A little something for my dad... I hope he likes it.

GTS · Post by **GTS** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:00 pm

Its used Mercury Monterey Premier, 2004 that I got for 11K, Its super clean well kept and maintained, with all records. Cant ask for anything better. Gotta love ford products. Enough talk here are some pics from the dealer.

Old and NEW

On the way home. Purchased in MI

The Monterey and the Catera

LCPLPunk · Post by **LCPLPunk** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:15 pm

I have to say, I hate all Ford products.

Post by **Canada** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:18 pm

Sounds like an awesome deal!!

I would have kept the T&C though...

GTS · Post by **GTS** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:34 pm

Well I couldn't get anything like Toyota or Honda or even Chrysler with that many miles and this young for that price. This was just a steal. His T&C has 165K miles and has gone through 3 trannies so its not quite the best one. Plust the new one is much bigger has more features its more power full and most importantly dad likes it a lot. He says these are the strongest ones out there and break the least cuz he is a mechanic and fixes them all and so far his best opinion is on the Monterey. Now I wasnt much of a ford fan either but once I started working there I realized that its not a bad company. They need to learn some lessons but thats what I am there for.

BTW I saved around 5500 or so off the retail price of this van.

EmersonHart13 · Post by **EmersonHart13** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 2:13 pm

Great deal.... I just don't like minivans!

Panhead · Post by **Panhead** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 2:20 pm

bah, i hate most ford's. i definately keep the t&c. i bet it doesnt have nearly the luxury as the t&c has.

GTS · Post by **GTS** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 2:36 pm

03neonSE wrote:bah, i hate most ford's. i definately keep the t&c. i bet it doesnt have nearly the luxury as the t&c has.

Not big fan of minivans myself but I dont mind them too much. Lots of space plenty of power and you get to see above most of the car drivers out there.

The Monterey has everything power, Sliding doors, Rear gate, Power seats, Capitan chairs, parktronic system, CD changer with MP3, stow and go system and many others.

The T&C being a 1995 doest have any of those it has just the leather stuff, the 3.8L engine, Sunroof just the front power stuff and almost everything else is mechanical. So the Monterey has a ton more features but lest not forget that its also a 2004 and the minivan industry has gone quite far away into the evolution of these machines. We will just have to see how it holds up, the T&C was all nice and all the sudden things started breaking on it like no other. Transmission ABS unit, ECU and a ton of other things, and I just hated seeing my dad always working on it and never having time to enjoy it, he was getting tired of it and I think he doesn't mind the newer one... If it was more expensive I would have never bought it

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 7:32 pm

Nice! So you bought that for your dad? Ahhhhh you are such a good son!

Silver cars FTW!

LCPLPunk · Post by **LCPLPunk** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:09 pm

I want a new car!

I won't be getting a new car anytime soon, but after I get done with my training for my local Sheriff's office i'll have a 'newer' car.

scneonchic · Post by **scneonchic** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 3:44 pm

Im not much of a fan of mini vans (or fords)...but that one looks brand new.

I wouldnt mind having a ford fusion though...something about those I really like.

03sxt · Post by **03sxt** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:08 pm

Blah @ Minivans...

How's the Catera treating you??

TNK · Post by **TNK** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:25 pm

03sxt wrote:Blah @ Minivans...

GTS · Post by **GTS** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:44 pm

I have to say my dad is affraid to drive the damn thing, I call him to ask him how it is and he is like... "well it was raining today so maybe tomorrow if its sunny I will take it out of the garage and let ya know" .... but I think thats cuz he likes it way too much.
As to the Catera, well my dream vehicle and so far the most amazing car I've ever owned, I took a trip to flint this weekend and on the way there and back I hit a couple 100+mph just passing people usually the ones that go 70 in the left lane. Its fast as far as fuel well 17ish city and around 24HWY althou looking at the scan gauge it sits mostly around 30 but it somehow still averages around 24 no matter what. Otherwise its treating me well, it turns heads everywhere I go, and in two weeks or so I am gonna go home and put on the Euro Conversion kit to make it an OPEL OMEGA MV6, got all the needed parts for it. I will keep ya all updated.

LCPLPunk · Post by **LCPLPunk** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:17 pm

Cateras have bad ratings though, that's why i didn't buy one.

GTS · Post by **GTS** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:28 pm

LCPLPunk wrote:Cateras have bad ratings though, that's why i didn't buy one.

I understand that and its mostly because they are rare and a lot of times when you need parts people at the car parts store dont have parts and delivery times are sometimes as much as a week, so when you cant afford to have your car down for a week then you buy parts at the dealer. The dealer parts as we all know are overpriced so thus the bad ratings.

I have clocked over 13K miles on the car so far and the only issues I've had was a water pump that started leaking and an oil cooler that I replaced because I know it goes bad.

I like every bit of it and I figured by taking good care it, it will take good care of me. So far no real crazy expenses, i have to say as far as reliability the neon sometimes costs me more money then the catera does, but the catera is a couple classes above the neon so...

LCPLPunk · Post by **LCPLPunk** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:40 pm

How many miles on the Catera when u got it?

GTS · Post by **GTS** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:53 pm

59K when I took delivery in sunny Ft. Lauderdale, and now its got just under 73K, I am gonna go get some new tires in the next month or two cus those Pirelli P6s are crappiest ever.

LCPLPunk · Post by **LCPLPunk** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 11:38 pm

Kumho's FTW!

Post by **racer12306** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 11:47 pm

yokohama FTW

GTS · Post by **GTS** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 11:55 pm

I was thinking the Continental ContiExtremeContacts, I used them once on the Neon and loved them and they are the ones with the highest rating but I find somethin else comparable I will give them a try. The CONTIs are about 110$/pc not including installation, but We shall see.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Rapley · Post by **Rapley** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:28 am

03sxt wrote:

Blah @ Minivans...

Some minivans are sick! Chevy Astros/GMC Safari's are cool! Example #1:

Example #2:

Either way you do them up, they can be sick vans.

You can swap Vette engines into em, they turn out to be pretty quick.

Go to http://www.astrosafari.com if you wanna see more cool vans.

BTW, i'm sure the Mercury Monterey is nice, but i don't like it that much. Never been a Ford fan

TNK · Post by **TNK** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:03 am

i agree with you rapley. a modded minivan can be sick as hell. but a stock minivan is ubergay

LCPLPunk · Post by **LCPLPunk** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:55 am

Go with the Kumho's!

I was looking at the KH16s and the 732 Touring and they have great ratings AND are only about 45-47 on Tirerack.