Last night, I was lucky not to have crashed with my car. This is what happened:

I was driving at 90 km/hour (about 56 mile/hour). Easy driving, sunset ... nice moment to drive. But ok, seemed like I still had to go through a one-day-too-late-friday-the-13th: suddenly, my engine made a very strange noise, followed by a scouring sound. Immediately, I parked my car next to the road (actually, the road was a bridge) and stepped out What was happened? At one place, my whole exhaust pipe was broken off. As a result, a large part of the pipe was scouring over the road, only attached with one end on my car. The lose end was scouring against driving direction so I was very lucky I was driving on plane asfalt, otherwise the pipe could have been kicked off by some roughness of the road and in that case, I wouldn't have known where I could have end with my car (keeping in mind I was driving on a bridge at that moment).

I think I was lucky as well that my car didn't catch fire, with the souring of the pipe over the road. What if some fire spatters would have gone over to the engine ... :?

But ok, nothing worse happened, and since it was a problem with my exhaust pipe, the strange noise of the engine was quite obvious (FORD engines seem to be quite stable). The conclusion was that the pipe was too rusty at the place it broke off ...

Lukcy I got my GSM with me, cause there was no phone cell at all on that road. After 30 minutes waiting, the guys of road-aid were arriving. They could attach the pipe again to my car, but obviously, it's an emergency solution as it is now. It still costed me about 230 ? ($250).

Now, I start saving immediately for another car. And NOT for a FORD ... damn those cars are really easy rusting. I think if I still drive a few years with it, it will be a brown car instead of a gray one. Another issue is that some pieces inside the car, can be trembling a lot sometimes.

I'm looking for a peugeot 307 or a honda civic now ... but first saving money and untill then, hope my ford brings me everywhere I want ... alive

Re:: never buy a FORD

Glad to hear it all worked out ok for you and you are safe.

Civics are always reliable. recommended

Re:: never buy a FORD

It is a little scary but an exaust falling off is no major problem, they only really last a few years with avergage wear. imagine all that heat and constant cooling. Add that to the spray of water and salt and mud of course they will corrode quickly.

I was once driving late at night back from the North of England to Wales, the back box fell off on Junc 33 of the M4, the middle box at 37 and thefront box surived untill Junc 40. Believe me the last 50 miles were very nosiy. :lol:

Fords in the UK had a rep as rust buckets, but they made ideal cars as parts were so plentlyful and very cheap. my first car was a ford, bloody good car IMO.

that sucks. the AC unit in my passat froze up and then the fan belt burned off this week :evil: i hate cars

Re:: never buy a FORD

I hate Fords, I have no respect for a company that knows that they're selling you dangerous garbage and still doesn't care because it is cheaper to settle lawsuits than to fix a design flaw. Look at all of the people that have died over the years because of their negligence, they knew about their defects and did nothing. Quality, and integrity is not in their vocabulary. I love what I drive and I don't ever see myself driving a Ford.

dude, i use to sell used cars for Enterprise Car Sales.

i spoke to the Customer Service Manager and asked him what kind of vehicle has the most problems and customer complaints?

he told me it was any AMERICAN SEDAN by FORD, GM, or CHRYSLER/DAMLIER.

ever since then i absolutely refuse to buy american cars. they are shit.

all of my friends that have had an amercan sedan, they've always had problems.

so i bought a honda accord. had it for 5 years with 135,000 miles on the clock and not a single problem... wait, except for typical maintenance list brakes, oill changes, etc..

just my 0.02

^^ agree... american cars have a lot of problems and furthermore they are not very efficient when it comes to gas... the best are japanese or european cars!

yeah Honda accords are very realible cars. Untill a few months ago, my father drove an accord from '94. In those ten years, the only problem he had was ... the exhaust pipe hehe. He now drives the newest Honda accords and it's great car. I drove with it recently, and really I've never driven a car that runs so smoothly.

Actually, Honda is extremely realible in general. After all, it's a japanese one. But just because of that last, I don't always like the rather 'classic' look. I like the front of the newest Civic very much, but the side view and rear are so boring. However, the dashboard is really cool with the 'hip' gear lever.

Honda's & Toyota's I've found are the best overall cars to buy in terms of reliability and long-term usage.

