Hey all, I joined about a year ago, when my wife and I decided that one day, we wanted to become wagoneers (not Jeeps, however ). I thought, rightly, that the best thing to do was join up here and read up on old wagon ownership and possibly even find one for sale that was in good (for its age) condition. I didn't follow my own mind, and we fell into a hole (in addition to dealing with family health issues, but that's another story). The story, as abridged as I can manage, is that we decided we love the woodgrain look, and I personally lean toward Fords, so we started searching for a newer, EFI-powered, Panther platform Country Squire or Colony Park ('87-'91). The prices we'd seen for some good ones were a little out of our range at the time, but we weren't in a huge hurry as this would be a third car. Enter our friend (cue ominous music). Said good friend had just lost her mother; her stepfather urgently needed to liquidate some assets, and among them was a 1989 Colony Park! High-mileage (just under 200K), but hey, those Windsor V8s can run forever, right? And, even better, he's a "great mechanic who can fix anything" and who has a stable of older cars that he keeps running. I spoke to him on the phone and he told me the recent repairs he had made on the car (including all new brake lines!), and that it does have some rust and needs a new exhaust system downstream of the catalytic converters, but otherwise, it's a solid car. I kept hearing in my mind, "yeah, sounds great, but you know what they say: always have a car checked out by a trusted mechanic, no matter who you're buying from." And I ignored this little voice, which got louder and louder the closer we came to purchase day. Stepfather was kind enough to Bondo and paint the couple of major rust spots and do the exhaust for a small increase in purchase price. We went ahead with it against, as it turns out, both my and my wife's better judgement (she was thinking the same thing I was, it turned out). Lesson 1: Always listen to your gut. Lesson 2: Always talk to each other! So we took delivery and thought, OK, well, we need to do a deep-clean to get the chain-smoker smell out, and save up the fix the air conditioner, and eventually get the bodywork properly addressed, but we have our wagon! Right? Then we took a long drive and it all started collapsing from there. We all started feeling light-headed, and it got worse (even with the windows down) the longer we drove. I finally pulled us over and got us out, and realized we must have an exhaust leak. Fortunately, we were near a friend's house, so we dropped it there and had it towed to their mechanic's shop. Exhaust from engine to new pipes (including cats) rusted out and leaking badly. At this point, we were on temporary tags pending a state (MD) inspection, so I had them do the inspection. More bad news. The whole steering system was so bad, it's a miracle Stepfather even got the car to us! And so on. We should have walked away then, after paying $2K for the car, but we didn't. The garage quoted us a price, and then discovered more problems. They cut us a great deal and we took it, to the tune of about $1800 (less than half what it should have cost), for a whole new steering system, brakes, a gas tank and a few other things. We brought it home, but the thrill was gone. Now, there are more problems. There's still an exhaust leak that seems to be a manifold issue (not sure if it's gasket or an actual cracked manifold). The "new" power steering system has failed, there still is no AC, and of course, there's also the aforementioned body work and interior issues. I know what you all are saying, and you're right: you knew you were buying an older car, and older cars break. True, but I wanted something a little more together than this. I can handle things breaking here and there; I'm pretty decent with a wrench but this has become a project car, and I already have one of those (a Mustang). This was supposed to be a decently reliable third vehicle for large group travel and hauling of stuff. Anyway, I've gone on long enough! We're trying to sell this thing, and nobody's biting. Our Hemmings and Craigslist ads have attracted only scammers, and the sign in the window has attracted some passing inquiries that have dried up. I've given up trying re-coup our total outlay, and we're just hoping to get something for it. Advice? Wrist-slaps? I'm at your mercy!
Whew! About all I can say is SORRY! This was an interesting story. If nothing else, a warning to others to personally check out any vehicle and have someone who knows cars, especially the type you are interested in, look it over. I know many "car guys" (could be female car guys) will disagree when I say never ever buy a vehicle with over 100,000 miles on it. Twice that is four times as many problems. Hopefully the next potential buyer does not read this, altho maybe there are some pluses in what's been done so far. Good luck and don't give up on finding a nice Ford low mileage wagon. As many say, paying a little more for a lower mileage car with little or no rust is worth a lot more than dollars. No matter how deep the hole, you'll crawl out of it wiser.
