Boxer_4's post earlier about which old cars do you see surprisingly often, and which newer cars you see surprisingly few of reminded me of a question that I’ve been meaning to post for a while.
What generations of cars and or trucks have seemed to outlive their successors?
What initially brought about this observation begins with my love of the 10th generation, Jellybean F-150 (‘97-’04), and the fact that I seem to see far more of them on the road, and for sale, than the 11th generation (‘04-08') that followed.
Despite being what is arguably a far better truck (and IMO one of the best trucks Ford has made), the 3 valve 5.4l V8 used in 11th gen was plagued with common problems that were troublesome at best, and if not addressed, catastrophic at worst. Broken two part spark plugs, exhaust manifolds known for breaking studs, and cam phaser failures that varied from annoying tick to metal shavings through the engine were the norm for these trucks. None of the repairs for these problems would be considered cheap. Broken plugs required specialty tools, manifold studs required lifting the engine out of the cradle (or lots of time and swearing) and cam phasers required top end rebuilds at minimum, engine replacement at the worst. These issues normally didn’t arise until the trucks were past 100,000 miles, and generally on to their second owners, so as the trucks aged, and depreciated the repair costs made less and less sense which led to a lot of scrapped trucks.
The earlier trucks however used a simpler version of the 5.4l V8, utilizing only two valves per cylinder and no cam phasers or variable valve timing, and while these engines weren’t without their problems (spark plug blowouts, exhaust manifold studs, cracked plastic intakes on later models) fixes tend to fall into the hundreds of dollars category, and not the thousands. Because of this it’s reasonable to believe that these trucks were generally repaired instead of scrapped, and have stuck around a lot longer. Beyond that the 2V 5.4 has proven to be a durable and reliable motor, as have the trucks that surround them.
Outside of the midwest I have a suspicion that the previous 9th generation F-150 has outlived both of the above, but at least here in South Dakota this generation is now on the wrong side of the rot-value curve and are becoming less common by the day.
There are a few other vehicles I’ve noticed this for, but too keep this post from getting too long winded I’ll leave it up to feedback from you.
Which vehicles do you notice that have seemed to outlive their successors?