I did have the exhaust pipe fall off on me once too, but that was simply because the bolt had rusted through and just ended up snapping...luckily, I was just coming to a stop at a stop light when it occurred...things happen for a reason...:)

Back in the day Ford used to make kickass cars...I had an old Mercury from 1988 that my family owned and the like that ended up lasting for about 10 years...and when I got it, I beat the hell out of the thing and it STILL ran..:twisted: Nowadays though, you'd be hard-pressed to think Ford's "Quality" is still "Job 1"...

Re: never buy a FORD

[quote=Gloomy]Last night, I was lucky not to have crashed with my car. [/quote]

BEING IN A CRASH: Going to the brink of death and back, in a nine car pile-up on a dual carriage-way, is ... very much like making love to a beautiful woman. First of all, brace yourself, hold on tight - particularly if it's a rear-ender. And pray you make contact with her twin airbags as soon as possible.

Re:: never buy a FORD

every engine breaks in the end ford is a very popular brand and maybe when you"ll get your japanese car or the european one, in the end it will break too its a question of time in my opinion and not really of brand good luck with your new car!

Re:: never buy a FORD

Ford does suck on most vehicles imo and others opinions. I've lived in America all my life and owned and know many other Ford owners.

Ford cars like the Taurus and Escort(no longer made) do have lots of problems. But, Ford trucks and Mustangs usually have less problems.

I've personally owned two Mustangs before. I had the regular or V6 Mustang and it had lots of small problems. I traded it in to get a Mustang GT and only had one recurring problem. That problem was that the front tires only lasted a few thousand miles before going bald. Ford blamed my wild driving as the reason.

I own an Infiinit FX now and it rocks. No complaints at all.

I owned two Tauruses (good deals both), which had a slew of recurring problems. Had I known then what I know now, I would just go japanese (my dad had a Chevy Lumina, and it too had a bunch of problems. His Altima is 5 years old and has few, if any).. I love the USA, but will never buy an american entry level model again. Now, though, I don't even have to drive! 8):lol:

FORD - Found On the Road Dead :HolyShit:

Re:: never buy a FORD

The '68 Ford Mustang is can be used.

I drive a 2000 Ford Escort ZX2 (they actually do still make them too). I didn't really have a choice as it was bought and paid for by the rents for my high school graduation. I really don't have anything to complain about it either. It gets great gas mileage, the air runs cold, and the stock speakers aren't that bad. I did purchase the extended warranty where it's only a $100 deductible for almost any problem until 7 years or 100,000 miles. I really don't care what I drive as long as it runs decent with a/c and gets me from one place to another. When I get out of pharmacy school and start making some decent money, I plan on getting a BMW though. They're very reliable...my friend used to have an '92 BMW and that thing ran better than most cars (until he crashed it '00). All I know is that I'll only get an SUV when I start having kids...I really don't see the point for me to have one otherwise!

don't buy a chevy either... pieces of shit.

My chevy is older than jesus...

F.O.R.D = Found On Road Dead

[quote=fumanchu182]My chevy is older than jesus...[/quote]my camaro lasted 5 years and it died. never been in a wreck either. everything about that car just sucked. never again.....

never buy a ford "duh" :Bingo:

chevy = like a rock ford = fixed or repaired daily

i only drive bentleys...

Re:: never buy a FORD

had a diesel VW truck for a bit... the only thing holding the exahuast pipe on was a couple of coat hangers... but they were just for show as the exhaust came straight out of the headers...

Try a French car for a change.

[img]http://www.zjstech.net/~library/4271/FX4-1.jpg[/img]

^i drive one of those...except navy blue.

love it.

^that is SO tech house

Re:: never buy a FORD

I had a crazy event happen this weekend, too.

I have a Subaru Outback. The first time I take it off-road, I get some type of under-carriage damage and have $400 worth of work done on it.

Not very good fortune.

I drove careful, slow, making sure to avoid junk -- I can't say I was able to avoid everything - but fortunately the transmission was fine, but had some type of brake sensor break and the computer in the car freaked out a bit.

I hate how much cars cost - even though I've been fortunate with this one, I still hate the fact that they cannot engineer these machines to be more reliable. You'd think we'd have it down by now.

We have highly scalable electronic computers that can stay on for 24/7/365, and cars seem to constantly have problems.

I think the major issue is the entire industry that is developed around it. If the manufacturers go too far, and make them too reliable... there would be a lot of people with problems.

Best of luck with your car btw...

Japanese cars are the most reliable.

Especially Toyota's :D