Ford quality slipping

[tontod]

Wonder why I havent been seeing too many "Quality is Job 1" ads by Ford, heh.

Ford quality below GM and Daimler Chrysler .

Edit: cut and paste below:

Struggling to regain control of tire problems in Ford Explorers that have tarnished the image of the Ford Motor Company, the company plans to announce a reshuffling of senior management, possibly as soon as next week, people close to Ford Motor's leaders said today.
The reshuffle will be done with several goals, these people said. Ford's board wants Jacques Nasser, the chief executive, to share some of his responsibilities with other executives, instead of having nearly two dozen executives report to him directly as he tries to play a role in many of their decisions. William Clay Ford Jr., the chairman of the company, wants to have some of the executives now reporting to Mr. Nasser also report to him, so as to increase Mr. Ford's knowledge of what is going on in the company.
Finally, Mr. Ford and the board want Mr. Nasser and the rest of Ford's management to pay more attention to quality. Mr. Nasser and many of his top lieutenants held a lengthy meeting today to discuss quality with Ron Gettelfinger, the vice president for Ford issues at the United Automobile Workers union, people close to the company said.

A report two weeks ago by J. D. Power & Associates, an automotive consulting firm, concluded that the average quality of Ford vehicles had fallen behind that of General Motors and DaimlerChrysler vehicles last year, and well behind the quality of Toyota Motor vehicles.
Jason Vines, a Ford spokesman, declined to comment on the company's plans.
In a separate development, the outside directors of Ford's board have been pursuing an independent review of the company's handling of the tire problems with the help of a Washington law firm, people close to the company said. The directors initially retained the law firm last autumn to review whether they had any liability in shareholder lawsuits filed against Ford and its directors last autumn, but the inquiry is now focusing more on management's decisions.
There were also signs today that Ford's plan to spend $3 billion to replace 13 million Firestone Wilderness AT tires on Explorers and other Ford sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks could become even more expensive.
Mr. Gettelfinger plans to ask Ford to exclude the $3 billion charge when the company calculates profit-sharing payments to workers at the end of this year, although Mr. Gettelfinger did not raise the subject during today's meeting on quality, two people close to the union said today. The U.A.W.'s contract with Ford calls for the exclusion of "extraordinary" costs in the calculation of profit-sharing checks, which averaged $6,700 a worker in 2000.

If Ford were to agree to such a request by the U.A.W., it would probably cost the company several hundred million dollars under the complicated profit-sharing formula. Mr. Nasser said last week that the company had not yet calculated the precise cost.
Mr. Gettelfinger declined to comment today on his plans, while Nick Sharkey, a Ford spokesman, said that the company had not yet been contacted.

 

[aneurysm]

Asked for a password, so that didn't work too well for me.

But I'd assume that the problems with Firestone and the Escape alone could bring their quality below both of those companies.

 

[crab]

Its asking me to sign in

 

[tontod]

Cut and pasted above for convenience.

 

[lowfatbaconboy]

what do u mean slipping ford IS CRAP
it is truely fix or repair daily

my friend, Elemental007 had his gasket blow and had to have his entire engine block replaced in his contour after 3 years....

my old 90 mercury sable had so many problems it coulda killed me...
the ignition would die rather easily(even though we idled the car up),
the right door would swing open even if locked and closed properly if i took left turns to fast,
the amp wouldn't work unless it was above 80 degrees, antenna didn't work, the list goes on...

if u go to the national highway transportation safety board site and look up the problems with my model and year there are at least 6 major ones dealing with everything from seatbelt to chasey to air bags

and dealing with all suv/suburban type vehicles in stats 60% of accidents with those vehicles are single car accidents....why? because they roll over way to easily

another reason the tires are having problems on the explorers is because they are under inflated if they are inflated to about 35 lbs which is what they should be the explorer won't pass the gov roll over test so they found a simple solution lower the tire pressure to 28lbs and sometimes the pressure gets lower than that and thus dangerous for the tires....either way u be screwed

edit: note- umm next time when im not so pissed ill try and make ACTUAL sentences and grammer and such

 

[Total Refected Power]

Ford has sucked for a long time.

 

[NutBucket]

Few years back, FORD said it was "within spec" for a car to burn a quart of oil every 800 or so miles. This is for a new car, mind you. What are they thinking?

 

[wQuay]

Toyota? Are they really that good?

 

[Raspewtin]

<< what do u mean slipping ford IS CRAP >>



i agree, I'd never buy one and my uncle is an executive there.

 

[blueghost75]

like everyone has said, ford is crap. I saw on a consumer report thing a month or two ago that Lincoln was the least reliable car on the road. You would think that they would be the most, considering that more old farts drive them, and probably don't abuse them.

 

[JohnnyKnoxville]

You know what Ford backwards is ???

Driver Returns On Foot

 

[lowfatbaconboy]

yes toyota is good realibility wise

but they don't have the best engine efficency
honda has the s2000 2.0l I4 gets 240 hp 143 torque
ummmm all German Engineering is good
i like the Mazda Rx-7 personally b/c its dual Rotary engine which is only 1.3 liter and gets 240 hp

 

[mithrandir2001]

I had a 1998 Contour and it was a POS...7 recalls in two years. And that's just the problems Ford found. I must have seen the dealer for repairs every other month.

