years ago i had a 1990 F150 5.0 4x4. bought it in 1991 with about 20000 miles. got 8 MPG and used a quart of oil every 800 miles. called the dealer and they said it was normal??? i told them i build race engines and there was no way they would pull that one on me. so another dealer told me they used low friction rings and it caused a bunch of blow by. so they rebuilt the engine with about 30000 miles and i had a noise in the rear end. they found a leaking rear axle seal. they then said they drained it and found the lash on the rear gears was set wrong from the factory. they said they re-set the lash. i told them you could not do that once a pattern is set. they said ford would not pay for new gears, only to re-set the lash. i got about 11 MPG after the rebuild but still went through a quart about every 1500 miles. traded it in with about 40,000 miles
next truck was a 1992 F150 5.0 4x4. not much trouble with this one. next was a 1991 F250 5.8 4x4. not much trouble with this one either
next was a 1994 F250 460 4x4. bought with about 20,000 miles. about a week later the radio quit working. that first winter the 4x4 quit working. if it sat more than 2 days the battery would go dead. put locking hubs in to fix the 4x4. the other items they looked it over a few times and couldn't find anything wrong. took it to Nags Head and went through 6 quarts of oil down and back from Pittsburgh. traded it in with about 45000 miles.
bought a brand new 1996 ford windstar. 70000 miles blew a head gasket and the rear window quit working. found they recalled up to 1995 for the head gasket but added a spacer or something to reduce heat on the head or something. anyway, the problem still existed. i called ford in detroit and their attitude was 'too bad for you'. very rude about it over the phone.
needless to say i will not buy another ford. i have had more that were junk than i have had that were good (also had a 1999 crown vic police interceptor but had no issues). didn't have much of a choice as i used it for law enforcement and prisoner transports and needed the equipment
i grew up a GM fan but their engines are lacking. my dad had a 2003 1500 4x4 with a 5.3 and couldn't pull his 24' boat with it. he had to borrow my trucks until he bought a 6.0. can't really say much about the newer ones though. the hemi seems to have the best power with the best fuel economy of all the trucks. i gre up hating mopar and hemis but it seems to be the best choice right now and i have been happy with mine
