Have you driven a Ford lately?

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

I think the major problem goes something like this...

If you want the same number of cylinders and the same general size, and you go look at GM, Fomoco or Daimler/Chrysler and compare ANY of their vehicles head to head with a Camry or Accord, you won't find as smooth of an engine or as classy and comfy an interior.

You CAN buy a higher level G, F or DC car that's NICE... but we are talking big V6 or V8 power.

By and large your basic 4 cylinder Toyota or Honda is a nicer car than the G, F or DC EQUIVELENT....

 

[cheapo]

Have you heard the latest news?

Ford Bans Competitors' Vehicles From Lot!

:thumbsdow :shakehead

OH MY GOSH!!!!!! WHAT THE HECK! They will all park accross the street because they build the cars and they know what POS's they are

-David

 

[cheapo]

I haven't really looked at it but feel pretty sure my Dodge Ram 2500 was built in Mexico. So far, so good.

RAM.... Sweet! Dodge has some pretty sweet cars IMHO.

-David

 

[cratz2]

Jaguar is owned by Ford:lolsign:

Yeah, but this was back in about 1984.

 

[markdi]

bull

my old grand am(ho w41 quad four) out acelerates camerys with 24 valve 6 cylinders.

I just love sitting next to 2002 - 2005 honda acord's with
their 24 valve 3.0 v6 at stoplights

I pull away at about a foot a second or more.

sure I hopped it up a little - 30 more hp than stock.
stock I would still win.

I get 28 mpg at 80 mph.

I do not win every race but camery Ha ha

there are a lot of 4 6 8 cylinder cars that are very fast

an old gm car(1988) kicking new import ***

and my car is extreemy reliable ugly but reliable.

not long ago I could afford to buy a brand new car
I am scared that it would not be reliable or as serviceable
for a wrench turner like me.

if the air conditioner fails and can not be fixed(never been touched - ice cold) off to the car crusher it goes.

I turn my own wrench.

at where I used to work I hav watched my co worker own
3 different cars over the. same time period that I have had my fugly 88.

one guy bought a honda with the 2.2 vtech grinning from ear to ear he said I am faster than you now - he was wrong.

actually with a paint job my car would look great.

I think people who buy import cars should collect unemployment checks from where ever their car is from.

 

[cratz2]

I think people who buy import cars should collect unemployment checks from where ever their car is from.

Again, which do you think is better for the American economy... a Japanese nameplate vehicle made entirely in the US out of entirely US-made parts or an American nameplate vehicle made in Canada from parts made in Canada, the US, Mexico, Europe and Japan?

I think there's a lot more in the assembly labor of a car than in profit. But that's purely a guess.

Also, how often do you still street race? Isn't that kinda... sorta... illegal?

 

[markdi]

if it is made in the usa it is kool to me

the factory provides good jobs for local people

 

[EsQueue]

I had a 99 Ford Escort Zx2. I loved the car in the begining until the problems started. It had a rebuilt title from being a stolen car so "NO WARRANTY".

Problem Symptom Miles
1 CYP sensor Car died on freeway (needed towing) 24k
2 Fan Ground short Fan stoped working 24k
3 CYP sensor Car died on freeway (needed towing) 26k
4 Gauges failed Gas and rpm gauge didn't work 27k
4 bay wire harness Car sputtered and stalled at random 29k
5 fuel pump Car died again (need towing) 31k

At 32k miles after all problems was fixed I sold the car for 2,000 dollars to get rid of my headache and future problems.

I heard from the purchaser that the head gasket failed a few thousand miles after she bought. It gave her so much problems that she traded it in and purchased a camry less than 8,000 miles of owning the car.


My friends 2005 expedition had a failed starter and chipped flywheel which required the whole transmission to be dropped at 12,422 miles. Are you farking kidding me?

 

[Silviron]

I have a 2004 F-150 4-WD ClubCab pickup that I bought new. 16,000 miles on it and absolutely no problems or complaints with it.

