Originally Posted by stingc

Low voltage will give all of those symptoms, so the alt is probably the only trouble

Stormberlin, I forgot how much mechanics overcharge. Changing the belt can be a pain though, although it's probably optional.

Your conclusion that Fords suck is fine if you want to base it off of everyone else's experiences. But my point was that an alternator is a minor and common failure in every make of car. Even Hondas fry them occasionally. If you said that your car is constantly breaking down, then I wouldn't have said what I did .