I have always owned American cars (30 years or so) and I am getting tired of problems. Each and every car that I have owned has had some sort of major problem that runs into money. This particular car is weird. Before I repaced the tires the ride was getting crappy. Had Michelin Symmetries before and they never really had much tread even when new. I now have a vibration problem with new tires and shocks and no mechanic has been able to diagnose the problem. I find stupid things that are going wrong, like for instance one of the wheel covers didn't quite fit after the tires were replaeced and it was rattling. First of all I had to figure out where the noise was coming from and then screw around with the wheel cover to get it to fit better. My brother owns a 99 Crown Vic which is almost identicle to my 98 Grand Marquis. He had to go in for a new speedometer. Took forever to get one because the dealer said that they are a problem and as a result replacements are in short supply. These cars also have a transmission shuddering problem that happens if you don't change the transmiision fluiid every 30,000 miles. Who the hell wants to be bothered changing transmission fluid and filter that frequently? I never have had to do that before.
These are symptoms of a poorly made vehicle. I work with people who own a lot of imports and I never hear them complaining about stupid things like this. So this is why I won't buy any more American cars. I have had it. I work hard for my paycheck and I won't throw it away on poor quality cars again. Robert