No kidding. Toyota dealers act like they are doing you a favor by merely letting you set foot on the lot.
I enjoyed the Toyotas I owned but Toyota dealers always treated me like trash. They tried to BS me into taking more options than I wanted (using the old claim, "you cant special order a Toyota").
Ford dealers treat me like family compared to Toyota dealers. Ford dealers have let me specify any options I wanted with no pressure to take more than I want, encouraged me to buy off the lot but never gave me a hard time about special ordering. Heck, when I bought my '99 Ranger they didnt even go with me when I test drove it (keep in mind, I was 19 years old at the time).
Go to any Toyota forum and look at all the posts of people complaning that it seems like Toyota doesnt care about their customers.
If Toyota thinks they are going to be the world's largest automaker with the poor customer service they currently have, I can tell you that their time at #1 will not last long.
Any time I have had a problem with anything on my Fords or with the service at the dealership I either e-mailed or called Ford's customer service and within a week the dealership called me and did everything they could to make it right. From my experience with Toyota dealers and from the people who I have talked to on Toyota forums, I dont think Toyota would have done the same.
Not bashing Toyota, they make great vehicles, but they need to improve their customer service.

 

Octane the local ford dealers that my family had always delt with went under just before my 18th birthday. I didn't know anything about dealers at the time and never bought my own new car. So I learned quick what dealer to go to. Sence my 18th birthday I have bought 2 new F-650's and a used F-350 from the same dealer. Like you said they always help me pick what I want and never give me bs about ordering. I love the service dept they always have what I need when I need it and will service me F-650's anytime day or night. I always get my trucks back the same day no matter how late or early the techs have to come in. Thats why I use fords for personal and commercial use everyday.

 

I would like to see Ford stop making so many of the same vehicles with just different trim, go back to Ranger is a compact truck, F150 is a ½ ton truck, Super duty is a ¾ and 1 ton truck. Good factory support to the dealer. I have good luck with my dealer but feel I have to push almost to taking legal action prior to getting any support from the factory. Also don’t send me some field rep that can’t tell the difference between a F150 and a Focus. Also most of all keep all Fords made in USA.

 

First of all, I would address the problems that have plagued Ford for years.
1. Durability issues
a. Brake rotors. Why is it that they cannot seem to make a brake rotor that will NOT warp. Put some decent materials and engineering in them and fix this once and for all. At the same time, 4 wheel disc brakes standard on EVERYTHGING they build.
b. Air conditioning components. Design the system with a 100K mile sealed system life expectancy. There is no excuse for a evap coil to be made of anything less than stainless and last a lifetime, most especially if it is buried in the dash making replacement a costly repair.
c. Interior fit and finish. All controls, handles, ***** thould be designed to last the life of the vehicle. Although this stuff is petty, it makes a lasting impression on a buyer when the door pull handles come off/break after only a few thousand miles of operation.
2. As others have mentioned, consolidate and eliminate some of the product lines. This is un-necessary duplication and a drag on resources and inventory.
3. Again as others have stated, get back to their roots. Build a car for the masses, good quality, reasonable feature set and rock bottom pricing.

And as a last item, when are American car companies going to realize that the "OLD" way of doing business is not necessarily the best way anymore. The first one to set up a real web site where consumers can purchase directly from them at factory direct prices will blow the competition away. I don't mean the current system whereby you are still dealing with a dealer, but totally bypassing all dealers and purchasing direct from the factory.
If you don't think this will work, just look at the fabulous success of Dell computer, currently #2 in the world and not 1 dealer in sight anywhere.

Dialtone

 

3 things I would do:
1- Bring back the 300
2- Bring back the 300
3- Did I mention bringing the 300 back?

 

I wouldn't offer the ranger in a 4 door option. I wouldn't even offer an extended cab. Just a small pick up with a 4 banger diesel, thats all that truck should ever be. Offer a SVT version with a V8 in it or something.

I would go back and offer a F-150 custom model. You remember the 78 and 79 Fords where you could get a 3/4 ton chassis under your half ton body. That was awesome.

Do I want to order directly from the factory, yes, but does the factory have bigger fish to fry than me, yes. So I'll deal with the dealer middle man.

As for Toyota having bad customer service, that because, THEIR STUFF DOESN'T BREAK DOWN THAT OFTEN. They probably don't care about the smaller precentage of people that do have problems, they've got old Ford and Chevy customers pouring in the door to buy a new one. JMO

 

I agree online buying no dealer.

 

Keep the bronco II in production, made safer somehow, but still on the ranger chassis, and same front end from ranger, i think it would look cool if it where made today.The explorer gots just to big, but then again, i guess the escape took the bronco II's spot.


All sizes standard, and every engine, no matter whats its on, comes with a opinonal turbo, or supercharger.

Parts still readly made for older vehicles until the number of buyers of those parts becomes too small.
**dose not apply to older cars (1950-70)

 

first i would ditch the 4.2 as the base engine and bring back a revised version of the 300 as the base engine in trucks. but of course we could still offer the 4.2.

keep the current line of Fseries trucks, and offer a stripped down version of the F150 and call it the F100, offer them all with XL, XLT, Eddie bauer, king ranch, and Harly Davinson trim levels. offer every truck ranger thru F350 with standard cab long box, standard cab short box, extended cab long box, extended cab short box, super cab [4 full doors] long box, and super cab short box configurations.

