I've owned several fords that all held up well: 1989 Ford Taurus: $450 car, required new battery terminals. Totaled it out fairly quickly--side note: head on c

I've owned several fords that all held up well: 1989 Ford Taurus: $450 car, required new battery terminals. Totaled it out fairly quickly--side note: head on collision at approx 45mph with no seat belt, walked away with scratches. Given 3300 by insurance people for the car only. 199X Ford Escort Hatchback: $500 car, zero maintenance over a couple of years. Eventually started stalling in neutral unless you revved it, I sold it to my sister for $200 and bought something else. Vaccuum hose had a hole, $4 fix. 1987 Ford Mustang: $3500 car, required a clutch immediately for $800. Drove for several years with no further mechanical problems (though it did have body issues), sold it for $2250. The decrease in value was almost wholly my own fault in causing & then neglecting the body issues. I had one lemon, but not a Ford. A 199x Pontiac Grand Am. $850 car, immediately needed tires & a water pump (making it a $1200 car). Broke down approximately 15 times for various reasons, mostly small problems or problems I learned to live with. I eventually got a noticed it would be towed if not moved from where I had it parked, and I decided it was prudent to let it be towed. Otherwise: 1996 Nissan Pickup: $3k car in 2009, still own it, has had zero repairs. Several things have failed: A/C, both front blinkers fell out of the truck, someone backed into the front bumper and misaligned the headlights, broken into & stereo & speakers stolen. Engine is otherwise perfect, though. I'm trying to sell it now, as I bought a Jeep Cherokee about a month ago. I would be incredibly surprised if I can't get $1500 for it, but I have someone coming to look this weekend at $2400 asking price. Maybe I've been lucky, but the total amount of repair fees I've paid over all of these, including the lemon, is somewhere around $3k I'd guess, vehicles overall costing me a couple thousand for the last 15 years of vehicles, usually with redundancy by owning 2 at a time. I own a motorcycle now, as well, so I have three levels. I did the easiest repairs myself. If I couldn't learn it in 20 minutes on youtube, I paid someone else.