What is wrong with FORD???

cmy330go

Ok I have to vent here!!!!!

What the hell is wrong with ford??? It seems this company can do nothing right. We no doubt all remember their rolling SUVs. (Depending how you look at it you could consider that one Firestone's fault.) Then we have the random ford models that spontaneously combust. For example.....last week I saw an new T-bird being loaded on a rollback on the freeway. It appeared that a fire started under the hood. Now they seem to be having other electrical problems. I have seen 3 fords this week with f'd up lights. The first one I saw was a new Liconln Navigator that only had one working turnsignal, the one arrow shaped one in the side mirror. About two days later I was behind a Brand new Ford 500 (still had temporary plate) that had only one working brake light (the center one). Then to top it off... Tonight on my way home from Chicago, I got stuck behind a new mountaineer on I-80 whose brake lights actually all worked.......however would not turn off. When I first saw him I was pissed because, I thought it was just another idiot who didn't understand the concept of accelerating when merging into trafic. After a few minutes I was convinced that it was just somebody who rests their foot on the brake pedal. But.......After about 45 ANNOYING minutes stuck behind that POS I was convinced once again that Ford SCREWED UP.

Now I understand that all car companies have issues here and there. But to me it is one thing when a company tries some new technology (maybe navigation or voice recognition) and has to work the bugs out of it. It is another when a company can't get something as simple, or as important, as lights to work! I mean...WHAT THE HELL??? :mad:

Ok I'm done.... Please don't misunderstand this. I'm not trying to start a Ford, Chevy, Dodge pissing match. For what it's worth I don't own any of the 3.

Thanks for listening. :rolleyes:

swerve

two words ****!:
toyota echo

LiquidSound

So, my buddy, a big Ford supporter, went to Nascar Tech..and upon completion they gave him a pretty nice Ford watch. He showed it off as it was his graduation gift from the school. Which was all fine and good..until it quit..after 1 freaking hour. Yes..after 60 minutes..it stopped working. I'm not making this up folks. Let's just say, he never lived it down...

Toxis

I'd never own anything Ford.

mantis

American cars in general are not as good as Imports. Japanese cars just last and last. I switched over many years ago after working in a Nissan/Pontiac dealership. The repair for GM was like 10 to 1 maybe more. Nissan you don't repair anywhere near as often. There recall list is much shorter.

Ford seems to build a slighty better product then GM. I'm no Ford fan whatsoever, but from being a Technican years ago, I was shocked. I never saw an american car go over 300k, I saw a 1988 Nissan Maxima go and it was in really good shape. Orignal engine and most of the parts. Again this was shocking to me as I worked on this car. I changed the oil, put on new front and rear brakes, Gave it an Alignment thats it.

Sucks to say but I'll probably never own an American car again.

Dan

bobman1235

LiquidSound wrote:

So, my buddy, a big Ford supporter, went to Nascar Tech..and upon completion they gave him a pretty nice Ford watch. He showed it off as it was his graduation gift from the school. Which was all fine and good..until it quit..after 1 freaking hour. Yes..after 60 minutes..it stopped working. I'm not making this up folks. Let's just say, he never lived it down...

Maybe it was a stopwatch

bobman1235

Just as a note about your "electrical problem" observances, most of hte time when you see ridiculous things like neither of the two rear brake lights work or things like that, it's related to people botching a trailer hitch hookup more than anything else. I'm not trying to defend Ford by any stretch, but I see a LOT of people screw up the wiring for those trailer hitch plugs.

Demiurge

Ford is fine.

Willow

mantis wrote:

Sucks to say but I'll probably never own an American car again.

Dan

I agree, once we went import we will never go back .
We did at one point own a saturn and we had no troubles with it even in
-35Celcius winters. The only issue was the tires but I expected that.

audiobliss

Hehehe. I'm not gonna miss an opportunity to agree that Ford's are Found On Road Dead, or Fix Or Repair Daily. They are! :D:D:D

But, there are two Fords I would like to own. 2005 4-door F-250 Powerstroke, and the Ford GT.

shack

I currently own 6 Fords. A 1965 Ford Galaxie, (2) 1969 Mustangs, 1993 Mustang 5.0 LX coupe, 1998 Ford Excort ZX2 and a 2003 Ford Focus ZX5. I am the original owner of 4 of them. NO major mechanical problems with any of them. I put 180,000+ miles on the 93 Mustang without ever pulling a valve cover. The 5.0 engine was nearly bulletproof. The only things replaced on the engine and drivetrain (other than routine maintenence)...were the radiator and alternator. Still runs strong. I always consider Fords because IMO I get more bang-for-the-buck and have no problems. I currently own a Honda and a VW (and have owned several of them in the past). They are the BEST of the Asian and European "moderately priced" brands. I've only owned 1 GM product (Camaro) but I had a Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager that I put well over 120,000 miles on each before I sold them. I had a single major issue with each of them but once they were fixed they did fine.