Quiet, comfortable, good performance and excellent handling for a pickup.


It has done everything I have asked of it, including offroad on some really bad places.

In the '70s I had a F-100 that was a 70,000 mile badly abused piece of junk when I bought it used... But I still managed to put another 100,000 miles on it without many problems.

 

[Coop]

Last time I drove a ford was on 26 may 1999. It was my dads Ford Escort Diesel. I remember the exact day because it was the day I got my driverslicense and my dad let me drive the car home...

When I moved I rented a van and was supposed to get a Ford transit, but due to a double booking I got an extended Mercedes Vito turbodiesel with airco

 

[cratz2]

My father in law is on his seventh brand new F150. He tends to keep them for about 3 years each or about 80,000 miles. Currently he has a 2004 which is the first year of the current design. At about 37,000 miles, the air conditioner failed. I checked the fuses and relays which were all fine. Turns out, the compressor (or whatever is attached to the belt system) had literally fallen off. The bolt had sheared off and it was there at the bottom of the engine bay.

He usually gets the 70,000 or 80,000 mile extended warranty but was literally out of town when the 36,000 mile warranty expired. Not two weeks later this problem happens. He talked to his sales guy, then talked to the service dept. They worked with him and fixed it under warranty as long as he would buy the extended warranty. Seems like a decent fix to a bad problem in my book.

He said the only other problem was about 1986 when he had the big 300 inline six or whenever the 300 first got fuel injection. He said that if you drove it slowly, it was fine and if you floored it, it was fine. But if you accelerated normally, when you backed off the gas to shift, it would surge and buck and do all kinds of bad things. He had to take it to the dealership about three time. They never drove it except to pull it into the bay, so they were driving it slowly so they didn't experience the problem. The computer (or machine or whatever they had back then) checked out fine. After being told there was no problem, for three times in a row, he MADE the service guy go for a ride with him where the problem presented itself. It was fixed under warranty and he never bought from that dealer again.

I've never owned a new Ford though I've owned a couple used ones. After having experienced Honda and BMW serive (both absolutely TOP notch every single time), I think I would find it endlessly frustrating to have a dealership tell me there was no problem when obviously there was. I know this will come down to individual dealerships and even individual sales staff and service staff but in my opinion, assuming buyers are reporting their experiences to Ford headquarters, individual experiences are probably indicative of what Ford wants the buyers experience to be.

Honestly I have nothing for or against Ford, but I think they - along with GM - could aim a little higher.

 

[Darell]

bull
I think people who buy import cars should collect unemployment checks from where ever their car is from.

If only it were as simple as that - we could fix our situation in the blink of an eye. But no.

The last American car that I owned was forceably taken away from me *because it did not burn gasoline*. When America can build another car that doesn't require liquid fuel, we'll talk again. If you think buying "foreign" cars (whatever they are) is bad for our economy, what of buying oil from foreign sources? Good for our economy?

 

[nethiker]

I live in a Ford manufacturing town,....

Ah Ha! A clue as to the location of the secret underground bunker.


I believe the domestic auto industry is on it's last legs. As other countries come on-line capitalistically and train their workforces to compete on the global markets, we will not be willing to pay more for a local product just to support an American job with an artifically high wage. (this includes the benefits which I was very surprised to see how good they are here)_

It will be interesting to see how China's new entries into the auto market fare. I would guess that the world will soon look to China for most of it's manufacturing.

 

[Paul_in_Maryland]

I drive a Ford every day- a 1997 Taurus SHO. ... 20,000 of these models were built over a 4 year period 1996-1999

My 1997 Taurus has the 24-valve 3.0-liter Dura-something engine. It's the only 3.0-liter I know of that delvers 200 foot-pounds of torque on 87-octane fuel.

In the six years since I bought my Taurus (used), I've spotted only two SHOs.

The Yamaha engine, incidentally, is a modded boat engine.

