Since yours is a 2006 model, it doesn't have the infamous turbocharged and direct injected Ford EcoBoost engine. Good for you. The EcoBoost engine, in production since 2010, has had head gasket issues because of a design flaw in the cooling channels near the cylinder head. They fixed it in 2020. And since the displacement tends to be small relative to the power output, heat and mechanical strain can be issues in general.
One of our cars is a 2005 Mitsubishi Colt that runs without any problems apart from the infotainment system (the small digital display and the radio) being dead. It's gone through minor repairs only a couple of times apart from the usual wear and tear items but nothing costing more than €400 at the shop. The other is a 2012 Lexus 450h with a little shy of 200,000 km on the clock. I chose the make and model based on expected durability and reliability. It's got a naturally aspirated (no turbo) 3,5 l V6 with less power per liter of displacement than its European competition. Both direct and port injection meaning less chance of carbon buildup. I love the fuel economy and the smoothness of the hybrid power train. Only 6% of 15-year-old Toyota/Lexus hybrids have had their high-voltage batteries replaced - including cars that have been in accidents. Fingers crossed.
Today's trend is toward smaller turbocharged engines, which affects their durability. Even Lexus has caved. I really hope I won't have to buy a new car for a long time but when I do, I hope batteries have become much cheaper.
I’m happy to report, against all odds, my car got the OK this morning. Only have to replace/fix the light above the license plate and keep an eye on the right takapyörälaakeri. My car was very well behaved, considering it has been giving me very broad warning signals on the dash when starting up on several occasions. Prob wet/faulty wiring somewhere but the engine running normally.
I don’t know much about cars but I believe the simpler the better. With new cars there is more issues to be had and less of what you can repair yourself. Ofc if you gots the moneys then it’s no problem.
My dream car would probably be a tank or some ridiculous Ford F150, but I’m happy with something that always get’s me from A to B, and has a big trunk!
Replacing a single wheel bearing is not an expensive job. Congrats on passing the inspection.
Simpler is absolutely better. I have no need for all the gizmos they put on new cars these days. More failure points. I like physical buttons and dials especially if they're high-quality and durable. Once you have everything operated through a screen what are you going to do when the screen goes blank or you get the blue screen of death? Some cars you might not even be able to drive.
The smaller displacements and the turbocharging as well as the direct injection are to improve fuel economy first and foremost. The reason is tightening emission regulations. At the same time, manufacturers advertise longer oil change intervals and that's a recipe for trouble.
Crypto has to go much, much higher if I'm to be able to afford my dream car, which is Rolls Royce Spectre with the electric powertrain. Extremely quiet and refined.
My next new car will likely be electric if and only if the technology matures a little more.
The front wheel bearing was 200€, had to do that last summer, the car sounded like it would take flight soon.
Definitely favour physical buttons and no excessive electronics. Sure a map on a big screen would be nice but that is all one would need a screen for in a car. I remember when I was a kid and my dad had an employee, probably 20 years old, who had a stereo with an LSD screen with a dolphin animation jumping across it, that was so fucking cool! My car doesn’t even have that now!
I have no interest towards electrical cars, I’m pretty sure it’s all a scam 😝 Having to plan your route so carefully for stations with charging, the waiting(!!), and the car is all a heavy battery and if there is any issue, you are fucked, there is probably nothing you can do yourself. And what about the fact that batteries loose charge, and eventually will have to be replaced, that has to be crazy expensive right? How much money does one have to put in for repairs to get to 400k km? What are you hoping for in terms of the ”next generation” of electric vehicles?
In my opinion, navigation is pretty much the most useless functionality in a car infotainment system. Every phone comes with a navigation app that always has up-to-date maps and that gives precise and accurate spoken directions. My iPhone maps app works flawlessly. A decade ago the Apple maps app was crappy. Now it's great.
Charging stations are much less of a problem than people believe. But because of the high cost of high-voltage batteries I haven't bought an electric car so far and, as I said, I won't be until the technology matures somewhat. New battery chemistries are cheaper and more durable than existing ones, which is why I believe 5-10 years down the road electric cars are most likely be not only cheaper to operate and maintain but to buy as well.
I'm not one to repair my car myself anyway. I don't have the skills or the tools. Regardless of the power train modern cars simply require too much in the way of know-how. They have dozens of computers on them that talk to each other via a serial bus and you need advanced scan tools to get to the bottom of issues. All but the most rudimentary stuff is best left to professionals who can sometimes fail to fix some issues themselves, too. It's so easy for amateurs to make things much worse by trying to do stuff beyond their skills.
I prefer a quiet car because my normally quiet tinnitus gets worse during and after long journeys in loud cars. Our older car is a reliable workhorse that is surprisingly spacious for a small hatchback. But there's no way around the fact that it's a loud little shit box. The Lexus GS is way, way more comfortable. It's about 7-9 dB quieter. It's got a pretty awesome Mark Levinson stereo system with 17 speakers and the amplifier has almost a kilowatt of power, which translates into clear sound quality across the frequency spectrum with much less noise than the average car audio system. The bass in particular is much better. Because the car is much better soundproofed than my old car you don't need as high a volume to hear music or speech properly on the highway.
