Best 'next' vehicle

Hoping the Forum can give me some good advice.

I love my SC, but my family has about outgrown it.

I have 3 kids, ages 6, 5 and 7 months.

I can fit them all in the back seat, but it's tight. Real tight. As they grow, I think I'm gonna outgrow the car. Just not enough legroom for the passengers in the rear.

Since my SC is basically worth nothing, I will probably keep it, and drive it when I'm only hauling a single kid, or driving on a nice day, or whatever, but I'm trying to decide on a bit larger set of wheels that will better suit the family.

I don't do car payments. I either buy with cash, or I don't do it.

I also don't want new or uber nice. I want cheap, reliable transportation - because whatever I get, I'm going to put miles on, and my kids are going to tear up.

I also want something I can wrench on. One of the joys of owning my SC has been doing maintenance tasks - oil changes, water pump, radiator, etc - nothing super advanced, but I do like to spin wrenches.

It needs to be safe.

Ideally, it'd be a Ford. RWD is a plus.

I'd like to set a budget of 5-6k, and think that I'd buy something 2003 or newer, with under 125k miles. If I need to wait another 6-12 months to build up more cash reserves, that's fine by me.

I've been thinking about getting a used Crown Vic Police Interceptor. These generally sell inexpensively, are often well maintained, you can get them with a vinyl back seat in case the kids spill something, and you can even find them with dividers I worry, though, that a Crown Vic will corner like a bread truck.

Marauders are pretty sweet, but they are too far out of my budget.

My wife has a 96 Explorer. It's 'OK', but it suffers the same size problems. The kids have a little more legroom, but not a lot.

Any suggestions? I want to buy Ford, but if you know another product by another MFG that I should be checking out, I'll check it out!

I was gonna say a Crown vic or Marauder. You would be surprised what you can get a Marauder for. One just sold for 8500 with 77k on it. Nice car I have it here at the shop till the guy can come pic it up.

Is the Maurader or Crown Vic back seat that much bigger than a SC? Last time I was in the back seat of a Crown Vic it didn't seem that much bigger. Then again my hands were behind my back for some strange reason and I wasn't very comfy!

When my kids were that age I bought an F-150 crew cab. Might be outside your price range but it was plenty of room for the kids.

An Avalanch. They are huge inside. An old bronco, they are cool and you can take the roof of in the nice weather, put in a nasty cheap to build 5.0. Sweet!

When Ford went to the IRS on the Explorers that really helped the back seat legroom. I think that was '03. We have an '05 Mountaineer in the garage, it has the 3rd row seat option. That third row seat is a bit cramped but it gives you the flexibility if you end up with an extra kiddo or 2 in addition to yours. I'm 6' and I find the back seat legroom very adequate, although I've never been in the 3row seat.

Even with the 4.0 V-6 mileage isn't all that great, about 20 on a road trip and high teens around town. My wife likes it and that's the most important thing.

what ever you get

think ahead if you want or could get the wife preagnet again you better get one that has more then 5 seats + it's much better like tahoes or suburbans just my 2 cents here as i have 4 kids and wife its preagnet i know i should get basectomy done long time ago.... oh well

johnwartjr said:

Hoping the Forum can give me some good advice.

I love my SC, but my family has about outgrown it.

I have 3 kids, ages 6, 5 and 7 months.

I can fit them all in the back seat, but it's tight. Real tight. As they grow, I think I'm gonna outgrow the car. Just not enough legroom for the passengers in the rear.

...

Ideally, it'd be a Ford. RWD is a plus.

I'd like to set a budget of 5-6k, and think that I'd buy something 2003 or newer, with under 125k miles. If I need to wait another 6-12 months to build up more cash reserves, that's fine by me.

...

Any suggestions? I want to buy Ford, but if you know another product by another MFG that I should be checking out, I'll check it out!

Click to expand...

