep it on the road.
The logic is that $4,100 is about the same as car payments, we have no expectation of a resale and we have no need to take on debt. I don't care how the car looks so I'm taking it to a shop and welding the damn rocker panels myself with something to stiffen it all up. I was able to reset the computer and disable some of the automatic features with creative wire snips

So thanks, this was useful.

Marty, I like your call. When you mentioned the repair cost in the first post it was far less than a car payment. The one thing that finally made me change my mind a ton of years ago was this: how much anxiety am I allowed to inflict on my wife due to an iffy car? It came to the point that she was not comfortable driving because any problem is big when you are not home. I am guessing that point hasn't come yet for you; and I hope it doesn't for a long time.

2 cents

Then they grow up into teenagers and they all have their cars parked at your house. Kiss your current "reserved" parking space goodbye!

Back in Feb, I looked at an Element, and a Scion xB - liked both, went with the Scion for 2 reasons

1)The Element has a 2 passenger rear seat - no middle belt, and in fact, has a storage compartment in the middle

2)I couldn't GET an Element - would have had to wait and put my name on a list - the Scion was delivered next day!

Of course I was replacing a 1993 Saturn SL2. Car was OK, but had gotten to the point where monthly maintainence was north of $450 - the car payment was less. In fact, what I'm doing is dropping in almost $600/month, and paying off WAY early

Always been a jeep guy. My first Cherokee Sport (1991) had 350000 miles on it and after I was done with it my dad still abused it. I had to change shifting sensor on it after racing stock car in the rockies but that was the only problem I had with it. Only reason it went to the junk yard is because it rusted thru so much that you couldnt even weld anything to it. My second Cherokee Sport (2000) was also great. No major problems but after 6 years of hard use I was told that I will need to put $5000 into it. I sold the car and was looking for a new one. Sad to say Jeep wasn't a choice anymore. All my friends who had them were facing constant problems. I'm not talking about little things but major stuff like blown transmitions etc etc... I went with Nissan. When people said that they dont make them like they used to I wrote it off as nostalgia talk. Not anymore thou. I'm all for buying American (whatever that means today) and keeping jobs here but not when local stuff is crap.

I would buy a 2009 Dodge Ram 2500 to replace the 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 I currently have. I have not been impressed with Ford or Chevy (particularly Chevy) products in this work range. We have a 29 ft. trailer that we haul to dog sled races (living quarters, equipment and animal transport) so 4wd power is a premium we highly prize. The current 1500 does a good job and is expected to for awhile; however, should events dictate that these types of vehicles are going away we might invest in a new one to extend the number of years we can maintain our activity.

I wasn't talking about any kind of government support. I was talking about doing our best to buy American-made products when possible/reasonable.

As I get older I tend to lean toward what I think (?) the founders' view points were - smaller & simpler government.

I do think that SOME corporations (manufacturing/financial) have simply grown too large. I don't think the founders ever foresaw a company being so large that its demise could actually damage the U.S. economy.

(Sorry Chris ... this is leaning toward politics ... I'll shut up now)

@Polack:

I really like jeep. I have had three myself, two Cherokees and a 1985 AMC CJ7. Based on some electrical issues I had with the Cherokee Limited, and the upkeep I was constantly doing on the CJ7, I got a bit soured on the brand.

Now however, (last three years or so) I have noticed just how many Cherokee models are still on the road. Even my brother still has his 1998 on the road.

I have been considering a trade in on my Charger to a Cherokee for this reason but they don't make them anymore. I really don't like the new models they have, based on shape.