It's not Over until the Mercury rises.
A spectacular example of "Built Ford Tough" is my friend Darren's 1965 Mercury Comet Caliente. At 65 MPH on the freeway, his tire blew, sending him spinning off to the right, over the curb, down a steep 30' foot embankment, bouncing off of large trees and over bushes, sliding down the rest of the way backwards, and coming to a stop with his passenger in the back seat and Darren still behind the wheel. They both WALKED AWAY. the car lost the left rear wheel that was sheared off as the car spun and hit the curb, and sustained major front end damage as well as some in the rear and the roof, but the passenger's compartment is 100% in tact, no glass broke, and the doors still open and close like they did before- solid- just like a new car.
Darren is going to tow the car home to San Jose and put it in his garage where he plans to rebuild it. The 289 4-bbl engine still runs great!
Next is my old 1986 Mercury Grand Marquis.
Finally: June 8, 1998. Making a left turn on a busy street at rush hour, a college-aged girl and her friends come over a hill and as I was making my turn, she slammed into my driver's front 1/4 panel with her 1980 Ford Fairmont Wagon at an estimated 40MPH.
Her car was a goner. The bumper ended up in the tire and ripping the rim up, the radiator exploded, and my car's bumper tore a big chunk off of the Fairmont, too. (the yellow spots behind the bumper is a 12 inch long chunk of yet another wrecked Ford. Nobody was seriously hurt, I got to work only 1 hour late with bruised kees and small cut on my head. Dang this being tall thing!)
This car went through it all- it was my first car. I got it when I was 17, and I was a huge car nut since the day I was born, watching "CHiP's" and Knight Rider as well as the Dukes of Hazzard, so perhaps you can imagine the hell it went through!
I drove my car the 8 miles home at 35mph, but the front end was pushed over about a foot, the power steering/fan/alternator belt broke and the PS pump got partially sheared off the block, making turning fun, and the battery got split open as well. Somehow the sway bar got bent up and part of it ended up UNDERNEATH the driver's side lower A-arm, making bad roads fun. I still can't figure that one out...
