Why do I like Ford’s so much?

I don’t exactly know. When I was a kid, my Dad mostly only had Ford’s. I remember the 77 Pinto and the 78 Ford E150 that he had, I guess it started there. As I grew up, I just found Ford’s, especially the Mustang, trucks & vans to be the coolest. I also like the company. I know they’ve had their troubles, but they are one of the few family operated big corporations out there. They are an American company too, and that’s important to me. Ford’s engineers are currently working on environmentally friendly engines (Hybrids, clean diesel, Hydrogen fuel cell, H2ICE, etc.) even though they have no current tax incentive to do so. Ford’s newer engines burn cleaner than anybody else engines. In fact, the 2006 Explorer with the 4.0 V6 puts out fewer emissions than a Hybrid Accord. And their new Duratec 35 V6, that will be out next year, will be even cleaner than that. I like cars, but I love Ford’s the most. I’ll tell you a little about my first few cars, and then maybe you’ll understand.


My first car (in 1991) wasn’t even a car, it was a 1978 Ford E250 van. It was all black with black tinted windows and a big block, gas sucking, 460 V8. It was probably the most awesome vehicle I’ve ever owned. The interior was different shades of orange & brown and it even had an 8 track player for a little while. I had that van for only a few months before I smashed it up, then I even drove it a few more months until the tranny went out. Even though my time was short with my old van, I still think about it the most.


My second car (in 1992) was a 1983 Ford Mustang GLX Convertible. It was bright red with a black top and red vinyl interior. It was pretty slow since it only had the 3.8 L V6 with an automatic, but quick enough to get me in trouble. I wanted a 5.0 Mustang, but my Dad wouldn’t let me. I received 13 tickets in it the first year I had it, but none of them went on my record! Five of them were no insurance tickets because the insurance card kept flying out when I had the top down. I went through a lot with this car (several dates with my now wife Sunny, lots of camping trips, lots of “cruising”, etc.). Even though I only had it for two years, I wrecked it three times, rebuilt it myself once, it was stolen once, and the tranny went out on it once, too. I sold this car in 1994 to guy in the paper that purchased wrecked cars. Even though it was all messed up, I hated to see it go. This car was so significant to me that I will dedicate a future entry to just this car.


My next car (in 1994) was a 1989 Ford Mustang LX 5.0 hatchback. It had a real bad gray MAACO paint job and the body was pretty rough, but I finally had my 5.0 V8! This car was pretty quick. I took this car on few road trips to Minnesota, Austin, TX and I even drove this car to North Dakota in the winter one time. The trip wasn’t very fun because of the circumstances, but it sure was fun diving on that snow. I spent a lot of money over the years on this car to make it faster and more consistent. I used to drag race this car on a regular basis and even took first place at an Import/Domestic Drag Wars in 1998. Due to bad tranny that I never replaced, the quickest I went in it was 13.7 in the 1/4 mile. I sold this car with some regret in 2001. I still see it cruising around every once in while.

I also had a 1994 Ford Aerostar that I purchased in early 1997, but I only had it a few weeks before I traded it in on a first brand new vehicle, a 1996 Ford F150 SuperCab XLT Regency conversion. I purchased this truck from Hilcher Ford (now Texan Ford) in Arlington, TX. It had a custom red to black fade paint job, aluminum billet grill, spray-in bedliner, custom leather seats, with wood accents in the interior. It also had a 5.8 V8, which for me, was the deal clincher. It was beautiful. I used this truck to pull my Mustang to the drag strip on a regular basis and took a few trips in it too. I put about 40,000 miles on this truck before I sold it and my wife’s 98 Expedition to Carmax in June 2000 to purchase my current truck, a 2001 F150 SuperCrew Lariat 4x4.

My love for Ford’s has lead me to purchase many other Ford’s and I've influenced a few people's purchases over the years. In fact, when friends & family purchase a non-Ford, they either ask for my permission or apologize to me. It's pretty funny. I like it when people buy Ford's, but it's their money, they can buy what they want.


