My car's 20th birthday

[gmerkt]

Twenty model years old. Built in March, 2004, still a couple of months away from actual build date. The only vehicle I have bought new in my lifetime. 2004 Ford Crown Victoria. I was looking for a deal. I bought this car in Feb. 2005, by then it was a previous year's model and was heavily discounted. It had 6 miles on the odometer when I took it out for a test drive. It now has 144,000 plus miles on the clock. In that time and distance, it hasn't required much more than ordinary, scheduled maintenance. The main catalytic converters were on a FoMoCo campaign and were replaced under warranty. I replaced the engine temperature gauge sending unit. One of the rear shock absorbers started leaking a couple of years ago, so I replaced both of those. The brakes front and rear have been replaced once. I've replaced the spark plugs twice and the ignition coils once but never due to failure, only as scheduled preventive maintenance. The vehicle is on its third set of Michelin tires.

This car is on its second battery. The original factory battery lasted exactly ten years. The date code on the battery case was 2-04. It lasted until 2-14. I had to call Mrs. Merkt for a ride when the original battery quit quite suddenly and completely. It gave no warning. I bought another Ford Motorcraft battery, which is the one that's in it now. Also very close to ten years old. So far, it has shown no signs of weakness. Maybe I should proactively change it as a matter of routine maintenance.

The picture below was taken last month when I rolled it out for a wash job and a maintenance run. The car has been mostly retired since 2017, when I bought a used 2006 Mercury Grand Marquis to take up the mileage load that this car was piling up. But it still sees some use. I already have one older vehicle that is carried on a collector vehicle insurance policy. One criterion for that is minimum 20 years of age. This car now qualifies, so I will be looking into transferring it over to the less expensive collector vehicle policy.

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[Jay Walk]

Killer, one of the longest lasting vehicles ever produced, years ago the wife and I were picked up from the airport in a town car of the same vintage, 300,000 plus miles and was quiet as a whisper. Buddy just drove across state to pick one up for his retirement car.

 

[gmerkt]

longest lasting vehicles ever produced,

I knew these were a good car when I was looking for one. My cousin had a similar Mercury of about 1996 vintage, I drove it and that was the inspiration. By the time my 2004 was built, they'd made many refinements to the platform. I didn't know it at the time, but 04 is considered a choice year because of things they started doing on the later models that weren't necessarily welcomed improvements. 05 and 06 are pretty good. I think the 04 might have been the last year for 28 spline rear axle shafts, later have 31 splines but for the kind of driving I do that will never make a difference.

 

[kevlar]

That's a sexy crown Vic. I hope that's a recent pic. You've taken care of her for sure. Nice work

 

[Provincial]

My 2001 F250 4X4 is closing in on 400,000 miles. My wife wants me to get a new one, but I see no reason to change. It is a work truck, so there is no reason to care about cosmetics, and it doesn't really look bad.

 

[gmerkt]

I hope that's a recent pic

Dec. 2023

My wife wants me to get a new one, but I see no reason to change.

Your wife's wishes and a pile of money will get a new one. Then with a nice, shiny new one, you'll be afraid to use it for work. A guy I knew in Chicago had his "regular" car and his "winter" car. The regular car was, well, regular. The Winter car was a rusty, ratted out circa 1970 Buick, a big bomber that had already seen many battles yet was worthy of winter driving in order to save the regular car the hazard.

 

[sobo]

Not trying to steal your thunder, gmerkt, but I got this '94 Exploder 2-door Sport BITD and it was my daily driver for 20 years until I "semi-retired" it in 2015 when I got the Red Rocket (Hyundai Sonata) as my new DD. It's now got almost ⅓ of a million miles on it. Last odometer read was over Christmas when I took it over Snoqualmie Pass to visit my young'ns in Poulsbo, who were both home from college for the holidays...

(picture from November 2021)



Been a great rig! Like your Crown Vic, it's only had regular maintenance. Warranty replaced the catalytic converter, and it's still on the original engine and tranny. Les Schwab replaced the original shocks, and they replaced theirs free of charge many years later. A couple-three mufflers, replaced the brake rotors at least twice, and I forget how many sets of sneakers this thing has had over the nearly 30 years I've had her. My mechanic, who never makes much money from me on this thing, asked me once, "Hey, Sobo, when are you gonna dump this thing and get a new rig?" To which I replied, "You know as well as I do, this damned thing just won't die! But when it does, then that'll be the day I get a new 4WD rig." He shook his head dejectedly and agreed...

She's pretty much my "winter car" now, for going over the Pass in the snow, hauling crap to the dump,. and bashing into the William O. Douglas Wilderness Area and national forests to just go tree-bashin'. I hope she makes it with me to my own grave. I've grown really sentimental about this rig...

(latest pic of odometer, January 2024)

 

[gmerkt]

Been a great rig! Like your Crown Vic, it's only had regular maintenance. Warranty replaced the catalytic converter, and it's still on the original engine and tranny.

I skipped the 1990's for Ford products, with the exception of a 1991 Escort for my son. Which wasn't a very good vehicle. But I have lots of experience with Ford products 1940's to 1970's. My experience is that none of them were worth a damn compared to my 2000's Panther Platform cars. Those older cars may have been good enough up against comparable products of their time, but build quality of modern vehicles is so much better.

Examples that come to mind. Exhaust system, starter motor, generator/alternator. On my older cars, all of those would've been replaced more than once by 145K miles. Those are still all original on my Crown Vic and show no signs of imminent failure. There is an alternator low hum on the Mercury Grand Marquis, but it's been there for 40K miles and I'm just leaving it alone since it hasn't gotten any worse. Oh, let's not forget radiators. The plastic/aluminum radiator that so many complain about, both of mine are still original and show no signs of distress. Although I had a 1944 dated radiator in my 1940 Ford that lasted a long time (until I sold it in 2008), I had to have it repaired a couple of times.

If your Explorer has the 4.0L German Ford V-6 engine, you've done well to get 300K plus miles out of it. I have some experience with the earlier version, the 2.8L, those didn't last as long as the 4.0L which is a better engine. Aside from emissions-related issues, engine families tend to improve over time with manufacturer experience.

 

[sobo]

If your Explorer has the 4.0L German Ford V-6 engine, you've done well to get 300K plus miles out of it. I have some experience with the earlier version, the 2.8L, those didn't last as long as the 4.0L which is a better engine. Aside from emissions-related issues, engine families tend to improve over time with manufacturer experience.

It is a 4.0L V-6, but I have no idea about it being German or whatever. I do know that the Explorer Sport is basically the same as a Mazda Navajo, both looking exactly alike and using the same engine. But I'm not that much into vehicles to ever find out or even care if the motor is German, Japanese, or even Mexican (Ford assembled Navajos in Mexico back in the mid-'90s, IIRC). It just runs and runs and runs...