 

[ATVMan]

My grandpa worked at the local Ford plant as an electrician for 40 years so we've always owned Fords due to the Z plan Everything from Windstars to Rangers to a Taurus to a F-350 Dually to currently an Escape and have never had any problems

We also own a Chevy Suburban my personal favorite due to the fact that its fit for a football player to own due to 5 tvs, tinted windows, all white exterior, leather interior, subwoofer, dvd player, navigation system, Playstation 2 (favorite part), upgraded suspension, air ride, and strobe head and tail lights

And with all of those extras never a problem with that either nothing electrical or mechanical

I have 2 neighbors that work at American Motors and another at Ford so plenty of union workers

 

[raggie33]

i used to have a ford exp lol this car would break down everytime my dad drove it lol i drove it and it drove good .was a great car to me and so fast i drove it like real fast

 

[markdi]

maybe your dad drove it too slow

 

[raggie33]

lol i agree mark i drove it hard man that car could spin the wheels so long had only a 1.9 liter motor we got it so cheap to

 

[cratz2]

My 1997 Taurus has the 24-valve 3.0-liter Dura-something engine. It's the only 3.0-liter I know of that delvers 200 foot-pounds of torque on 87-octane fuel.

In the six years since I bought my Taurus (used), I've spotted only two SHOs.

The Yamaha engine, incidentally, is a modded boat engine.

I've always liked the SHOs... The second gen cars (1992-1995) were my favorites but they were all a very worthy upgrade of a rather boring car. I'm a manual transmission kinda guy and, while I liked the idea of the V8 in the third gen Taurus (1996-, I was very disappointed that no manual transmission was available. I actually put money down on two different Taurus SHOs, but something else always came along before I closed the deal.

My current vehicle is a 98 Ford SVT Contour which is certainly more spirited or more 'hard core' than the SHOs, and while HP is very decent for a vehicle of this weight, torque is a bit lacking. The SVT Contour uses the 2.5L version of the 24 valve Duratec but with higher compression, two sets of intake runners (sort of a cheesy version of VTEC or VANOS) and more agressive management which requres 91 or 92 octane fuel.

A fairly cheap upgrade (provided you can either do the labor yourself or know someone who can) is to take the short block from any of the 3.0L 24 valve engines retaining the standard pistons and pretty much the same compression ratio, and add the upper portion (heads and intake manifold) and the exhaust manifold and of course the management from the SVT... the result is about 250 HP (an increase of about 55 over the stock SVT engine) and 230 ft/lbs of torque which is about 80 over the stock SVT engine. 0-60 drops from about 6.8 seconds to about six seconds flat and the quarter miles drops from about 15.8 seconds to about 14.5 seconds and you can use 87 octane. Not too shabby for maybe $400 for an engine from a wrecked Taurus or Sable.

Beyond that, there are management upgrades and you can replace the pistons with some that get the compression back up to about 10.2 or 10.5 which then requires premium fuel again.

Overall, the 'cool' Ford cars are pretty neat... The various Taurus SHOs, Thunderbird SuperCoupes and TurboCoupes, the SVT Contour, SVT Cobra, SVT Lightning and the SVO Mustang. In my opinion, the cool Fords are more desirable than the cool GMs though I always liked the 94-96 Impala SS.

But Maryland must have a shortage of 'cool' Fords... Here in Indiana, I probably see at least five SHOs a day and I know three people that own them and a few more people that have owned them in the past.

 

[blaire576]

well i've check out ford's full coverage premium at http://www.insurancepaylite.com wow price from different companies are good way too good just nver choose statefarm thats plague:thumbsdow , Many factors affect the premium you will pay for auto insurance. Each is a statistically based risk for a specific population. The higher the risk associated with a person, the more he or she is likely to pay for coverage. We have elaborated on some of the risk factors below, but there are numerous others, including driver's gender, miles driven per year, purpose for using the vehicle (commuting to work, using for work, leisure only), etc.