Am i crazy to buy another escort?

[Wetchaser]

Good news is i paid off my truck this month : )

Bad news is wife slammed a chrylser product that pulled in front of her and totaled our 98 Escort with 47k on it : (

Car really never gave us any trouble, but when it was still stinking new from dealer i did have intermittent crank, no start prob. It went to dealer and they said they found nothing but we never had another occurance. It happened twice, and i was ready to have it towed when it finally fired. Car had less then 5k on it then. I only mention it cause i see people having probs with that still.

So back to my little soap opra. My 98 is trashed but miles were low enough to get $3,400.00 from insurance. I have a chance to get a 97 with 35k super clean for $5-$6k.

We have 2 kids, one of which is 14 and was the intended owner for our 98 in 2010 as it would have been the perfect starter car and we would have had 2 yrs of no car payment allowing us to save for heating fuel and a new car downpayment. The other child is still young enough to trash the inside of a car "by accident", so if an "accident" occured we wouldnt mule whip her to bad over it, lol.

1, Am i wrong or is the escort usually one of the most dependable cars ever built, or did we just get lucky only changing fluids, tires and brakes for last 10 years?

2, After owning a car for 10 years, is there some sort of insanity issue for considering buying the same car again?

Looking forward to reply's from other's

[doug2060]

Even if the 97 had 5 miles on it I wouldn't pay those prices. Age plays a part as well. All that those low miles mean is that it's been rotting away for the last 11 or 12 years. I loved my Escort which was also a 97. It passed away about a year ago. These cars are prone to at least 2 major problems that I have seen a lot of over the years.

1.Transmissions frequently fail (VERY FREQUENTLY)
2. Cylinder 4 likes to drop it's valve seat and blow a perfectly good engine (I have heard that some even did it under 20k.

If you're looking for an opinion I would look around a bit. That is a very high price for a car that old. As much as I hate to say it those foreign clunkers are looking pretty good these days.

[zzyzzx2]

No, I've been driving Escorts since Jan 1985, and an on my second one.

[Wetchaser]

Unfourtunatly the escort was sold before i could get to the dealer. We looked around for awile longer but that was best deal we saw with miles low enough to have hope the car was going to last awile. We decided to bite the bullet, take the $3700 insurance check and go new.

Unfourtunatly Ford really seems to think there ship dont stink, cause the only thing in my price range there was a focus. I had a buddy who had a first run focus that was in and out of the shop way to much for my tastes. I didnt know/forgot it was a first run focus my buddy had when we were shopping or i might have looked in a window or two. Shame Ford pulled a Bill Gates with that car, as it just cost them a lifetime customer.
::looks out window at Ford 04 full sixe bed F250 diesel bought new in 03::

After my wife and i truly did our research on the internet, and walked out of a dealership over hidden charges, we got a Toyota Matrix. I dare say that thing has one of the ballsiest 4 cylinders ive ever encountered.

Do i feel bad for not buying from the big 3? Yea, but my hands were truly tied with finance limits set in these troubling times. We drove escort to save money back then as well, and felt we deserved a few luxeries in this car that Detroit just seems to want to much for in there cars.

It was that, or greedy salesmen.....guess we will never know.

[zzyzzx2]

Ummm.. The current Ford Focus is nothing like the first year crap version.

Although I would consider an Escort to be a better car, but only because it's bigger and you can get a hatchback or wagon version.