Fixed Often Rarely Driven
Fix Or Repair Daily

My Hondas have treated me well.

 

[drewski]

The honda s2000 is a spiffy car, but you need hella high RPMs to get into the power band . . . earplugs anyone?

 

[Supergax]

Last time I checked Ford never had any quality behind it to begin with.

 

[perry]

<< my friend, Elemental007 had his gasket blow and had to have his entire engine block replaced in his contour after 3 years.... >>



I'd like to hear why the head gasket blew. That is not a common problem on Contours at all. The only instances I've heard of the head gasket blowing were due to over heating caused by the water pump impeller failing. That was a design flaw in the water pump, they used a plastic impeller. If the water pump did indeed go, he would have noticed the temperature guage climb into the red zone, which would have been a sign to pull over right away. Driving the car with a high temp is not the car's fault. Lots of Contour owners on contour.org replace their water pump with an improved unit that has a metal impeller as a precautionary measure, it's not worth waiting until the dead of winter and having to spend an afternoon in the driveway replacing a waterpump.

The other cause of engines going in the Contour is due to oil starvation in long, sweeping right hand turns. It'll spin a bearing.

Just about any other reason for the engine to blow up is an isolated incident, and is certainly not a indicator of the rest of the Contour line. It could happen on any car.

And for future reference. L/P linux works to get into the NY Times articles. Something I found on /. a while ago since they post alot of NY Times articles and people don't like to register.

 

[brown234]

My family owns many Ford vehicles and we don't have any problems with them. I am very satisfied with their quality.

 

[dcdomain]

Slipping? That's a joke, Ford's build quality has always been low. Out of the cars that were in my household, we've had two Fords, a Lincoln Town Car and a Mercury Sable. Our 1988 Honda Accord has had less problems than the two. Of course the ML320 has had two problems since we got it. That sucker is almost as bad as the Ford's we've had. No problems with the Infiniti yet... Japanese build quality rocks.

 

[RossMAN]

Japanese build quality rocks.

Well said.

 

[FreeFrag]

Fix Or Repair Daily

The ONLY car to get is a Mercedes Benz. Merc Rox My World

 

[Jamestl]

If your definition of efficiency is hp/liter, then Toyota can match Honda in that category. Take a look at some of the engines offered in Japan and you'll realize toyotas are just as &quot;efficient.&quot; We're talking about N/A cars here of course, if you consider FI cars, there's no comparision. 900hp from a 3S-GTE (2L I4) anyone?

oh, and rotaries are completely different engines. the engines might only be 1.3L, but it doesn't consume any less fuel than other 4 cycle engines with the same hp rating. the RX-7 had 255hp btw, not 240.




<< yes toyota is good realibility wise

but they don't have the best engine efficency
honda has the s2000 2.0l I4 gets 240 hp 143 torque
ummmm all German Engineering is good
i like the Mazda Rx-7 personally b/c its dual Rotary engine which is only 1.3 liter and gets 240 hp >>

 

[LordMaul]

Lol, I read the title, &quot;Food quailty slipping&quot;.

 

[beer]

<<

<< my friend, Elemental007 had his gasket blow and had to have his entire engine block replaced in his contour after 3 years.... >>



I'd like to hear why the head gasket blew. That is not a common problem on Contours at all. The only instances I've heard of the head gasket blowing were due to over heating caused by the water pump impeller failing. That was a design flaw in the water pump, they used a plastic impeller. If the water pump did indeed go, he would have noticed the temperature guage climb into the red zone, which would have been a sign to pull over right away. Driving the car with a high temp is not the car's fault. Lots of Contour owners on contour.org replace their water pump with an improved unit that has a metal impeller as a precautionary measure, it's not worth waiting until the dead of winter and having to spend an afternoon in the driveway replacing a waterpump.

The other cause of engines going in the Contour is due to oil starvation in long, sweeping right hand turns. It'll spin a bearing.

Just about any other reason for the engine to blow up is an isolated incident, and is certainly not a indicator of the rest of the Contour line. It could happen on any car.

And for future reference. L/P linux works to get into the NY Times articles. Something I found on /. a while ago since they post alot of NY Times articles and people don't like to register. >>



OK I'm not a total dumbass. Don't you think I would have seen that and pulled over? Give me some credit. Furthermore it was it was a head gasket wouldnt I have seen smoke coming out the tailpipe? Nope - didn't see any either.

And appearantly neither could the dealership I took it to (warranty work). The ONLY reason why they found that it was indeed a gasket was because when they went to flush the radiator (my dad had them do it) they noticed it was losing pressure. Keep in mind they had already been looking at the car for two days and found no problem. Don't you think they would have noticed an unusually high temp as well as tailpipe smoke? No - they didn't. Because they were not there!

lowfatbaconboy speaking here: I know its a rotary engine...and im sorry i haven't memorized every car's hp like you have =P