1993 Cougar?

[mespock]

Step-Daughter is looking for a car. She's been working hard and saving and would like one soon.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4502177953&fromMakeTrack=true

Found this one on Ebay. If it goes under $1K is it a good buy?

Any problems with the 1990's Cougars?

What to look out for?

 

[Joeychgo]

Um - buy it - before I do...

 

[Conti94]

:I The early Cougars are very good cars, my neighbor had one never had any major problems with it and he owned it new from 92 till about 2 years ago. It has a 3.8 V6 Same as the early nineties Conti's so change the Coolant regularly to avoid the head gasket woe known by all 3.8 owners. Besides that there great cars. :biggrin:

 

[maxmk8]

WATCH OUT! !!!! If the car has around 100k miles as described in the auction you WILL get a headgasket problem at one point or another! The 3.8 v6 Had an inherent design flaw that had consumers furious about ford and made them pay for their repairs (yea i know it happens ones in a blue moon). This problem will be seen in nearly every 3.8L V6 until the 97 model year i believe. My right head gasket went out at 80k and my left went out at 98. I changed them by myself... not an easy job if you are not mechanically inclined. Besides that the car has been pretty good (knock on wood). Only other thing that ever failed was the IAC that caused the car to rev to 3k rpms when idling and it would accelerate without touching the gas
:Bang .

 

[maxmk8]

WATCH OUT! !!!! If the car has around 100k miles as described in the auction you WILL get a headgasket problem at one point or another! The 3.8 v6 Had an inherent design flaw that had consumers furious about ford and made them pay for their repairs (yea i know it happens ones in a blue moon). This problem will be seen in nearly every 3.8L V6 until the 97 model year i believe. My right head gasket went out at 80k and my left went out at 98. I changed them by myself... not an easy job if you are not mechanically inclined. Besides that the car has been pretty good (knock on wood). Only other thing that ever failed was the IAC that caused the car to rev to 3k rpms when idling and it would accelerate without touching the gas
:Bang .

Btw shops will charge around $1500 to fix the headgasket.

 

[Randeaux]

I'd be kinda careful myself, I had a '94 T-Bird( which turned out to be the WORST car I ever had!) This had the 4.6 V-8 in it though. Head gasket went out on that one @ 76k and 110k. The first time, I had to spend $5200 on getting the engine replaced. The 2nd time, the bottom-end of the engine got tore-up after I replaced the head gaskets. In fact, that Thunderturd was such a lemon, in the 18 months I had owned it, I had put in about $14k in repairs into it including the entire brake system,exhaust system and another Tranny. But also, my Stepmother has a '93 Cougar which she has had since new, put on 223K on it and has never given her a problem at all.(and this does have the 3.8 V-6 in it.) It's always a 50/50 dealing with a car any age. Another good point, is that these cars are pretty safe too, If I remember correctly,they scored pretty well on the NHTSA's crashworthiness tests.And they are still good-looking, too.