What did you drive before getting your FFH?

[Shadoweb]

1980 Toyota Starlet - Ugly brown

1988 Dodge Shadow - Ugly brown

1989 Mitsubishi Galant Sigma - Dark blue

 

From here we became a multi-car family... A replaces A, B replaces B...

 

A 1989 Mitsubishi Galant Sigma (Wife)

B 1994 Ford Thunderbird - Opal Frost Metallic (Myself)

A 1990 Dodge Dakota - Red (Wife)

A 1995 Ford F-150 -Dark Blue/Silver (Wife)

C 2002 Ford Thunderbird - Black (Myself daily driver, now Wife's daily driver)

B 1997 Ford Thunderbird - Black (Myself)

A 2008 Ford F-150 - Green (Wife)

A 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid - White (Myself)

[GrySql]

B 1997 Ford Thunderbird - Black (Myself)

I bought a new 1992 gray Thunderbird LX, had the 5.0L engine, I really liked that car. Drove it over 125k miles and was sad to see it go.

[mwr]

1936 Buick Century sedan (16 years old, $125)

1949 Pontiac 2-Door (5 years old, $600)
1952 Desoto V8 sedan (4 years old, $650)
1960 Ford V8 convertible (a new car!)
1964 Triumph TR-4
1971 Mercury Capri 2-door (a Ford made in Germany)
1980 BMW 528i sedan
1995 Toyota Camry V6 (leased)
1994 Volvo 850 Turbo Wagon (3 years old)
2005 Subaru Legacy GT Wagon (1 year old)
2015 FFH!

Edited February 27, 2015 by mwr

[CCalvinN]

1979 Chevy Monza

1983 Buick Skylark

1980 Chevy Monza

1985 Pontiac 6000

1990 Ford Escort

1990 Chevy Beretta GTZ (The Black Shadow of Death)

1983 Chevy Impala (Bellulah)

1990 Lincoln Town Car (Belinda)

1999 Chevy Lumina (Lita)

2012 Ford Focus Titanium (Fiona)

2015 Ford Fusion Hybrid Titanium (Ginger)

[sschnath]

I'm not going all the way back but the FFH replaced a 2004 Passat TDI which I decided to replace at 396K miles (my original plan when I purchased the car was 400K). I considered the new Passat diesel but I don't need the same kind of longevity out of this vehicle as I wanted out of the Passat. I also couldn't make the numbers work with regards to total cost of ownership. I did consider other hybrids but ultimately landed here.

Edited March 1, 2015 by sschnath

[Peter Davio]

71 VW Beetle

84 Ford Tempo

76 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra (for two months? maybe had it running for 45 miles?)

87 Ford Mustang LX 5.0 --- took it to Germany with me.

84 BMW 318ia

61 Porsche 356b Karmann Hardtop (T-5 Chassis, 1600 Super, with dual Weber's - could never tune and balance the original SU's)

92 Mazda Miata

91 BMW 318is

96 Saturn SL1

88 Dodge Shadow

00 Ford Explorer

05 Ford Escape

88 Nissan pickup

97 Mazda Millenia - retired and replaced by Amore', my 14 FFH

11 Honda Civic

Edited March 9, 2015 by Peter Davio

[corncobs]

Just looked at the poll again and it's amazing to see the percentage of first time hybrid owners. 75% is really cool now it would be interesting to know/see what percentage of those first timers actually getting out of the FFH what they were hoping for.

 

I'm a first timer and really happy and won't ever buy a regular gas / diesel car again. Hopefully I can upgrade to a plugin when the time comes.

[TonyHzNV]

Just looked at the poll again and it's amazing to see the percentage of first time hybrid owners. 75% is really cool now it would be interesting to know/see what percentage of those first timers actually getting out of the FFH what they were hoping for.

 

I'm a first timer and really happy and won't ever buy a regular gas / diesel car again. Hopefully I can upgrade to a plugin when the time comes.

You know, I was thinking along the same lines as you today. I was driving home from work and stopped at a light and a nice Tux Black Luxury SE Energi stopped right next to me. We kind of glanced over at each other and nodded to one another. He was smiling and so was I as his left turn arrow turned green and he cruised off on his way. It made me think of maybe upgrading sometime myself. Who knows what will happen in the future, but like I told GrySql the other day, I'm already looking ahead to maybe a '17 or '18 model of something if the technology changes significantly enough by then. My ESP is good til July of 19. We'll see! :)

[machoman1337]

Just looked at the poll again and it's amazing to see the percentage of first time hybrid owners. 75% is really cool now it would be interesting to know/see what percentage of those first timers actually getting out of the FFH what they were hoping for.

 

I'm a first timer and really happy and won't ever buy a regular gas / diesel car again. Hopefully I can upgrade to a plugin when the time comes.

 

I'm also a first timer and I came close to buying a brand new 1.5L ecoboost until I saw an ad for a loaded hybrid on autotrader.ca. More or less sealed my decision. I'll definitely drive only hybrids or plug-ins from now on.

