I am 17, and my first and current car is a 2001 ford “exploder” sport trac. Bought it used with a 2 year old plow at 130k ish miles with a new transfer case, tires, etc for $7500, and sold the plow for $5200. My dad and I have put about 3k into repairs now, and one thing seems to be going wrong after the other. First it was the mass airflow sensor, and now the transmission keeps going into limp mode, only letting me go about 2500rpm. Second visit the issue didn’t get fixed, and now it’s currently in the shop for a third time. I’m pretty sick of putting money into this car that I’m not really in love with. So I’m thinking of just getting a car I do love the look of, which would make dumping money into it not hurt as bad. I would like to get a Mustang, as the 99-04 new edge body style is one of my favorite looking cars ever. I have two questions: firstly, should I sell the sport trac as is, or dump whatever more money into it to get it sufficiently running and sell it?
And secondly, are there any problems I should be aware of with these new edge Mustangs? I’ve been reading around a little and I know the build quality wasn’t top of the line, and that there can be some issues with the AC system, but other than that are there any major mechanical issues that can happen with miles / time? Are any other timeframes or models more reliable? Thank you for your help.