Maybe I've been lucky, but my Fords have been great cars with no major problems at all.

steveinaz

I never cared much for Fords either, but mostly because of asthetics---the exception being the Mustang on that count.

My ex did have a Ford Tempo that developed MAJOR electrical problems 3 months after she bought it--it was a nightmare.

I owned a Ford Probe for a short time, that I later traded in because I didn't like the auto tranny in it--it upshifted/downshifted too much at certain speeds. Other than that, the Probe was fine.

Willow

Steve, my wife owned a tempo when we first met and I have to agree with you one of the biggest POS.

Shack, do you have pics of your Galaxie, I came with in 1 birthyear of owning a 65 or 69( can't remember) Ford Falcon. I love those old cars. It didn't have a radio. I later found out it was sold at an estate sale for 1500$. If I could have been there to buy it or old enough to drive, that car would be mine and it would be my baby. It was my great aunt's car.

shack

Willow wrote:

Shack, do you have pics of your Galaxie, I came with in 1 birthyear of owning a 65 or 69( can't remember) Ford Falcon. I love those old cars. It didn't have a radio. I later found out it was sold at an estate sale for 1500$. If I could have been there to buy it or old enough to drive, that car would be mine and it would be my baby. It was my great aunt's car.

Yes I do.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8632

TroyD

Anecdotal evidence is hardly a true indicator of performance. Now, I'm not saying that this brand is better than that but I take individual opinions with a grain of salt.

I've owned cars/truck both foreign and domestic. I've had good and bad experiences with both. MY experience though is that imports are more expensive to fix. My general experience is that the more buzzers, lights and knobs....the more likely it is to need expensive repair. I've got a 98 Dodge Ram I bought new w/ 6cyl with power nothing and rubber floor matts. 94K miles and going strong....been paid for, oh, 3-4 years now. So, if I got to put a couple hundred in it every once in awhile, it's still cheaper than a new one. My most notable experienc with an import was Wendi's 96 Infinity J30. Ran like a TOP for, oh, 140K. Once it started breaking?.....lemme just tell you that if you take one in for repair, they only wear a condom upon request.

BDT

Willow

shack wrote:

Yes I do.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8632

Ahh nice, when cars had style ,class and what seems to be personality!!

Thx

ohskigod

I was never a huge fan of Ford, but they seem to be trying to do better. some pluses, I like the design of the Ford Fusion (and mercury's counterpart, cant remember the name. looks like a cool car at a cool price point.

they seem to be incorporating technology from the other brands they have bought over the years, Volvo, Mazda. in fact, they shoved engineers from Volvo, Ford, and Mazda into room and wouldt let them leave until they designed a kick **** small car platform. Thus, the C1 was born, this is the platform they build the Mazda 3 series, the European version of the Ford Focus, and Volvo S40 (My car ). Versatile too, since the previous mentioned cars all feel completely different and have different "charachters" as the critics put it.

Its a solid platform, stiff as hell. so good in fact that they are going to lengthen it and build mid siz cars off it as well.

so in short, they're trying

shack

Willow wrote:

Ahh nice, when cars had style ,class and what seems to be personality!!

Thx

Back in 69 we took this car to San Antonio. I remember criuising through North TX at 100 mph ± with lots of room for 4 people, a load of luggage, air conditioning blasting, as smooth as could be. Granted it was a looooong, straight, isolated stretch of highway and I would not have wanted to have to stop too quickly or put it through any twistys, but this thing was a real highway cruiser.

PolkThug

This is the gheyest thread ever.

Ron-P

Classics I tells ya...

Found On Road Dead

Fixed Or Repaired Daily

Skynut

I will never own another foreign car or truck.
I do not like to send that much of my hard earned money to another countries economy.
Therefore I only buy American automobiles and any other high ticket items I can find built in America.
Audio equipment is very dificult to find built here.

Skynut

PolkThug wrote:

This is the gheyest thread ever.

gheyest?
Is that the same as qweerest

Willow

shack wrote:

Back in 69 we took this car to San Antonio. I remember criuising through North TX at 100 mph ± with lots of room for 4 people, a load of luggage, air conditioning blasting, as smooth as could be. Granted it was a looooong, straight, isolated stretch of highway and I would not have wanted to have to stop too quickly or put it through any twistys, but this thing was a real highway cruiser.

I'd sell all my gear, although not worth as much as a classic car, in a heart beat in order to own one.

PolkThug

Ron-P wrote:

Classics I tells ya...

