Hey, that report said" a few minor injuries were associated with the six separate recalls". I say GM has the better marketing department to call them minor injuries when they probably settled out of court to avoid bad publicity, and GM probably realizes the recalls are cheaper than if they were to lose a court battle.

 

Why is it that in almost ever thread that has to to with overall comparisions of the companies we bring up old and IMO useless problems of the past. Piston slap, wheels falling off, etc. Ford in its history is no better or worse than the rest. Anyone remember the Pinto, a $5 part or some such would of keep them from going up like Roman Candles. The 4.0l engine used in 2001 Rangers and later had a very bad timing chain problem that Ford never addressed, Tumbler assemblies that failed in the 2000 Focus. Hondas that had windshield wripers falling off.

They all have problems and there is not a manufacturer that is immune to them. Toyota last year recalled 1 million vehicles. Can the auto companies be better, of course but are you has the consumer willing to pay the prices.

One thing that has not been done by the american auto companies is to learn how to evolve a platform instead of going back to the drawing board. This is how Handa and Toyota have become so good. Take a look at mid 80's Civic and todays Civic. You can see the evolutionary growth. We don't see this with american cars.

GM and Ford have an up hill battle because of wht they did in the 70's and 80's. They must concetrate on the quality battle. They for the most part win the price battle but people still choose Honda or Toyota for precieved better quality.

They must also learn how to make a good interior. Take a look at a base Civic or Toyota. IMO there interiors look a lot nicer than the price tag would indicate. For a counter point go look at a base stang. My word for it is cheap and that is being nice. This is from someone that has one on order but not base by any means. The Ford 500 also comes to mind. This truely is a fantastic car but the interior is a let down.

The only way that american auto companies are going to stop the bleeding is to fight them on there own terms. While pension and health cost make a nice excuse in the end its people are not buying the cars becuase they are precieved to be not as reliable, don't get good gas mileage or whatever. The Japanese studied the US manufacturing processes and found ways to improve it. The US companies need to do the same thing in return.

These are not hard concepts to embrace. Back in the 80's I became a teacher of Deming and WCC. In my company we taught this to everyone. But for it to work in takes management to embrace it. After all was said and done though they did not and because of this we are now in a dog fight for supremacy of our industry which was something that in the 80's was thought would never happen as we enjoyed 70-80 precent market share.

Sorry to be so long winded but this is something that I think every american needs to understand. We are all to blame. The consumer that fails to educate themselves about one of the most important buy decsions of there life. Blind loyalty is the worst thing we can do to this industry, it promotes complaciency. The company for not reconizing what we want and how to deliver it. I could go on and on but I think I'll end here.

 

But, we like FORD because of its quirks, we like that FORD is still a family company(sort of), we like that the 5.0L eng lasted as long as it did(albeit in an SUV), we like the history and how it participated in the WWll effort, and helped create the famous JEEP brand that became owned by American Motors? and sold to chrysler, and chrysler sold off the military arm of JEEP called AM GENERAL that later got bought by GM, and that Henry Ford was a partner in the Cadillac company that got bought by GM and forced Henry out, it seems whenever FORD does something good it gets taken away by someone else or claimed as their own: as in the case of Car & Driver magazine reveiwing the Ford Fairlane Concept van with its 3-way tailgate that opens to the left or the right or down while an upper glass section flips up, the mag refers to this as an unnecessary tech gadget(my paraphrasing), while in the same issue!!!! they review the Honda Ridgeline and applaud its use of a 3-way gate!!!!

http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1

The 3-way gate was first used in 1957 on a FORD station wagon!!

(The online Car&Driver has a review of the fairlane concept,but it is not the same review as in the published magazine version I read
http://www.caranddriver.com/article....rticle_id=9098 )


If I could just remember which month I saw this in....please check your copies, it had to be newer than august last year.....

Whatever, we like the underdog status that FORD still has against GM, ever since the demise of the flathead and the rise of the 350 when FORD slipped to #2 and GM finally achieved that oft-chased elusive #1 they wanted for 50 years, they finally one-upped the man that left the General Motors corp. to go build his car, his way, and beat them in the process, and we want to see it come full circle, we want to see FORD be #1 again!!!

I had a copy of the history of FORD paperback, published in 86 that I found in a thrift store(which I have now lost to a friend that "forgot" he borrowed it) which I haven't read in 5 years, so forgive me the vague way I recall what I read and if got anything wrong I apologize in advance!

Sorry for long post, I get hard to stop when I get going....

 

Ford would gain market share on ONE change made to all models across all lines, cars, trucks, SUVs, vans, whatever:

Ban grey interiors!

Any color you want as long as it's not grey! ( I would love to that slogan advertised! Feel free to use it FORD if you read this post)

Why?.....are all base model cars/trucks/suvs/etc(that I've seen) done in grey interior. It is so depressing to go to your silver car with grey interior in your grey suit on the grey pavement roads/bridges/overpasses under the grey skies, to your grey concrete parking garage to ride in the mirrored wall elevator with grey carpet, to go to your grey office dividered cubicle, to work on your gray colored computer/mouse/keyboard and drink from your grey mug........

TOO MUCH GREY!
I think that is where a lot of stressed out people come from, not enough color intheir life.

Sorry if I just described your life, add some color and smile

 

I know, I love some of the things Ford has done as well, many times "its arrogance" produces great products and history.
However the arrogance doesn't need to be Customer Service Related.
I have no problem with Ford destroying every company on the racetrack to make them go out of business - in fact I would love it if they did -, BUT that doesn't mean customers problems shouldn't be looked at, and handled in a nice manner.

Things are changing for the better, but this is currently the difference between a good company and a GREAT company.
I will still love them either way.