Talk to me about the new fords

I have to admit, I'm a foreign car kind of person. Ford has stood for "fix or repair daily" in the past. But I've heard good things about the new fords. How is their resale value holding? Reliability? Quality?

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What model are you considering?

The current Escape for example is being redesigned, so you can get an awesome deal on them right now. The Escape is a well respected model within Ford's lineup. I can't say that about everything they have in their lineup, but if I had one child the Escape would make my top 5 to consider -- assuming you want another SUV, and are downsizing a bit.

If resale is a deal breaker then you might want to stick with Honda or Toyota, but if you plan to keep whatever you buy for a good long time, I'd be more concerned, overall, with getting a long warranty. On that end I'd be considering a Hyundai -- like a Sante Fe or even a Tucson.

Is the Escape the same size as the CR-V? I do worry about resale though.

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My husband has a 2012 escape and it is much roomier than I expected. I can get 3 across, a frontier outbound passenger side, britax marathon center, maxi cosi mico outbound drivers side no base. It's a tight fit but it works. Both britax ff. also when there are no seats I can sit in the back with the front seat all the way back and have 4+ inches to spare between my knees and the seat back. I haven't tried a rf convertible but I don't see it being an issue since I can get my marathon rf behind the drivers seat in my golf. We also have an 2008 f-150 it's not so roomy. My husband works at ford and the 09-11 f-150 had leaking issues in the body so we went to a older model. I have heard the 2012 has quite a bit more room, and they have fixed the leaks

I don't know about non-trucks, but DH is on his 2nd F-150 SuperCrew. He had a 2010, but we were so stoked about the changes to the 2011+, that we traded it in after a little over a year for a 2012. We were floored with how "good" the trade-in offer was. I suspect the redesigned trucks will hold their value fairly well, too. Ford did a great job there.

If you were getting a truck or a muscle type car I would say head for Ford. Otherwise, I would say stick with the imports as far as reliability and resale are concerned. Because resale is important. At SOME point you will want to trade it in or sell it, and it really sucks if it's worth almost nothing. It's not just that the imports cost more so they're worth more years later, they have proven themselves to just stand the test of time better, that's part of that. I think our situation speaks volumes. My step-dad works at a Ford plant. He only drives Nissan. He would get pretty awesome Ford employee pricing, but it's not worth it in the slightest to him.

And if you are used to driving imports, you will not be happy with the way Ford drives and handles. You just won't. I tried a few different models before I traded in last year just b/c they were cheaper and Honda's line-up is kind of stagnant. I really REALLY wanted to love, like, the Mazda5 for example, but the steering, the road noise, the feeling of most bumps and stuff beneath me, that 'tin can' feeling was all over that thing even though it's bigger than what I'm used to driving. And just little features everywhere that I was used to having that weren't standard.

I wouldn't do it, go to a Fix Or Repair Daily, but that's me. I like Honda. I'll drive a Nissan for the time being b/c it was what I could afford that day, and it drives nicely, but I just miss Honda.

I bought a new Flex 2 years ago. It was very hard for me to buy a Ford, especially since the other contender was a Honda Pilot. I'm sure the resale isn't what it would be on the Honda. I plan to keep it for a long time so I'm bothered much by that. I think Ford is a lot better than they used to be. I was impressed with the technology put into it. The basic model was much more deluxe than the basic Pilot. It has about 30k miles now. I've been mainly pleased with how it's held up. It's had a couple quirky cosmetic things, but nothing big. It gets great gas mileage for it's size. I had a rental Ford a while back. A Focus or Fusion? It was pretty nice too.

Are you buying new or used? I think a slightly used Ford is a much better value vs a slightly used import. For the cost of a slightly used Honda, you might as well buy new...that's what we found when buying DH's Civic.

We bought our Ford Fusion almost 4 years ago and we looked at trading it in when we bought our Pilot and the dealership offered us about $1200 less than what we paid. In general though, domestic cars don't seem to hold their value as well, but that isn't always the case.

Anyway, we have been very happy with the Fusion. It suits our needs fairly well and hasn't had any issues. Granted, it is still pretty new with only 40,000 miles but I wouldn't have an issue buying another Ford.

I really don't know about the resale value. We had several Fords... hubby had bought a 2003 F150 new and we never ever had any issues with it until our oldest totaled it Thanksgiving day last year- it held up great and I am sure it saved his life!
Currently I own a 2011 Explorer and already put 36,000 on it with no issues at all! My car before that was a 2008 Edge and also no issues with it, I traded it in because of our ever growing family. Hubby bought a 2011 F150 with Ecoboost- LOVE that thing.... and he gets 25MPG on it

The Edmunds smartphone app is pretty slick. One of the options is cost of ownership data for every model. Depreciation is included in that calculation, along with fuel and insurance costs.

I'm digging the reviews I've read on the Flex and the Fusion. Ford also appears to be in the front of the pack with the newer safety features. I've been driving Honda, Acura, Toyota for the last ten or so years but my next car could very well end up being an American brand.

We bought a 2011 Flex last May and love it. We got 0% financing and cash back on it, so it really didn't change the price that much as the used ones weren't much less and we would've paid interest to finance it. We've put over 16,000 miles on it in 1 year and we're planning on keeping it for a long time, so I'm not really worried about resale. I traded it in for my 2005 Escape which I also loved and didn't have any trouble with, but we knew we would need the extra row of seating.

Something to keep in mind if you're considering the Explorer and the Flex - there is about 4-5 more inches of space between the front seats and the middle row in the Flex than in the Explorer. We're going to have RF car seats for a long time, so that really made a difference for us.