 

If I have the $$$, I might get the next FFH that uses QNX for infotainment!

Edited March 9, 2015 by machoman1337

[sschnath]

Just looked at the poll again and it's amazing to see the percentage of first time hybrid owners. 75% is really cool now it would be interesting to know/see what percentage of those first timers actually getting out of the FFH what they were hoping for.

 

I'm a first timer and really happy and won't ever buy a regular gas / diesel car again. Hopefully I can upgrade to a plugin when the time comes.

 

I'm a first-timer and I purchased mine slightly used in January. We've been experiencing relentless cold since then so it's too early for me to make an assessment. I live in a climate with high variations in temp over the course of the year and I feel that I need to drive the car for a full year before I can make a fair and accurate assessment anyway.

 

But I will say that it doesn't get much colder around here than it's been over the last several weeks and I've been averaging around 36.6 MPG (commute is almost 90 miles each way and it's about 95% highway). My Passat TDI averaged about 39 MPG over the course of a year so if the Fusion can stay within 10% of that I'm ahead of the game since diesel has been commanding a pretty hefty premium over regular gas for the most part over the last several years - right now it's about 20% more.

 

I've noticed just in the last day or so where the temp is in the high 30's or low 40's that the MPGs are moving in the right direction so I'm hoping to see some significant improvement as it starts to warm up around here. The only thing I'm really disappointed with at the moment is the small fuel tank but I'm hoping as the weather warms up I'll be able to get an extra round trip between fill-ups.

[corncobs]

Probably not much different than Chicago up there in Maine.

 

Temperatures are finally above freezing and right away the FFH returns to mid to upper 40's MPGs. Today 46.8 going and 45.1 MPG coming home.

[sschnath]

Probably not much different than Chicago up there in Maine.

 

Temperatures are finally above freezing and right away the FFH returns to mid to upper 40's MPGs. Today 46.8 going and 45.1 MPG coming home.

 

I like the sound of that!

[DeeCee]

I am a first time hybrid owner and the FFH has exceeded my expectations. Going in I expected to see 40 mpg tops. Right now just shy of 40,000 miles my lifetime average via the cars computer is 47.7 mpg. Actual based on gas used is 45.8. I am a happy camper! (Mine is a Job 1 car that has had very few and minor problems and those have been corrected by Ford. I really like this car's technology, styling and quiet and comfortable ride.

[Iwejun]

70 Volvo 145

77 Chevy Chevette

77 MG Midget

78 Triumph TR7

77 GL 100 Goldwing Rode from thaw til snow

63 Ford Galaxie Drove from snow til thaw

81 Subaru coupe

71 Volkswagon Beetle

72 Chevy C10 pickup

93 Pontiac Transport or as my niece called it the Dust Buster minivan

97 Chevy Suburban

2003 Ford Super Duty 250 7.3 diesel

2007 Ford Super Duty 350 6.0 diesel dually

2014 FFH HiTy

Somewhere between the TR7 and Goldwing was a Ford product that looked kinda like the Thunderbird of that time it was so inspiring I can't recall the name. If I remember I'll edit it in.

That's just me, my wife has had Cutlass Sipreme, Saab 900, Honda, Honda, Lexus 300 and now drives a 10' BMW Z4, her midlife crisis car, personally I can't stand convertibles but hers with the retractable hardtop makes it bearable.

Edited June 4, 2015 by Iwejun

[hybridbear]

With so many new members I'd be curious for more to comment about what cars they drove previously. I'd also be curious to see more people answer the poll questions.

[Hybrider]

Here is my chronological list of previous cars, and the age I was when I got them.

• '69 Ford Galaxie 500:Age 15: A hand-me-down from my step-dad. Great party car for me and my buddies in high school.
• '69 Buick Skylark: Age 17: Inherited from my great-aunt. Had a 2-bbl V8, but ran so quiet, I tried to start it up several times while it was still running.
• '74 Chevy Vega GT: Age 20: My grandmother bought it used for me so I could have a car to get to electronics school. With the aluminum block leaking oil, had to add a quart of oil every week.
• '61 Ford Falcon: Age 22: My girlfriend needed my Vega to get to work, so I bought this beater Falcon to hold me until I could save up for my first new car, and it was such a beater it even had bullet holes in the fenders,.
• '85 Ford Mustang GT: Age 24: My first brand-new car, and was the first year which the horsepower started coming back to the Mustang after the fuel crisis model years, and was the last year the Mustang had a carbureted V8. BTW, my girlfriend bought her '86 fuel-injected V8 Mustang a year later, but hers was possessed, almost a lemon.
• '98 Chevy Lumina: Age 38: After wrecking my Mustang, it helped me realize I had an extremely severe case of Jeckyl & Hyde aggressive driving style when switching back and forth between a stick-shift V8 Mustang and a V6 vehicle having an auto tranny. So I traded in my Mustang for a midsize sedan with an automatic, and found a slightly used one to avoid that initial depreciation. I chose the Lumina since it was somewhat sporty-looking and had a super simple and very reliable V6 engine with decent gas mileage.
• '04 Buick Century: Age 42: Since I was craving a key fob and wanted a passenger airbag for my wife, I bought the closest model to the Lumina that I could find, with the basically the exact same super-simple V6 engine. The Century had a highway EPA rating of 29 MPG, and I almost always got 27-29 MPGs with mixed driving. Since I was usually carpooling to work with my wife, I only put 50K miles on it during the 10 years I owned it. When I sold it, there was no difference whatsoever between it and the proverbial granny car that was driven very slowly only on Sundays.
• '14 FFH: Age 52: When I bought the Century, I was hoping to purchase a hybrid instead, but since the hybrids were so new at that time, the selection was extremely limited and the prices were significantly higher than the Century. So I was extremely pleased when I started looking for a new car to find out that Ford was offering hybrids, and even had a hybrid midsize sedan since that is what I like to drive and it was a very sporty-looking car to boot. All of the other great things which the FFH had to offer were just icing on the cake, and more icing, and more icing, and more icing.

