Rod,
Which brand? The Castrol or the Ford? Oh-the Ford. I guess because I am a convert from half a lifetime of General Motors products that I never saw it as a "lemon" issue.
Gee... Having escaped 700R-4 trannies's and their 5.7L diesel conversions and their uncomfortable seats I thought I was in hogs heaven when I bought my first Ford, and when I discovered these Grand Marquis's.....I had just come out of a Caprice with a 700R-4 that even a brand new one from GM did not cure the problem of the slipping torque converter lock up. (Try telling the computer why it is that the engine RPM and the vehicle speed are at variance with one another when it isn't supposed to be.)
I still prefer rear wheel drive, and the Grand Marquis and/or Crown Vic has a longer wheel base than a Continental, so I go for the ride. I typically put a lot of miles on and like to arrive not feeling like I was run over by the car that brought me.
Until just lately most of my clients had a strong preference for "buy American". Only the paper-makers didn't mind you driving up in a foreign car as long as it was European since lots of their paper-making machinery was from Europe. Other domestic manufacturers would give snide remarks from time to time. That all seems to be changing now what with globalization and such. Most of the car that I am driving was not made in the USA anyway.
I buy these Merc's with the 'performance package' that comes with dual exhaust, a lower speed rear end, a stiffer suspension and some tuning goodies that give a few extra HP. Boy, if I had any teenage sons I couldn't let them drive this car. It runs like a scalded dog and that is important in the neck of the woods where I live where often all the passing lane you are going to have for miles to come to get around a log truck is about the length of the log truck itself. This thing will jump when asked to.
With the lower speed rear end, the real engine mileage when compared to a std model is higher, since it has turned more turns in the same mileage.
So, a little oil consumption was a small price to pay for all those goodies. A lemon? Never thought of it that way.
Maybe if I had started them out on a good synthetic I wouldn't be here now with respect to oil consumption. I'll probably try that on the next one. Reading on the Crown Vic Nuts site last evening, I saw rumblings that Ford wasn't going to continue making the CV/GM, but I didn't independently verify it to my satisfaction. Anyone can say anything on one of these sites as we all know.
The consensus there is that it is valve guides, but if the Castrol gets me to 5K without adding a drop and without being low on the stick, then what the heck.
Don't get me wrong about brand loyalty. My first Ford was a PU with a 6.9L diesel which I added a ATC turbo aftermarket package to. (I left a Chevy PU with a trashed 700R-4 in Colorado to come home and buy the Ford PU.) Then I moved the turbo to a 7.3 idi which is my "other car". The wife drives a Suburban, and a daughter drives a Sonoma at college. So, I still get to have some fun with GM products.
But, in a conversation with my mechanic just a couple of days ago, we both agreed that if we were compelled to buy brand new PU's at this moment, it would have to be a GM with a Duramax what with all Fords problems with the 6.0L and now the 6.6L. I never owned a Dodge, but have owned some 'come aparts' in 18 wheelers. I don't know if Dodge changed their approach lately or not, but when they first started putting the Cummins diesels in PU's, the didn't have a 4 door (which concept they invented) and had the approach that the vehicle was a purely work vehicle made for farmer Brown to go to town in and load up with seed or fertilizer and bring back to the farm, not for someone to drive coast to coast which I did a lot of when I bought the 7.3L which is 4 door.
Anyway, your comment has given me some pause, and I will have to give it due consideration. Lemon, huh? I just never thought of it that way.
rmw
