I got a new car last weekend...a 2010 Ford Fusion. It was a program car with 20,000 miles on. It's the newest car I've ever had. My 1999 Mercury Sable (which I loved) literally broke last week. A front spring snapped and immediately blew out my tire and the car bottomed out. I'm blessed I was still in the neighborhood...12 mintues later I would have been going 70mph on the freeway. We had it towed and the towtruck driver couldn't believe how lucky I was. If I'd been going any faster the car would have rolled. I would have lost all control.
After that experience we decided to get a much newer car with a high safety rating since I'm on the road nearly 2 hours each day. We had a great experience with the local Ford dealer, knew the salesman, excellent customer service, and they gave me a dozen red roses when we picked up the car. We love the new car, it rides great, and hopefully I never have to try out its 6 airbags ! We might have saved a tad more shopping around but they gave us a bit of tradein on the Sable, which was towed to them. No other dealer would have touched it, so we probably did as well as we could under the circumstances. I hate car payments, but it's nice to know I've got reliable wheels for a while.