Each has its bad models to stay away from. I find no problem with Ford. My 2000 v6 mustang is still fine at 200k miles. I have a relative that has 1989 Ford Ran

Each has its bad models to stay away from. I find no problem with Ford. My 2000 v6 mustang is still fine at 200k miles. I have a relative that has 1989 Ford Ranger that has 450K miles on it. Same engine, never rebuilt. Though he did have to replace the transmission in 1996 and again just last year. I think the thing that lead to Asian cars getting a good name was their switch to using all synthetic fluids in the late 1990's. You could buy a Nissan or Toyota and drive it for 8 year straight with no other maintenance other than oil changes and be just fine. Do the same thing with an American car of that era and you will go through several stages. If you did nothing but change the oil, at the 5 year mark the car would be mostly destroyed. The conventional anti-freeze would have completely broken down at the 3 year mark and now your entire cooling system would be solid rust. Your brakes will also be on the way out, as the normal DOT3 brake fluid absorbs water and after 5 years it will have become corrosive and it will be eating holes in your brake lines and brake pistons. The non synthetic power steering fluid will also be at the end of life and it will be destroying the seals in your steering rack. And if its an automatic transmission, there is about 2 gallons of non synthetic transmission fluid in it that went bad 2 years ago and now the accelerated seal and metal wear is going to start clogging up the tiny fluid circuits so now one day your car will stay stuck in neutral... Oh and the engine will be running very rough more than likely too by now as the non-platinum sparks plugs are definitely wore out beyond use. But if you change those fluids every 3 years or so, you are good for a few decades :)