sir_eccles

Lincoln Towncars go for several hundred thousand before dying.

Love this show!

S Folinsky

"tappet"

BTW, they went to a fairly good local college in their hometown -- they seem to have inherited the sense of humor prevalent on that campus.

lazza

Thanks for all of this information - very helpful!!

Regarding diesel, I wish I'd known this a couple of weeks ago... I got "upgraded" to a Jeep Liberty from the compact I had ordered (hated every minute of driving it), and the first time I needed to add fuel, I spent ages trying to figure out whether it was diesel or petrol (in my head, bigger means more likely diesel). Eventually I asked the guy in the filling station and he actually laughed at me!! I had no idea that diesel isn't really used here and was worried about wrecking the hire car.

Octang Frye

LOL. Facepalm. That's why you use winterized diesel, and an additive like Power Service which increases the cetane value and takes the fuel down to -40F before it starts to gel.

Diesels rock in the cold. Heck, they rock in the desert too.

Octang Frye

It tells you on the fuel door what kind of fuel to add.

lazza

Except that it was brand new - only 200 miles on the clock, and no sticker. I might have been bit silly, but I'm not totally without brains

Cat Whisperer

After owning an expensive Toyota in England, my biggest consideration here was reliablilty and cheap to fix. I chose the Mercury Grand Marquis aka Ford Crown Victoria. The Crown Vics are the choice of most cops in the US and get sold on to taxi firms around 75k - 100k, and then they get turned into taxis and run for another 100k plus.

The Mercury version is popular with the old folk, so they don't get thrashed (is it possible to thrash a Grand Marquis? lol) And due to it's sofa like handling and 0-60 in about 3 days (I'm going to jinx myself) I've never been pulled over yet I happen to like this style of driving, but it's not a good choice if you like performance. I don't know if you can get a bargain due to manufacturing being stopped at the end of the year. And I love the sound of that lovely V8 engine!

Good luck with your choice.

sir_eccles

Yes but only in a straight line.

Jerseygirl

In that case even more reason why there would have been a sticker inside the fuel door. Also on newer cars the fuel nozzle won't fit in the wrong type of tank.

Octang Frye

I didn't call you brainless. Much better to ask than risk putting in the wrong juice.

All cars have the stickers, or it will be written on the dashboard. You must have just missed it.

Also, the nozzle is different. A gas nozzle won't fit in a diesel hole.

My brother-in-law put diesel in his gas car... Ouch.

Bill_S

Block heaters... but if you mention them in the Canada forums you'll regret it

Bill_S

I'll jump in and say that my 1998 Ford Taurus made it to 120,000 mi before I got rid of it. It became a money pit after 100,000 so I threw in the towel. The first 100,000 were fine, the final 20,000 not so much.

broken controls - check
rust - check
parts getting scarce & expensive - check

lazza

I didn't think you did, I was just joking about there being limits to my silliness!

However, there was no sticker!! If I hadn't traded it in for a smaller car, I could get you photographic evidence! I looked absolutely everywhere. I've rented a lot of cars before, so I thought there should have been something, but really, there wasn't!

This is definitely information I can use in the future - thanks!

Octang Frye

It gets confusing when you go back to Blighty. Green hose is diesel over here. I think it's petrol over there.

Jerseygirl

Can anyone remember who it was who put diesel in a petrol car or vice versa...it was a few years ago?