One of major reasons that Fords values drop like bombs is that they are the largest "Fleet" vehicles out there. Especially the Taurus. Ford always advertised the Taurus as the "Best selling car in America." But if you removed the sales to "Fleets" the Taurus wasnt even in the Top 10 in sales. And fleets are rapid turnover leases, that flood the market and auto auctions.
The Ford Exploder, I mean Explorer is another whose value drops like a bomb. When I was selling cars all of the salesman would run and hide when someone pulled up in an Exploder. We knew they were so far upside down that there was no way they could trade out of it.
Saturns were cars we were torn on. The value was nothing and thus hard to trade out of, but the owner always wanted the hell out of it, and fast.
See my post #14. Trade-ins are where you get whipped in car deals. Also I have 107,000 on my '96 Explorer, and plan on driving it till it falls apart. Never had any problems with it, and now it is stricly my "utility vehicle".
Really? People reported bad experiences with Saturn cars? I don't pretend to know much about cars, but we bought one 4 years ago, no frills (intentionally) 5 speed for the sole purpose of a long commute (my husband goes an hour each way) and to last as long as possible, and so far, so good. And the continued customer service from Saturn prompted us to go back and get a new Vue when the family car, 91 Taurus with 100k miles, became too unreliable for myself and kids. I love my Vue, extremely comfortable ride, great for my bad back.
Anyway, we'll not switch from Saturn as long as good things continue. We didn't trade in the beat up Taurus though, donated it. We figured it was worth losing the measely couple hundred bucks tradein we were getting for it.