I've always been a Ford owner, except for my for fun VW vehicles, and have always had decent luck with my Fords until my last car and mini-van. My Taurus and Windstar put a hurtin on me, blown engine in SHO and transmission in Mini-van. My 2003 F250 7.3 was the best of them all and is still running in the hands of a good friend. I need to get the wife a SUV with 3rd row and let her talk me into testing a used 2009 Dodge Journey

I like the way it looked and drove since my Taurus was dead while I was out of town, I needed something quick. I took a chance and really got burned. One year later and the transmission has been basically replaced, I found out the carfax I was shown was not the right one, car had been in a frontside colision with airbag deployment, so stuck with a very low trade in value, still having issues with the transmission, sounds like it's going to explode when shifting from 1-3. Also having issues with the key system not starting unless in Neutral, but now Netural won't even help and it's dead in my driveway.

Anyway, getting it towed tomorrow and plan to get it fixed and traded, but I'll be eating a bunch of money to get it done. I am looking at Expeditions, but used ones. I'm thinking a truck based SUV is going ot be more reliable and longer lasting then any of the current car based SUVs. I'll have to go with an older Expidition 2005-2008 year and price range to get it low enough in price along with my upside down issue with the Journey at wholesale price.

So most of these will be in the 85000 to 120000 mile range. What's the longevity and reliability of the Expedition at that milage...good till 200K...250K...300K somewhat easlily? I know a truck based SUV is worth spending the money on to fix and keep running, unlike the Journey or any of the smaller SUVs.

Any thoughts and advice? I know the fist bit of advice will be to kick myself for buying a dodge

Thanks in advance,

Mooney in FL

 

No, my first bit of advice is to grow a set of cojones and stop letting your wife wear the pants in your household. If you didn't wuss out in the first place, you wouldn't be in this mess.

 

I bought my wife an 04 Mountineer with 3rd row seat . I bought it with only 30k on the clock . It now has almost 150k . I expect another 150k Out of it . I think The Expy would last a long time maintained properly .

 

I'm sure there are others on here with more mileage, but my 99 expy just rolled over 205,000 miles. I bought it used in 2002 with 65,000 miles. Since then I've hauled a family of 5 and pulled a 26 ft travel trailer all over. Just last summer I towed to Orlando, Florida for vacation. I would not hesitate to drive it cross country. It is rock solid. It does burn some oil between oil changes and it has some of the typical expy problems:

- odometer blackout
- blend door issues

My son turns 16 in August and I'm passing it down to him. It's going to be painful, because I'm pretty certain he will not take as good of care of it as I did.

 

I appreciate the beat down, I deserve it, but as much as I want to blame her, I test drove it and liked it and bought this POS. It's my first Dodge and my last. I did own a Jeep once that was a great vehicle, and my brother in law has a newer Dodge truck and loved it. After I had the Windstar and Taurus die on me before 100K I was primed for a change in brand, big mistake. Back to Ford vehicles.

 

I was thinking about an Explorer/Mountineer, but after the Taurus and Windstar issues I was thinking I would be better off with a true truck based platform. We had an Explorer, was a decent vehicle, but lots of the little things going wrong were driving us crazy, and I never felt it would last 150-200K so we traded it at 120K.

Now my father had a 2006 Explorer and never had an issue, but when he was ready to trade he went with a F150, not another Explorer. I might consider the Explorer, but I think I'm in the same price range with either a Expy or Explorer so why not go for the tried and true truck based platform for the long term.

Am I wrong for not wanting/trusting an explorer for the long term?

 

My wife's expedition just hit 210,XXX. Bought it at 181,XXX. Its been trustworthy versus some of our other vehicles. Only major problem was the Intake manifold cracked and started leaking coolant. Minor problem in regards to your problems.

I'm hoping for 300K if the body and suspension hold out.

Good luck in your travels.

 

I have been away from the forums for a while because my 2001 Expy got totaled after getting sideswiped by a semi....ripped the front bumper off and spun us into the cable barrier. I drove it home and my wife and I both had no injuries. After that is when I screwed up and bought a Hyundai (beat me down, I deserve it). I drove that for about 8 months and got put into a highway dividing wall and that one hurt me. I then bought a 3/4 ton Chevy PU and regretted it.

I say all that to say this---this week I sold my 2007 Chevy 2500HD and bought a 1998 Expy 4X4 w/115K miles on it. I feel safer and I know that I ought to be able to get another 200K out of it and it is safe. I don't plan on driving anything else. I wanted 2003 and older and took my time to find a clean one. Plus, I no longer have payments. I only paid $2750.....I can afford to get a little worse gas mileage when it comes to safety and reliability.

I would go with an Expy or Navigator....

 

That right there would've been enough to get me to buy another of the same.

 

I know, right!

I won't happen again.

 

ironic, we just traded my wife's 04 in on a brand new journey a couple weeks ago, a lease though. we had the expy for 45,000 miles (bought it with 118k) and all i did was a brake booster and a ball joint, as well as your normal brake stuff. great truck. if it wasn't starting to rot away from michigan salt and got better than 11.8mpg we would have run it well past 200k i'm sure. but it was time to move on before it wasn't worth anything.

keep in mind the 04 was the updated truck but still had the 2v engines. we were down on HP but i wasn't fishing out broken spark plugs or replacing cam phasers either.