Since yours is a 2006 model, it doesn't have the infamous turbocharged and direct injected Ford EcoBoost engine. Good for you. The EcoBoost engine, in production since 2010, has had head gasket issues because of a design flaw in the cooling channels near the cylinder head. They fixed it in 2020. And since the displacement tends to be small relative to the power output, heat and mechanical strain can be issues in general.
One of our cars is a 2005 Mitsubishi Colt that runs without any problems apart from the infotainment system (the small digital display and the radio) being dead. It's gone through minor repairs only a couple of times apart from the usual wear and tear items but nothing costing more than €400 at the shop. The other is a 2012 Lexus 450h with a little shy of 200,000 km on the clock. I chose the make and model based on expected durability and reliability. It's got a naturally aspirated (no turbo) 3,5 l V6 with less power per liter of displacement than its European competition. Both direct and port injection meaning less chance of carbon buildup. I love the fuel economy and the smoothness of the hybrid power train. Only 6% of 15-year-old Toyota/Lexus hybrids have had their high-voltage batteries replaced - including cars that have been in accidents. Fingers crossed.
Today's trend is toward smaller turbocharged engines, which affects their durability. Even Lexus has caved. I really hope I won't have to buy a new car for a long time but when I do, I hope batteries have become much cheaper.
I’m happy to report, against all odds, my car got the OK this morning. Only have to replace/fix the light above the license plate and keep an eye on the right takapyörälaakeri. My car was very well behaved, considering it has been giving me very broad warning signals on the dash when starting up on several occasions. Prob wet/faulty wiring somewhere but the engine running normally.
I don’t know much about cars but I believe the simpler the better. With new cars there is more issues to be had and less of what you can repair yourself. Ofc if you gots the moneys then it’s no problem.
My dream car would probably be a tank or some ridiculous Ford F150, but I’m happy with something that always get’s me from A to B, and has a big trunk!
Replacing a single wheel bearing is not an expensive job. Congrats on passing the inspection.
Simpler is absolutely better. I have no need for all the gizmos they put on new cars these days. More failure points. I like physical buttons and dials especially if they're high-quality and durable. Once you have everything operated through a screen what are you going to do when the screen goes blank or you get the blue screen of death? Some cars you might not even be able to drive.
The smaller displacements and the turbocharging as well as the direct injection are to improve fuel economy first and foremost. The reason is tightening emission regulations. At the same time, manufacturers advertise longer oil change intervals and that's a recipe for trouble.
Crypto has to go much, much higher if I'm to be able to afford my dream car, which is Rolls Royce Spectre with the electric powertrain. Extremely quiet and refined.
My next new car will likely be electric if and only if the technology matures a little more.
The front wheel bearing was 200€, had to do that last summer, the car sounded like it would take flight soon.
Definitely favour physical buttons and no excessive electronics. Sure a map on a big screen would be nice but that is all one would need a screen for in a car. I remember when I was a kid and my dad had an employee, probably 20 years old, who had a stereo with an LSD screen with a dolphin animation jumping across it, that was so fucking cool! My car doesn’t even have that now!
I have no interest towards electrical cars, I’m pretty sure it’s all a scam 😝 Having to plan your route so carefully for stations with charging, the waiting(!!), and the car is all a heavy battery and if there is any issue, you are fucked, there is probably nothing you can do yourself. And what about the fact that batteries loose charge, and eventually will have to be replaced, that has to be crazy expensive right? How much money does one have to put in for repairs to get to 400k km? What are you hoping for in terms of the ”next generation” of electric vehicles?
PS. Why would you want a car to be quiet? 😅
In my opinion, navigation is pretty much the most useless functionality in a car infotainment system. Every phone comes with a navigation app that always has up-to-date maps and that gives precise and accurate spoken directions. My iPhone maps app works flawlessly. A decade ago the Apple maps app was crappy. Now it's great.
Charging stations are much less of a problem than people believe. But because of the high cost of high-voltage batteries I haven't bought an electric car so far and, as I said, I won't be until the technology matures somewhat. New battery chemistries are cheaper and more durable than existing ones, which is why I believe 5-10 years down the road electric cars are most likely be not only cheaper to operate and maintain but to buy as well.
I'm not one to repair my car myself anyway. I don't have the skills or the tools. Regardless of the power train modern cars simply require too much in the way of know-how. They have dozens of computers on them that talk to each other via a serial bus and you need advanced scan tools to get to the bottom of issues. All but the most rudimentary stuff is best left to professionals who can sometimes fail to fix some issues themselves, too. It's so easy for amateurs to make things much worse by trying to do stuff beyond their skills.
I prefer a quiet car because my normally quiet tinnitus gets worse during and after long journeys in loud cars. Our older car is a reliable workhorse that is surprisingly spacious for a small hatchback. But there's no way around the fact that it's a loud little shit box. The Lexus GS is way, way more comfortable. It's about 7-9 dB quieter. It's got a pretty awesome Mark Levinson stereo system with 17 speakers and the amplifier has almost a kilowatt of power, which translates into clear sound quality across the frequency spectrum with much less noise than the average car audio system. The bass in particular is much better. Because the car is much better soundproofed than my old car you don't need as high a volume to hear music or speech properly on the highway.