No bs when it comes to optioning your truck, offer every truck f100-350 with your choice of, for gassers the 4.2/ 4.6/ 4.9/ 5.4/ and of course the v10, for diesels offer a turbo or non turbo 7.3 and a twin turbo 6.4. for diesel and gas applications your choice of 4 speed granny tranny, 5 speed economy tranny, and a 6 speed grannys with overdrive, a simple 3 speed auto like a c4 or c6, a simple auto like the first one but with an overdrive, and your choice of 5 or 6 speed auto computer controlled transmissions, your choice of axle gearing 2.73, 3.08, 3.55, 3.73, 4.10, 4.30, 4.56, and 5.14. offer all as open, limited slip, or locked. so basicly you can buy a short boxed F150 with a six speed auto and a v10 with out the 50,000 dollar lightning price tag, or you could buy a f150 with the 300, deep gears, and a 6 speed man. trans. factory hot rod and factory work truck.

for suvs offer truck frame based suvs, suv based on the ranger frame call it hte explorer, suv based on f150s frame call it the bronco, and a suv based on the superduty frame and call it the excursion. offer all truck opitions in the suvs.

also offer car based gentle riding suvs, call the little one the escape and call the big one the expidition.

offer the big Eseries vans with all truck options, offer them as family vans and work, panel van configurations.

keep the lincon and mercury names alive, offer lincoln as a luxery brand, big powerful american boat cars, and mercury as the econmy based mostly fwd applications. i would have ford spend most of its energy on trucks and large suvs and vans [kindof like what gmc does]. have the mercury and lincoln brand for cars, small suvs and mini vans.

i would keep the mustang alive, offering the dohc 4.0 v6 as the base engine. offer the mustang base version, mustang gt with the dohc 4.6, and a cobra version with the 5.4. i would offer a sort of heritage type deal were a mustang can be bought with differnt styled body panels and a revisied 5.0 v8.

i would offer a standard trim version mustang, crank windows, fabric seats, as a muscle car typed deal, cheap car powerful engine. i would also offer a higher level trim mustang with leather and all the good stuff. the mustang come with either a 6 speed man. or a sport tuned 6 speed auto. also offer a factory supercharged verison of each engine.

 

How about make a really solid work truck. No bells and whistles. Just a solid 3/4 or 1 ton 4x4 with a manual transmission and transfer case. Put a good sized reliable V8 in it with a diesel option. Just make a solid work truck that can be purchased at a very reasonable price. Farmers, industries, all kinds of businesses need just this type of vehicle. A hard working, reliable truck which companies and individuals can afford.

edit: still offer current trim levels and stuff. Just design a good solid work truck line.

 

-Build 427 concept to replace Crown Vicky
-Build Ranger from Thailand in the States
-Build '03 Mustang concept
-Build '03 Mercury Messenger concept and call it Cougar
-Introduce more powerful engine in Freestar (new 3.5L would do)

 

You can get that in a 3/4 ton or 1 ton now. I know, were ordering some from the factory as mobile cell tower movers. Manual 5 spd, diesel, 4x4. But then again we're based in detroit.

As for someone saying Ford needs to build more trucks like GM, your wrong. Look at GM's sales numbers for trucks, way down. They were practically giving the things away last year up here. Thats GM's problem, they have invested their money in more SUV's and pick up styles, and people aren't buying them, because of gas money. This is why I think that Diesel should be the standard engine for all trucks now, not gasoline. Offering every option listed earlier would cost them a TON of money, and thats something they don't have. I miss the old times when you could order just about any truck you wanted, but times have changed. As I stated before though, money talks, and T-Mobile did get some special orders in.

 

Several people have said it and I'd like to see a nice beefy, black smoke snortin' diesel in my Explorer Sport!!!!

 

My biggest change would be converting all the front wheel drive cars to rear wheel drive, like they should be. Focus, Fusion, Five Hundred, Escape, etc.

Redo the Crown Vic, keeping it rwd.

Redo the Lincoln Zephyr as rwd.

Heck, bring the LS back, with edgier styling.

On that note, where's the Mark IX? 2 door Lincoln rwd.

Offer 4 wheel drive Econolines, not have to go aftermarket for one.

 

1)Fire the entire sales and marketing band of yahoos
2)immediately start building Gt500 Shelbys as fast and as many as possible on the (closed) Freestar line.
3) tool up to built the 427 verbatim from the show car on the old Crown Vic line ASAP
4) Import or bring tooling here to build the Falcon, Falcon Ute(ranchero), Ranger diesel, and European focus.
5) strike a deal with Cummins or Mercedes to build a twin turbo 5 banger diesel for the F150 until Ford could develop their own (no more International flubs like the 6.0)
6) make the 427 V10 available in every rear-wheel drive or 4 wheel drive car they build.

for starters.