I understand now why Ford, while making good cars and trucks, usually doesn't fare well on initial quality lists. My '99 Ranger had a new PCM at 900 miles, my wife's '01 Taurus was in for service in the first 1000 and I took my wife's new '04 in today with the check light on (bad solenoid) at 640 miles. It was 13 years before my '86 Honda saw the dealer shop.
Dono

 

It's tough to be a Ford fan these days..... I have a '98 Exploder. I'm sure you understand.

I just can't be that hard to make stuff that lasts. I'd even settle for them making stuff that works right for a reasonable time.....

Did the dealers at least treat you right?

 

Well, on the other hand, the Jap cars make boo boo's too. A buddy of mine bought a new Prelude (ie, not a used car); one of the shift cables fell off while driving making the car undriveable. Mileage was about 100 miles; he had the thing just a few days. Cause of failure? The manufacturer forgot to install the cotter pin common to the castle nut on one of the shift cables. So much for "zero defect".

 

I know what you mean. I own a 92 Aerostar and a 87 F150 4x4 that are excellent. The 95 t-bird with a 4.6 has a lot less miles than either of the others, but it needs work, and the quality is not what the older ones are. It seems the newer, the less quality.

I really would like a new truck, or Expy, but the high cost, along with the reliability factor is keeping me at bay for now.

I almost pulled the trigger on a new Fx4 two weeks ago, but just couldn't do it. I know they have warranties, but there are too many cases of Ford,(and other mfg.) saying that a vehicle is "operating as designed" and refusing to fix problems.

I also know you take a chance on any vehicle, new or used, but all three of mine together didn't cost as much as the new ones.

I might be in for a hard time admitting this here, but my wife bought a 2002 Hundai SantaFe 2wd new in April 2002. I was a little concerned, and bought the extended warranty. It now has 40,000 miles and zero problems, except for a new battery.

I guess it goes to show that you never know how things will turn out.

 

Yea, the goof up too, but what is it 10 to 1?

At this stage, everyone knows how to do it, it's just a matter of management not wanting to spend the money to implement the practices and standards.

Once in place the "zero defects" thing saves lot, including customers like me who will be seriously looking at Toyota next time. Not for sure, but I didn't even look at them last time. Now I'm looking.

 

its called keeping costs down

 

True, but when people would really not notice the extra few cents that it takes to makes some of these nagging issues on a vehicle of better construction/design/quality/etc, and that people will pay that cost, that's called "stupid", whether or not the stockholders have something to do with that.

"The manufacturer forgot to install the cotter pin common to the castle nut on one of the shift cables. So much for "zero defect"."

I blame something like that on the assembly line person whever that outsource cable came from. Something Honda I'm sure planned on happening in that particular case, Cowboy....

 

Does anyone else find it amazing that a company like Hyundai used to make cheap cars that had many problems, but now they have much higher initial quality ratings than Ford?

Hmmm.....Maybe...just maybe.... Ford isn't as infallible as some people in the forum like to think.

 

Nah that couldn't be it

 

i can vouch that ford still builds a great quality vehicle. my family buys nothing but a ford. my mom had a 93 areostar with a 3.0 in it and only thing major done to it was a water pump. ran it low on oil, no oil, never changed tranny fluid and rarly changed oil. it had like 270,000 miles on it when she traded for a 2003 windstar. out of 18 vehicles since 1991 that i can remember off hand (there might be more and there is more if you count before 1991 and on back) we have only had really bad problems with a linclon town car that ened up going back on lemon law. plus i just saw on the news there other day where consumre reports intelichoice or something like that said the ford used cars and trucks are among the best used cars and trucks to buy. i also have a friend that works for a nissan dealership and he said not to buy one cause their quality has almost hit rock bottom and they are expected to step it up some in 2005 but dont count on it. so he went and bought a new mazda 6.

 

I agree with that as well....Ford does make a good vehicle. One of the reasons I bought my F-150 was becuase of all of the recommendations I got for the truck.... I've always been more of a Dodge guy anyway. But I did a lot of research, and found Ford makes a great truck. But.....So do a lot of other companies. I think that all of the big 3 make good vehicles...it matters more nowadays what you want rather than what works. if you want a Dodge, get one...if you want a Chevy, enjoy it! I like my ford, but I don't think ford is the ONLY good truck.