I will Keep my X as I have seen what an accident in a ford windstar! did to my wife she is in pain all the time. The Van looks like some one took a can opener to it down the left hand side. The only thing that kept the rear axle under it was the right hand strut and e brake.

 

Love it..love it...the more these kids "race" their engines just to hear the noise, the faster they will RUIN their motors. That means less snot nosed pud slappers clogging our highways and creating safety hazzards, and, the fewer the Excursions left on the market, the more mine will be worth if I should ever want to sell it.

(for those who are wondering, let me explain - if you

a) really HATE your vehicle and have some burning desire to turn it into junk and/or

b)believe your "you know what" is too small, so you have a need to "counter" that by making noise..by all means RACE that motor. The fastest way to take a motor that was designed to run at LEAST 200,000 miles without work, and reduce it to junk, is to "race" it without the normal "driving loads" , especially when it is cold. )

 

6686L, you're wasting your breath. It's been 20 years since I have seen any person under 25 realize they need to take care of a vehicle. The attitude drummed into their heads lately is "drive it like you stole it!" I'm sure you have seen this phrase over and over on the Internet alone. It's really sad.

 

I have ALWAYS taken care of my vehicle even when I was 20. Does that mean I don't "drive it like I stole it"? Not at all. I don't fire it up and race the hell out of it cold. I do regular fluid changes and often change them BEFORE they are due. I don't "band aid" parts to make it work. I use the best parts I can afford to get things running.

 

aklim, when I say "take care of a vehicle", I'm not talking about fluid changes and filter changes. I am talking about attempting to prolong the life of the engine and transmission. This is also what 6686L was talking about. Vehicles are not manufactured to endure the infamous WOT, a/k/a "wide open throttle". As you may know, WOT is another common term used in Internet forums when the kids are being cool and discussing what they did with their cars and trucks last night. Nothing personal of course.

 

Of course. No offense taken.

 

Its not looking good for the V-10 gas crew I just got a MSG from a friend that works for a local gas delivery and said reg. unleaded will be @ $3.59/gal by the weekend

 

And the price of diesel will be?????

Anybody.... anybody...

HIGHER!!!

 

thats in Ohio BTW

 

But i dont drive it like i stole it. Just the occisional downshift or the occasional pushing the gas peddle to the floor. And i dont do that everyday either. Its just once in a while. And i do take care of this truck, washing/waxing it once or twice a week, washing the engine every two weeks, vacuming the interior out every week, pressure washing the underbody every so often, especially in the winter, changing the fluids under the manufac time limit, etc

 

You would be amazed at how people can not understand why I drive such a large vehicle... a "gas guzzler".

These same people never batted an eyelash at me when I drove my 99 F250SD/SC 4x4 w/5.4.

My X gets just as good, or even better MPG than that pick-up did!!!

The size of my family, especially having 3 sons, is the main reason I CHOOSE to drive an X.

Yes, my driving habits have changed a bit, a few less trips to Lowes or Sam's Club, but once again... It's up to me... my CHOICE.

Actually... being the competitive person I am, I try to beat my mileage each time I fill up... I still get my foot into it when necessary, but in return I try to feather foot when I can.

Just my 7 cents (yep... that's gone up too!!)

 

I always thought the other engine takes you to the scene of the crash!! LOL!!

 

I take offense at this. I'm 23 and I have taken care of all of my vehicles, and gotten many miles out of them. Most of my friends who are my age take similar care of their vehicles as well. We do regular maintenance and also drive the things in a manner that keeps the major driveline components reliable for many miles. A few weeks ago, when I actually did downshift my Jag and floor it for the first time in a while, it blew a whole ton of carbon out the exhaust (I'm sure the Lexus behind me wasn't too thrilled). So if anything, I don't drive my vehicles hard enough. I've also driven 250,000 miles since I got my license, including 100,000 miles of towing.

The people I find who take the worst care of their vehicles are generally in the over 60 stage. The folks who don't follow maintenance schedules, ride the brakes, ignore the lights on the dash, etc. My grandmother was harder on cars than any teenager I've met, only seconded by my mom. Their cars were completely trashed - mechanically and cosmetically - by 20,000 miles. But that's just my observation, I wouldn't make a blanket statement saying that they're all that bad.

But, I suppose I'm wasting my breath. After all, you apparently aren't open minded enough to realize that not all of those under 25 fall under your lumped category.

 

Well, this isn't an airplane forum (even though I hijack threads sometimes with off-topic airplane stuff), but whta it comes down to is that if your one engine quits and you have no other engine, you HAVE to go down now. If you have a second engine, sometimes your best option is kill the other engine and go down, but generally you have the option of using the second engine to get to an airport, which is a much better place to land than a forrest.

Figure it like this: You're flying through a cloud on a day when cloud cover is 100 ft off the ground, you're flying at night, you're flying above a forrested area with no airport in gliding distance, or you're flying above water. On a twin when your one engine quits, even if it's the critical engine (on planes without counter-rotating props), if you're cruising you can compensate for the yaw from only one engine running. Once you have that under control, you can scan your chart or GPS to find the nearest airport (if you don't already know where that is), and fly to it. Sure, you will probably only have one shot at landing the plane, but even as a student pilot, in my 72 logged landings I've only had 2 go-arounds.

Of course, this assumes you're a good pilot. If you're an idiot, then yes, two engines will just get you to the crash site faster.

 

If GOD had meant for us to fly...SHE would have given us larger checking accounts...!