ShawMishrak

I plan on checking out an '03 Mach 1 at a local dealer sometime this week, and I'm curious what the typical trouble areas are with these cars. The car has 45k miles and they're asking $16,599. The KBB suggested retail value is coming up as $17,550, so it seems like a decent deal.

I'm not too familiar with the 4v 4.6L motors, do they typically last 100k+ miles, or do they start to have serious problems before that?

Thanks!

groundpounder

not too many typical trouble areas. With those miles on it, you should be able to determine if the car has The Tick on the driver's side. Long story, but the short version is some 03's had some trouble with a waterjacket passage around the headon#8 cylinder (back of driver's side bank) which caused the valve guide to heat up and wearexcessively, causing The Tick. It's not a death note, but FoMoCo did recall and fix it. After a certain production date, though, the problem was fixed on the line and it wasn't an issue in models produces later in 03 and 04.

Other than that, no major issues. $16,599 is the upper range of what I would pay, though. The car would have to be exceptionally clean (not a single scratch & showroom quality interior) to pay that much. If the car is clean, I'd tell them, "Walk me out the door turnkey for $15K - TT&L - and we'll have ourselves a deal."