I know this violates some of your principles, but a very versatile vehicle is ... the Mazda5 small minivan. The sliding doors are a huge plus when it comes to getting a squirming toddler into a carseat. There is a 3rd row (6 seats total) that folds down. And the car, although slow, handles very well. The seats are not very comfortable, but they are not the worst I have tried either.

I think it will be hard to find a good used one in your target price range right now. You may luck out. Or you could wait a while and buy a midrange used one. Or you could look at new ... I know you aren't a fan of the loan ... but Mazda is offering 0% financing and backdoor cash to the dealer, meaning they have a lot of wiggle room on price. You would be surprised what kind of deal you can get on a new Sport (base) model.

Dude.. 3 kids under the age of 10... Make the only real decision you should make.. buy a minivan. No really, I'm not joking. We had a 2000 Sienna that was very nice to drive and held all sorts of cargo. That thing ran just fine and it was comfortable (more than the SC) on trips. Easy in, easy out, and held a lot of stuff. If you can work on an SC, you can work on any other vehicle ever made so don't be scared by any potential maintenance. Minivans are a lot easier to work on.

Nothing wrong with FWD either on that vehicle. Actually makes it easier to push through a snow drift and pull a boat out of the water.

Crown Vic all the way!

You really can't go wrong with a Crown Vic or Grand Marquis. In 03 they completely redesigned the suspension with rack and pinion steering, an aluminum front subframe, and a watts link rear end, and while it won't hold a candle to the way the SC handles, it does quite well for such a large car. They are extremely reliable and durable, and 300K miles is nothing for one of those cars. Be careful with getting an ex-police car, because while they are well maintained, they are also beat on mercilessly, and they spend a lot of time idling, so they have a lot more run time for the same mileage as a civilian version. My advice would be to find a civilian 03+ CV or GM with higher mileage that someone has been using regularly. That car is likely to have mostly highway mileage and be well maintained, and would likely be in bettter shape than the "little old lady car" with 32K miles, and the higher mileage one will likely be cheaper too.

I know you said it had to be RWD, and a ford......
It's is neither, check out a Grand Prix gt or gtp. Gtp is supercharged 3.8L(m90) seats 5 pretty comfy....fwd, cheap, a lot easier to work on than a sc, and modding it doesn't brake the bank. You can pic them up for around $3,500 Ish. I had a 99 and a 98 and put 100,000 miles on both of them....
Gt is a 3.8 n/a motor

TbirdSCFan said:

Dude.. 3 kids under the age of 10... Make the only real decision you should make.. buy a minivan.

Click to expand...

3 kids under the age of 7 here, and a minivan isn't in my vocabulary. I'm very happy with my Expedition. Besides, a minivan cannot tow my car trailer.

Owning a 94 Grand Marquis I can say it makes a good family car, two kids and me and the wife are 6'+. Personally I'd say a CV/GM or a Mininvan, SUV a pointless if you have a SC (means you don't live off road).

As for a GM/CV I'd suggest a 96+ though they are all essentially the same and avoid the police package. Our GM has it and means having to order parts, while they are usually there the next day just something to consider.

As for cornering well it does steer to the left and right. Fun not really but its comfy and better than my mother's Camry. As for safety the only issue that concerns me is the gas tank is vertically between the trunk and backseat.

Buy a cv! 4.6 2vs are indestructible and run forever ! Cv's make awesome demo derby cars so is not b afraid of the safety seeing how much of a beating they will take!

If you are firm on that price, I think a P71 is right up your alley. IMO, the kind of Marauder you would have to settle for won't be as nice (or new) as a P71 you could get. And quite frankly, with a set of gears you could probably match the performance of a stock Marauder. Another plus is not having the unique front/rear bumpers or interior pieces that will likely get messed up and hard to replace. I just think the reality of keeping a P71 nice will be much better than the Marauder - again, for your price range. And if you pick a black one, you can just buy a set of marauder wheels later and kinda have that look.

OH, and I have a Marauder. Yes, the backseat is roomier than a T-bird. And it's four door which makes loading and unloading easier. AND - the truck is bigger. That whole platform is pretty nice.