My parents have been Ford people for as long as I remember. Months after I was born, they got an orange Pinto wagon with wood paneling on the side (QUALITY). That thing lasted from 1978 until my brother ran it into the ground after getting his license. I think it died in 1991.

In 1982, my parents got a Granada. That lasted until 1997. The one problem I had with that specific car was when it got older, it leaked some sort of carbon monoxide smelling odor into the car (we started calling it the CMM - Carbon Monoxide Mobile). It was a good car though and my parents got over 300K on it.

In 1987, my parents got a Ford Ranger pick-up. My dad is STILL driving it. It needs to retire very soon but it still gets him where he needs to go.

In 1997, my parents got a Ford Contour. My mom still drives it and it is doing very well. They have the occasional not-too-big-a-problem issues but what car doesn't once it hits 6-7 years old? It's got almost 200K on it and it's doing just fine.

My first car was a Cavalier (Chevy) and my current car is a Tribute (Mazda) so I can't help you as far as MY cars go. Fords are good cars if you take care of them - my parents are proof enough of that.