Found On Road Dead

Fixed Or Repaired Daily

I agree with all of the above, but you forgot the most important one.

First On Race Day

gatemplin

Skynut wrote:

I will never own another foreign car or truck.
I do not like to send that much of my hard earned money to another countries economy.
Therefore I only buy American automobiles and any other high ticket items I can find built in America.
Audio equipment is very dificult to find built here.

Do what you want, but that's not a good excuse. American car companies (Ford, Chrylser, and Chevrolet) all have factories in both Canada and Mexico and those cars are sold for the US market, and "foreign car" companies (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai) have factories in the US. And Chrysler is part of Daimler-Benz AG in Germany.

ohskigod

Skynut wrote:

I will never own another foreign car or truck.
I do not like to send that much of m6C8
y hard e6C5
arned money to another countries economy.
Therefore I only buy American automobiles and any other high ticket items I can find built in America.
Audio equipment is very dificult to find built here.

not sending your money to foreign companies or countries is getting to be a harder prospect. The days of not buying foreign cars to keep money in the US is pretty much over. Corporations are globally owned. Not to mention some US divisions of the "foreign" automakers put more money in Americans pockets then "domestic" car companies. Gottal look big picture, dealers, plant workers, parts distributors etc. Not dealing with the "foreign" car companies solely based on country of origin hurts them. Dont forget, foreign car companies have ALOT of US stockholders/owners. Mazda (japanese) is actually owned by Ford (American) As is Volvo (Swedish). Dont even get me started on DaimlerChrysler. Technically that was a buyout of Chrysler, despite being touted as a "Merger of Equals" (that was a funny statement when I worked there at the time). Thingis though, with the American Stockholders of Chrysler and Daimler at the time, the Corporation, despite being based in Stutgard Germany, had a majority of American ownership.

confusing eh?

long story short, dont avoid buying cars just because they are "imports" its pretty much a moot point in today's economy.

I own a Chevy, Toyota, and a Volvo

AsSiMiLaTeD

gatemplin wrote:

Do what you want, but that's not a good excuse. American car companies (Ford, Chrylser, and Chevrolet) all have factories in both Canada and Mexico and those cars are sold for the US market, and "foreign car" companies (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai) have factories in the US. And Chrysler is part of Daimler-Benz AG in Germany.

exactly

Skynut

It is built into my personallity to buy American.
I can not help it. My uncle was a prisoner of war in Germany and I will never forget the look on his face when you could get him to talk about it at all. He told me he would never own a German car and I figured I would not either.
I know the Japanese make very good products and I would still rather work on my vehicle all weekend than drive a Japanese car.
Most people who know me know this about me.
When I got married my wife had a nissan something or another and when she found an American car she liked we traded hers in and bought it.
Normally I would not trade a vehicle in because I know I am loosing thousands of dollars but this time it was worth it to me to not have a foreign car in my driveway.
This is just how I am.
I can not change no matter where the money actually ends up I feel better if the name plate on my vehicle is from Ford Motor Co. or GM.

Ron-P

I will never own another foreign car or truck.
I do not like to send that much of my hard earned money to another countries economy.

I wonder how much of these "American" cars are built with foreign parts? Quite a bit I bet. They may be assembled here but I'm sure many of the parts come from overseas. Also, Toyota builts a lot of there product here in the US.

I drove a Ford F150 4x4 for several years, put on nearly 60k miles and she ran like a champ, not one single problem. I've owned Toyota as well and had the same, no problems.

ND13

Funny that after owning numerous domestic and foriegn(both German and Japanese), the only MAJOR problems I've ever had with any of them were with GM products. I used to be a die-hard Ford fanatic and still like quite a few of their domestic marques. I've owned 7 Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep products in the last 6 years and have NO issues at all, other than the rotors getting warped, which has become an industry wide issue for the most part. I never had any issues with the 6 Fords I have owned over the years. I never had any issues with my Nissans(260Zs, 280Zs, 280ZXs, Maxima), either. I never had any issues with the 2 VWs(Golf and 16V GTi).

ALL manufacturers have lemons, it's just a fact. Afterall, they are man-made.

Willow

Ron-P wrote:

I wonder how much of these "American" cars are built with foreign parts? Quite a bit I bet. They may be assembled here but I'm sure many of the parts come from overseas. Also, Toyota builts a lot of there product here in the US.

I drove a Ford F150 4x4 for several years, put on nearly 60k miles and she ran like a champ, not one single problem. I've owned Toyota as well and had the same, no problems.

Many companies also share platforms, ie: Matrix and Vibe. So for the sake of a name plate ,you Not you Ron-P) ( I am agreeing and adding to your comment) would like to loose more resale eventhough it's the same car ?hmm