Have you driven a Ford lately?

[NickelPlate]

I've never owned a Ford personally but I've known countless people who have and all have similiar stories such as yours. Sad really. And the real kick in the head is the price of Ford vehicles. They're not cheap and many models are thousands more than everyone elses for the same type vehicle.

Dave

 

[Raven]

It's easy to blame the unions, and point to healthcare and pensions, but why is it wrong for workers to have the same healthcare package that executives have.

Oh, those greedy evil unions.

How dare they want a living wage and healthcare!

What we get are corporate talking points, but what we need to also look at is the skyrocketing salaries of executives, and their golden parachutes, as well as all the other perks that cost companies a fortune.

But no, let's blame union workers for wanting healthcare, instead.

There would be no strong middle class without unions; no weekends off without unions; no overtime without unions; no vacation time without unions; no 40 hour work weeks without unions; no safety regulations without unions; no healthcare without unions; no social security without unions.

Unions built this country, and it's a damn shame so many Americans want to blame them for our economic problems.

And if Ford sucks it's because of poor leadership, not because their workers have health insurance.

And it might also be because Ford has alienated conservative Americans with their penchant for various leftwing causes, and lost customers because of it.

 

[cobb]

My folks use to be Chevy fans, but seems they always had problems with them down the road. A few Ford products were DOA, so both had their problems. THe German and Japanise cars did well.

Anyway, I work for a company that mounts truck bodies and cranes to truck chassies, f150-750 fords, Chevy products from 2500-8500 top kicks and a few other manufactures.

For the most part folks are ford or chevy fans. Every now and then someone wants an international or isuzu, fuso or some other manufacture for fuel economy, durability or price. Most want the other two brands cause they are a fan, the other trucks they own are the same brand, etc.

Its my experience the Ford seems to hold up better in the long run. The Chevy seems to wear out quicker in the drive train from differential to engine, where as the ford the engine needs replacing at 150l miles, tranny at second engine mark and differential good to go. Ive seen little difference in gas vs diesel except for performance. Gas is best for highway use, diesel for towing. Both seem to need rebuilding at 150k miles.

The only down side to the ford is that small problems creep up fast. We had a demo truck the alternator failed on and no ford dealer had one in the area. Another one delivered to a customer in the gulf kept shutting down from a low oil sensor error and the dealer there cant or wont fix it. Ford wants to give them a new truck and it will take 11 grand in labor to swap the stuff over from one truck chassie to the other.

Maybe the quality is related to the working conditions? I was just watching something on the v2 rocket and how some of the labor purposely incorrectly assembled the rockets so they do not perform correctly.

BTW, I own a ford e250 van and love it.