Ford recalls 225,000 vehicles -- again

As the proud owner of a 1999 Ford Taurus, which has served me and my family well all these years (I made my husband promise we would trade it in the first time it breaks down, but it never has), I always check the Ford recall news items. It seems like there is one every other month.

Today brings news of 225,000 cars recalled -- for the second time -- all because of a faulty cruise control mechanism. My car isn't on the list. In fact, all the recallees are from years 1992 to 1995. Models include the Bronco, F-Series, and Taurus SHO among others.

In my one experience with a recall, we brought the car back to have some kind of new part put in the wheel and when we drove off, it turned out the mechanic broke the stabilizer bar fixing the defective part. We were about to start on a family vacation and our car sounded like a brick in a clothes dryer.

Actually, that was the closest our car came to breaking down. We had to return to the dealer and leave on our vacation a day later. My husband was able to convince me that didn't count as a break down since the car actually could have run for miles with the broken part. That was about three years ago now.