I can say that in my lifetime vehicle-buying experience, I've made those same mistakes. Sorry to hear your troubles with the Colony Park. Prior to buying my Safari, I was considering Colony Parks, and drove 220 miles one-way to check one out. Took me 5 minutes to make the decision to walk away. It was cheap, too. (There was a reason....)
The problem with older cars is that you either have to have the knowledge and skill to fix them yourself or the money to pay someone else willing to do it. Buying low miles wouldn't necessarily have avoided these issues either (I bought an 81k mile 40 year old car and it had its own share of problems). If you want to be rid of it there are ways and places to go, but if you want to get all or most of your money back, that's going to be the hard part...
It's true about the mileage of a vehicle. I bought some new cars that were lemons and spent more time in the shop than my driveway. It can happen to a 50,000 mile 50 year old car. Some are used and abused. Some sit for a long time. Others just give you problems no matter how well you take care of them. I've known women like that!
It's a miracle the A/C didn't work, because it's likely you would've had the windows UP and that would've incapacitated you faster. I had an '83 CP that had its share of body, exhaust and A/C problems. Same with my Ranchero. But I knew going into either one would require lots of work and fixes. The CP finally bit it, so I pulled a bunch of easy parts and scrapped the rest; the Chero still needs some work, but will eventually get that work. Hopefully, you might be able to run into an '88-'91 CS or CP that is cheap but not rotten, and you're able to use the first one for a parts donor to improve your second one.
Thanks for the support, everyone. Yeah, I fell for that situation that my brother-in-law, the lawyer, has summed up so eloquently: never do business with family or friends! Really, though, either I or my wife should have spoken up to each other about our doubts. Had she said, "umm, I think we should have this thing looked at" or had I said that to her, we'd have skipped on this car, and still lost a friend (well, she's still our friend, but things are very strained). I agree, age and mileage are no guarantee of reliability, but a more-seasoned old car person would have seen this one coming a mile away. I'm not at all averse to turning wrenches, in fact, I love it, but like I said, I have a project car... Andrew: amen to that! I am so glad we didn't have AC that day! I found out just a few weeks after we bought the car, BTW, that Mr Master Mechanic's cars are barely safe to drive on the road. I asked him what other cars he had and he mentioned a '70 LTD convertible. I got excited and told him I 'd love to visit and take it for a spin one day, and he got very nervous looking and admitted that it was in such cobbled-together condition that he would only allow himself to drive it! As it stands now, someone called me the other day interested (we'll see), and I want to stop in to visit a guy I found about 15 mins. from my house who's a later-model Merc collector - he has what looks like a '73 or so Marquis Brougham and a Panther-platform Colony Park, both in excellent condition. I'll see if he's interested, either for parts or a project. But, I'm staying positive! We'll sell this car and find a better one. Actually, I remember seeing someone on here (can't remember who) selling a CP just a few months into this whole ordeal - it was more expensive, but in much better shape, too! It took days for the keyboard marks to fade from my forehead
I still think you should hold on to it, and get your next one, using the first one for swapping the good parts to it. You could also part it if you have the room to store the parts. I have parts for '79-'87 Panther cars and have had a few inquiries if I had parts that would fit '88-'91s, so I'm sure you'd at least be covered for mechanicals.
The two big downfalls of playing with cars, not enough room and a wife with common sense. Then there's money, or lack of it and time.
Yeah, the money and time thing... My wife has no more common sense than I do when it comes to cool old cars, but that wagon's a reminder of a bad situation. And she doesn't really like clutter. If I could sell the Trans Am GTA that's eating up one bay of the garage...
My wife doesn't have any common sense either. But I didn't want to mention it here. At least she lets me stay around. Sadly this car hobby has back fired. We want to move but have so much junk we are afraid to list it with all the thieves checking out others.
Do what I do...list it in a general area. Take total close-ups on photos so that the house is not in the photos. Agree to meet at local, well-lighted places, and keep an eye on your rearview when you leave. Be paranoid!