Edit: Added missing link below.

 

Here is a link to one of my posts where I list out some other reasons how and why I chose the FFH as my current car. The FFH is by far my favorite car I have ever owned. I actually get withdrawals when it has been more than a few hours (not days) since I last drove my FFH. That is how much I like and now crave and love my FFH. :love_shower:

Edited June 11, 2015 by Hybrider

[Hybrider]

One thing I find very amazing about my list of cars above is that the list of makes is the same forwards and backwards. :)

 

Ford - Buick - Chevy - Ford - Ford - Chevy - Buick - Ford

[Hybrider]

I realized I left out the nicknames of my previous cars above:

 

• '69 Ford Galaxie 500 (no name, but when I played Rush's song "2112" very loudly in it, it was my spaceship.)
• '69 Buick Skylark (Bessie)
• '74 Chevy Vega GT (Charlie)
• '61 Ford Falcon (Harold)
• '85 Ford Mustang GT (GT)
• '98 Chevy Lumina (Mina)
• '04 Buick Century (Zener)
• '14 Fusion Hybrid (Fuze)

[hybridbear]

• '98 Chevy Lumina: Age 38: After wrecking my Mustang, it helped me realize I had an extremely severe case of Jeckyl & Hyde aggressive driving style when switching back and forth between a stick-shift V8 Mustang and a V6 vehicle having an auto tranny. So I traded in my Mustang for a midsize sedan with an automatic, and found a slightly used one to avoid that initial depreciation. I chose the Lumina since it was somewhat sporty-looking and had a super simple and very reliable V6 engine with decent gas mileage.

My first car was a 1998 Chevy Lumina. It was a hand-me-down from my uncle and the only thing we paid for it was the amount they had to spend on repairs to get it running so they could give it to me. It had just shy of 200k miles and had something wrong with it because I couldn't crack 25 MPG even cruising on the highway. I kept a spreadsheet in it for tracking MPG. The engine compartment also smelled very strongly of gasoline. In the ~10 months & ~10k miles I drove it we had to spend thousands of dollars on it to keep it running. I wasn't sad to see it go. Mine was maroon with the maroon cloth interior.

 

Luminas of this era also had lots of brake light problems. For example, when braking with my turn signal on only the high mount brake light would work. When braking with no turn signal the brake lights would only sporadically work, but the high mount brake light always worked. Almost all Luminas I still see around on the road today have this same problem. Did yours have this glitch too?

[Hybrider]

My first car was a 1998 Chevy Lumina. It was a hand-me-down from my uncle and the only thing we paid for it was the amount they had to spend on repairs to get it running so they could give it to me. It had just shy of 200k miles and had something wrong with it because I couldn't crack 25 MPG even cruising on the highway. I kept a spreadsheet in it for tracking MPG. The engine compartment also smelled very strongly of gasoline. In the ~10 months & ~10k miles I drove it we had to spend thousands of dollars on it to keep it running. I wasn't sad to see it go. Mine was maroon with the maroon cloth interior.

 

Luminas of this era also had lots of brake light problems. For example, when braking with my turn signal on only the high mount brake light would work. When braking with no turn signal the brake lights would only sporadically work, but the high mount brake light always worked. Almost all Luminas I still see around on the road today have this same problem. Did yours have this glitch too?

 

Yeah, the maroon '98 Luminas were very classing looking. Mine was light blue metallic with light blue or light grey interior.

 

I never noticed any issues with the brake lights being glitchy, but then again, it was not easy for me to see them either. ;)

 

My Lumina probably only had 60K-70K miles on it when I traded it in, but I don't recall ever having any issues with anything on it. The MPGs on my Lumina were probably similar to what I got in my Century, maybe a little lower. But I probably wasn't driving it so much like a granny as I did in my Century. Since we get so many snowbirds in these parts and they like to drive Buicks, at least used to, a slow-moving Buick is not surprising to anyone. :shift:

Edited June 11, 2015 by Hybrider