put it this way my uncles are in the excavating bussiness as well as my dad. when my uncle sold his dmax at 95k the brakes or rotors had never been touched.

 

The brakes have nothing to do with the manufactures...I can wear out any brakes on any truck/car VERY quick...it has a ton to do with driving style and where you drive.
Come on guys you know that!~!~!~!

 

Well said Tim...

I love all of Fords styles(excluding '97-'03 F-150's)in the trucks. I just cant stand the extremely sloped nose, and the small grille on the front. It just doesnt look like a truck IMO.

Like I said before, GM must have left the designing to the janitors with this current truck. Whats up with the angry looking headlights? Maybe the designers wanted to design the truck to resemble the emotions that the GM guys will have after the shop bill? I cant speak of quality with the newest model, but in my experience, GM has had trouble in this area.

 

Personally, I fell in love with the new body style when it came out in 97. The sloped hood gives MUCH better visibility when four wheeling...especially coming up over the top of steep hills and trying to see where yer going to land. I also loved the 73-77 body style even though they had the big squared off front end... they were one of the nicest looking series of 70s models to me. Then .. as far as real beauty goes... 53-56 can't be beat by any year or model of any truck. IMHO

 

tim,

i of all people understand brakes wear different for everybody. i know with his old 6.5 he was changing brakes when he changed tire. which put him at about every 30k miles. his brake usage was more on the duramax because he would hook it up to the little bulldozer and tug it around and the 6.5 he never thought of such a thing.

i was extremely impressed with his mileage, and i have yet to hear that good from the ford. that was my only point. and few people are stopping near the weight he does regularly with the short hauls.

 

Brakes were a sore-point on the previous bodystyle Silverado- that's no secret. Trannies were another weak point. I'm interested in the quality remarks as well- GM has had quality issues in the past, but has cleaned up their act dramatically in recent years. Ford can claim the same thing- the Mercury and Lincoln brands outscored a number of makes that are...still...percieved as having higher quality overall. What are the domestic brands going to have to do to overcome this perception?

 

Become the best automotive manufacturers in quality, and maintain it.
Simple really...

 

simple really but easier said than done i think.

 

Yep, that was the irony in my statement.
To become the best quality manufacturer is really difficult, to maintain it is even more so.

 

I wonder. Bear with me a second while I think out loud. The Japanese have already cornered the "good but boring" market. The Koreans have camped out on the low end of the price scale, and they don't seem content to stay there. The Germans, and Lexus, consider the premium Rolex-quality market their home turf. Cadillac, the manufacturer of what was arguably some of the worst luxury cars in recent memory, staged a dramatic comeback. The use of Led Zep's "Been a Long Time Since I Rock and Rolled" may go down as one of the Auto Industries best orchestrated comeback campaigns. The use of the '59 Eldo convert in the dream sequence was powerful stuff- "we remember what the name used to stand for," as the old boat gets passed by a then new CTS.

How'd they do it? Edgy styling, and, more importantly, fast cars that are fun to drive. I flat love their 5-second ad clips of "5 under 5." The new STS-V packs a whopping 440HP under that origami-shaped body. While I doubt build quality or refinement will be up to the standards set by Lexus or Mercedes, the cars should be a legitimate contender in that class, for a lot less money. The key ratio is "grins/mile, not problems/1000 units." In Europe, the new Turbo-Diesel powered BLS line will surface around the first of the year. That's right- a Caddy mit diesel to compete in the land of $6/gallon fuel. I'm going to be watching closely to see what the German press sez about that car.

 

I know exactly what you mean.

The only thing is (this applies to Ford as well) a lot of people are happy with the good but boring market.

Ford originally used to build enjoyable cars that were as dependable as any other, at a price a normal worker could afford.
It epitomised VW's definition - the peoples car.
The Honda Accord Euro (not the US version) is a fine example of this.
It is reliable, build quality is peerless, and it is a dead set hoot to drive for a family car.

Ford and GM have far more history to play on than the likes of Toyota/Honda could ever hope for.

They are using some of this now (Cadillac reinvention, Mustang/GT revival) but they need to continue, let people know what it means to have a blue oval on the front of your vehicle.
This is partly why I don't like loosing the Buick or Pontiac name plates, both have fantastic history, history that could be used very well in a good marketing campaign, with a good product line up.

Toyota's will never create the customer passion of a Ferrari or even a Ford in its current state, its vehicles are to clinicly efficient for that.

What Ford needs to do is make people proud about having a Ford.
It needs to make people like me proud about having a blue oval tattooed to their bum.

 

Is anyone old enough to remember the kickoff to the "Have you driven a Ford lately" campaign in '83? It interspersed older Ford products with some new offerings, and played heavily on the Ford heritage. By the time Ford stopped running that campaign (10 years later?) everyone had driven a Ford lately, and the Taurus was the top selling model on the sales charts.

 

I recall it, the same campaign was used here in Australia, and it ran until about 92 or 93 I think.

The only thing I didn't like about it was that it kind of talked down the blue oval.

It subtly asked "Why haven't you driven a Ford lately?" with which images of previous lack lustre products and lemons of Ford could be thought of, and the return statement could have been "Mustang II, Pinto etc. THATS WHY!!!"

 

Still worked though. No different than Cadillac's "Been a long time..." theme.
Chevy's putting a V8 in the Impala SS for '06. It could be a great ad campaign. Hopefully they won't show a bunch of Impalas kicking a soccer ball around the city though. (Cobalt ads right now- cute but goofy)

 

Thats a good point, it was effective, and it got cars out the door, which is all it needed to do.
Will be interesting to see what Chevy does as an ad campaign.