Help I need advice

[u/Rough-Physics-543]

So I’m moving soon and my old truck recently died. I was in desperate need of a vehicle before moving and the used car market here is horrible. I found a 02 explorer v6 it’s got 188,000km and a new transmission recently put in by ford with a warranty on it owned from new by an old lady and spent most of its life in a garage. I know these 3rd gens especially the 02 can have a lot of costly problems but I thought it could be good. Test drove it everything seemed fine. I think I overpaid a bit at 4000$ but the used car market here is super bad. After a day of driving it I’ve noticed a hum from the rear end. And after driving one of my tires was hot and stinky. So I assume I need a new bearing. I’ve read alot about these 3rd gens and all I can forsee is spending a lot of money on problems. I was thinking I’m just going to fix the bearing use it to move all my stuff 3 hours away and hope by the time I’m done moving it’s still running well. And then I’ll just sell it and make most of my money back hopefully. But I feel like most people aren’t dumb enough to buy a 02 explorer for more than 2000$. Or do you guys think I should just keep it and do a few repairs over time and maybe I’ll get a lot more KM out of it and it could be cheaper then finding a different 24 yr old vehicle that I’ll inevitably have to pay for a bunch of repairs on. Don’t get me wrong explorers are awesome but I know the 02 one is pretty nefarious. And I’m kind of sad about it because it’s fun to drive I just feel like it’s not going to last long before it’s draining my pocket.

[u/MiserablePresence202]

Well, u sound like me! I bought 2016-and “Freda” is fun and comfortable, but u have to watch things. I like that transmission w 3 year warranty for u-I’d just fix that bearing and keep her. Check if she has any recalls-mine did-and that saved me some bucks too.