Pluggers by Rick McKee for September 15, 2018

There might be some Ford people who would reverse the names in the caption.

01 ford is my wood mobile…….

I’ve got a 89 Nissan pickup with a carburetor in it. My Ford Ranger’s transmission went out three times so the last time I had it fixed I got rid of it at 72,000 miles.

I hate to break it to you, Plugger… but all those small Toyota pickups were recalled for a fatal frame defect!

You can’t kill a Toyota.

I guess my folks were pluggers. They hung on to vehicles for decades at a time, mostly Ford trucks and Mercury autos. When my dad stopped driving in 2008, he sold me his 1991 Ford Ranger which was still in almost pristine condition. (He had purchased a free maintenance policy with that truck with unlimited time and mileage and had been faithful to utilize it whenever recommended. Ford discontinued that particular program soon after he purchased it.)

True hardcore Pluggers don’t drive foreign made cars or trucks. Or tractors for that matter.

Short bed

He hopes to some day have a realota.

My 2013 F150 has less than 5000 miles. At that rate, it’s going to last over 100 years….

I bought my F-150 brand new in 1976. Still gets me where i want too go.

My dad swore by Fords his entire life — two reasons: they had a high enough chassis so you could drive into a field without bottoming out and because the only repair people in the county were Ford — to repair a Chevy you had to get it to the next county over. I’ve had Ford, Chevy, GM, Mazda, VW, Honda and Toyota. My reasons for different selections? Safety, economy, and SERVICE — every car was at least partially made in this county and they were all sold and maintained in this country. I’m a real Toyota fan now (Honda is second) because they build cars with what I am looking for AND their service is exceptional. Can’t say the same for Ford — my hubby’s is in the shop every year for something and it runs rough and loud — my Toyota is so quiet you can forget it’s actually on. My last car I sold at 185,000 miles (and it’s still going strong at 220,000+). Why did I sell it? I wanted the safety features that a newer car provides — backing up in parking lots is getting too hazardous for old eyes.

1985 Mercedes-Benz 300 TD wagon. 459,234 miles as of last night. Still going strong.

My sister had a Subaru Impreza with 321,000 miles on it. When our mom died, Sis gave Impreza to her ex-husband and bought a Forester. Her ex drove the Impreza for a few more years then passed it on to a teenager in the neighborhood. To our knowledge the Impreza is still going strong.

All that said, many cars, if maintained properly will last for hundreds of thousands of miles. That is – the engines and transmissions will. Having spent years of looking at cars for damage, most people can’t imagine what the undersides of their cars and trucks really look like. There is so much structural rust, salt, corrosion and heat stress damage on older vehicles that people don’t notice until something breaks or they are involved in a minor collision. The extensive cracks in the floor under the back seat of a older BMW are from a design flaw in the way the exhaust was mounted and not from a 2mph impact in a parking lot. Riding down a freshly graveled road at the speed limit didn’t cause an old pickup’s frame rail to snap off behind the motor mount. And, front suspension bushings don’t disintegrate and fall out from a tap to rear bumper in traffic if those bushing aren’t already badly rotted.

As an old guy in a shop in DC once said to me – “You gots ta do more than change the oil and check the fluids to keep your car working. You got to be on the look out for ‘neef’ damage, too.”

Mine was a 1994. Currently have a 2016 Tacoma TRD Sport.