1999 Ford Explorer Limited review from North America

What hasn't?

70,000 miles - rear power window, heated seats and power door locks stopped working with in three days of each other.

72,000 - front suspension became extremely noisy - everything was replaced. Sway bars, control arms, torsion bars, etc. (Buy the PremiumCare Warranty!)

73,000 - Transmission Began to bang loudy when placed from drive to reverse or vice versa. Replaced Valve Body. Two weeks later problem back.

78,000 - Heated Seats stop working again, turn signal switch starts smoking at random times. No Fix available, dealership says everything looks fine.

80,000 - Another Valve Body in the transmission.

83,000 - Car starts stalling at stop lights. Spends almost three weeks in the garage while they trying to find out what is wrong. Dealership says it is fixed, stalled out as I was leaving dealership. Turned out to be faulty IAC valve. Replaced.

85,000 - Car starts knocking loudly. Faulty lifters. Entire top half of engine has to be replaced. Another week at the Ford Garage.

88,000 - Right Front Wheel Bearing seizes. Back again.

89,000 - Two more valve bodys for the tranny in two weeks. Warranty ran out because its time limit expired. (5yrs)

90,000 - Suspension is noisy as ever again.

95,000 - All the old problems are starting to come back again. I have always done the maintenace at all the right intervals.

Only 25,000 miles and this is what has happened. I would hate to know what was wrong with the car before.

I would Highly Highly recommend purchasing the extended Warranty that they try and push on you at the Dealership. I was very happy that the people that bought my car new, bought it with the warranty. I only had to pay $50 for each time I had to take the car in for repairs.

The car has actually paid for itself in all the repairs. The last time I was at the Ford Garage, my service guy, who knows me on a first name basis, told me he would estimate this car has had about $12-grand in repairs done to it.

I miss my Crown Vic! It got better mileage, ran better, was faster, did just as good on the snow, and had 250,000 miles. I only did regular maintenance, never a major repair on the Vic. (It was a police cruiser, so it had the crap beat out it)