Way back when (in the late '70s) the corporation fleet manageress (who never had to drive the results of her decisions) decided that the fleet vehicle of choice would be the Ford Fairmont. She also decided that no fleet vehicle would be replaced until three years had passed. With no exceptions for mileage or maintenance cost. Because her accounting guru said that would be most cost effective.
That might have been alright for those who lived within 10 - 20 miles from the office and who spent their week sitting in the same office they drove to each day but some of us were in the field. To keep things in perspective, if all I did was drive to and from the office daily the annual mileage accumulation on the company vehicle would have been on the order of 45k miles a year. The territory covered by the NY branch consisted of the five boroughs, Long Island, Westchester Rockland, and part of Orange Counties (NY), the top half of New Jersey to around Perth Amboy and over to the Delaware River, and Connecticut. Being the technical guru and reigning expert on all things new (defined as being installed after 1960 it seemed ;-) I could on any given day of the week be needed in any one or more locations in that area. Along with the occasional 'assistance' to the Boston and Philadelphia branches. It was not unusual for my annual mileage on the company vehicle to reach - and exceed - 85k. Needless to say the vehicle was out of warranty based on mileage within months.
Even before the car achieved 50k miles things started deteriorating. Almost weekly. Between that point and the time the Regional Manager noted that the car was costing his budget exponentially more than anyone else's both rear axles were replaced, the transmission was rebuilt (the Aamco guy said he had never seen a tranny as shot as that one was), some expensive part of the emissions stuff was replaced (Ford claimed it wasn't covered by the emissions warranty - of course the car might have been over 100k by then) and many other items that I have lost from the memory banks over the years.
One thing that never got fixed was the disconcerting habit of the cruise control to freeze up in cold weather. It was actuated by a vacuum cylinder that operated a cable that was about two feet in length that pushed on the throttle arm of the carburetor. Apparently moisture would get to the interior of this cable and freeze. The vacuum cylinder could push the cable to achieve the desired speed, but when you tried to disconnect the cruise control (by hitting the brake or even turning it off) the spring was not enough to return the throttle and the frozen cable to normal even though the vacuum cylinder had disengaged. You were left trucking merrily along at whatever speed it was set at. This usually happened on the interstates where you were traveling many miles at 65 or whatever it was, and then wanted to exit.. I developed an intense hatred for all Ford products because of that car.
Oh, and the Regional Manager finally convinced the Fleet Manageress (in Corporate Headquarters) that irregardless of her policy on years of service for the fleet, she was going to get me a new car. So she did. She got me a brand new - Ford LTD II. Guess what an LTDII was?
Yep. A Fairmont with a new nametag.. ;-)
The saga repeated itself.
During my major career, I went through a new vehicle every two years, including a Ford Fairmont.
Fortunately, I didn’t have the many troubles with mine that you did with yours, except that at one point it got rear-ended and had to be repaired.
That wasn’t you, was it?
I own a 2003 Ford Escape with about 215600 on it that is still running well.
I’m not buying a new car, or even a new used car, to park in Manhattan until this one absolutely can’t run any more.
Even then I probably will use some variant of Zip car before I’ll park another car I own around here.