I still have the 2001 F150. I also have a 2001 Mustang GT Convertible (I bought new in October 2001), a 2001 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer (I recently purchased used for my wife) and my latest car, a 1990 Ford Festiva L-Plus that I purchased in August, 2005 off of eBay. I also own a 2005 Georgie Boy Pursuit 3500DS motorhome that has a, you guessed it, Ford engine. What can I say, I guess I just bleed Ford blue. What kind of cars do you like, and why?

A little about me…

Since the traffic on my blog has gone up a little bit, I figure I would tell everybody a little about myself. I’m not going to go into too much detail, just give you the jest.

My name is Arthur, but my friends & family call me Art. I was born on May 27, 1975 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I lived in Minnesota until August of 1983 when my Dad decided to move us to Arlington, Texas, where I’ve lived ever since.

I have a large immediate and extended family. I have three older brothers and two younger sisters that are twins. My two oldest brothers have passed on (that's a blog for another day). Luckily, my other brother and one of my sisters live within a mile or two from me. The other sister lives in Atlanta, GA, but since her husband works for Delta, we get to see her pretty often (but not often enough). I also get to see most of my nieces and nephews pretty often. I don't get to see my niece and nephew that live in Minnesota real often, but I talk to them pretty often. Up until a few months ago, my parents also lived within a couple of miles from us. But in April, my Dad fell off a ladder at work breaking his neck, shoulder & experienced some brain damage. Luckily, he is pulling through it slowly but surely and is currently staying at a long term rehabilitation. At this point, we are not real sure how long he’ll need this kind of care, but we are all grateful that he is still here. Now my Mom gets to live with us and I see my Dad more often then I did before his accident. Situations like this really make you realize how fragile life is and how short your time is on this earth. And it makes you appreciate things more and not worry so much about things that don’t matter.

I graduated High School (after having to go to summer school, again a blog for another day) in 1993. It was in high school where I meet my wife Sunny. We have been married since June of 1996 and we have two beautiful children. We purchased our first home when we got married and lived there until for 4-1/2 years. After we sold that house, we had to live in an apartment for few months during the construction of our new house, that we currently live in. There were a few things I liked about the apartment, but I am very glad it was temporary. My wife and I have experienced many happy times in the last 9-1/2 years and I think I love her a little more everyday. I couldn’t imagine life without her or our wonderful children.

After high school, I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do for a living. I has a few different jobs that included working at a placed called Venture (which was kind of like a Target or Kmart that went out of business in the mid 90's), worked as a valet in a parking garage in downtown Fort Worth, and worked as a service porter at the Saturn of Arlington, Saturn of Fort Worth and Don Davis Nissan. While working at the dealerships I decided that a career as an auto technician (and eventually owning my own repair/performance auto shop) would be pretty cool. I found a program that was offered through Brookhaven College in Dallas that was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. It was a 2 year program where you would work for a Ford dealership for six months at a time then go to school for 6 months at a time and after 2 years you would be a certified Ford technician and have an actual associates degree with real, transferable, college credits. At the time, they only accepted a few people a year and I was accepted based on my test scores. At the same time, I was offered a job by my then girlfriend’s Dad (now my father-in-law). Also at the same time, while working at Don Davis Nissan, I fell off ladder and broke my leg down near my ankle. So, in the summer of 1994, I had to decide whether to go to college through this program or go to work for my future father-in-law. Since I didn’t know where I was going to get the money to pay for the school, nor did I know how I was going to support myself while I was going to school, I decided to take the job with my future father-in-law and see how I might like it. Well, 11-1/2 years later, I still work for my father-in-law. I still have aspirations of owning my own business (and I currently kind-of do http://www.nlpracing.com/), but my job and family make it hard to spend the proper time to get anything started. Not that I resent that, it’s just the reality. Someday, I will own a successful business of my own.

This is a very short summary of my first 30 years on this planet. I still haven’t touched on the reasons why I’m so political, why I consider myself a Democrat, why I love cars (especially Ford’s) so much, why I love NASCAR & auto racing or my other hobbies, likes & interests, but I will in the near future….stay tuned.