Well Todd, I only bought new GM vehicles prior to the Sport Trac and had very few issues with them.
1987 Buick Century Limited. Sold it at 149,000 miles. Other than normal maintenance, the only out of normal issue was needing to replace the Mass Air Flow sensor at 70,000 miles.
1998 PONTIAC Gran Prix GT: With 130.000 miles I gave it to my daughter in a time of need. Other than normal maintenance, the only out of normal issue was needing to replace the intake manifold at approx. 90,000 miles. That was a known issue on the 3800 engine and most likely caused by GM's crappy Dex-Cool! IMO, the intake manifold should have been a recall since it is a known GM issue! The best car I ever owned and would have lasted much longer had I not given away.
2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS: Other than normal maintenance, the only out of normal issue was needing to replace the Air Conditioner condenser at approx. 90,000. Traded it in on my wife Toyota Rav 4 with approx. 130,000 miles. BTW, I had the Dex-Cool drained and replaced with conventional coolant. The RAV 4 is OK but not thrilled with it as I was with the GM vehicles but no real issues so far other than 4 cyl dogginess and poor gas mileage.
2003 Impala with small V-6. I inherited this from my Mother with only 19,000 miles on it at 10 years old. No real issues except the brakes/rotors which I had replaced at approx. 28,000 miles due to the car sitting a lot and I had the Dex-Cool drained and replaced with conventional coolant when I rec'd the car. No issues with it and I drive it daily instead of the Sport Trac.
ISSUES IMO: Like the manifold/DEX-Cool issues on the PONTIAC, I feel that the 2 piece spark plugs and the manifold stud/manifold issues are poor engineering / design issues and the fixes should have been made by FORD whether in or out of warranty. I have paid to have the plugs changed by FORD. The cooling issue is something I have heard from other members and my problem is due to FORDS/and dealer inaction d/t not being able to replicate the issue! I had it fixed myself by paying FORD/the Dealer to do what I believed the problem to be(only because of the responses by the great members on this site!!) and that permanently cured the problem. The other known issue I believe should have been a FORD fix is the cracking plastic radiator......hasn't leaked yet!
The tranny bump issue was fixed under warranty but should have been addressed earlier since the Explorer was released in 2006 with the same engine/tranny combo. Same with the rear 3rd brake light issue but it was an easy fix with an tube of silicon once I realized it was leaking.
I have owned many older FORDS - 3 Mustang fastbacks(one a 1969 BOSS 302) and a Pinto Cruzin' Wagon with no really major issues with any so I'm not a FORD hater(check out my library photos). I like my Sport Trac but think that the paragraph items listed as ISSUES IMO: are very costly items to the buyer (if not caught during the warranty period).
This site has been a very important site to ST owners. It gives you good advice for problems and issues that you encounter and ideas for improving your Sport Trac. It also warns us about known/new issues that a new owner might not notice! This is one great site you have here Todd.....I don't mean to piss you off but the issues listed above are not happy points for those of us who are getting too old to do the work ourselves and/or don't have the money laying around to pay to have a fairly new vehicle fixed by the dealer. JMHO!
