First and foremost, I’m glad that your son was not hurt in the accident and congratulations on his scholarship.
We drive Fords and have had pretty good luck with them. I would recommend having a transmission service done if you plan on keeping it a long time, pretty much nobody will service it over 100k. And there are some with issues.
There are ways to disable the auto start/stop features and some engines have cam phaser recalls and are prone to this issue. We disable these features as soon as possible, my opinion is the little bit of fuel cost is way cheaper than a starter or phasers. Had trans and phaser issues at 61k on one vehicle. Currently have a 3.5 eco with 220k and no major issues/repairs, just maintenance. We have dealt with several of these issues over the years and now we purchase the extended ford warranty. If you have the dealer change your oil, they perform an inspection at that time and you can purchase the extended warranty. Yes there are some parameters that I don’t know completely but the extended warranty has saved us from having to buy a transmission and several other repairs. It would be a good talking point in my opinion at the very least.
Everyone has their own opinions and that’s my two cents worth.
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