Ford is in a tough spot here, but financially they are healthiest of the big three.

I think they need to reconnect with all the stake holders ie customers, dealerships and employees and start a new company culture of pride at being the best in everything they do.

I think they should start by offering the current and new employees profit sharing based compensation.

I think they should tout their past and past vehicles.

I think they should get away from the doom and gloom of today(leave that to GM and Chyrsler) and tell the general public that not only are they going to survive but they are going to prosper and become the number one car company in the world.

And then they need to do it.


Rick.

 

first off , they need to make cars and trucks , that are affordable , 50 60 grand for a truck is insane , for that kind of cash it should have a 20 year warrentee bumper to bumper . 50 grand new 3 years later 15 to 20 grand loss . heck with that kind of loss . to put it in perspective , look at it this way . You buy a new truck , pay on it for 4 years , just before you make youre last few payments, it gets totalled , insurence comes in and writes you a check for a half at best . probably around 35 percent of new . it just cost you 25 grand to drive a truck for three or 4 years !! 600 a month to rent a truck . CRAZY PRICES

 

I think they need to dump all of their extra cars and get back to the basics. No need for 10 different models of the same car.

I also think they need to put more research into what they are building instead of just hurrying up to get stuff out there.

Make it easier to work on the cars again rather than having to lift cabs off chassis just to change spark plugs and the likes. HP and gas milage go hand in hand, start making it! Also I think fords cars look very cheap, homely, and sometimes just plain stupid lately, get some new designers in there.

Lastly don't screw your customers over with warranty work. I have heard soooo many times where ford finds some way not to pay for warranty work on their vehicles it is just sad. Toyota had a problem with frames rusting out and bought the trucks back for 1.5 times the bluebook cost, THAT is good customer care and that is one of the number 1 reasons people buy toyotas.

 

That was exactly what I was looking for.

Just two posts and already some valid points.

Rick.

 

Cars are never going to be easier to work on again. I for see a day that the hoods will be locked and can only be openned by the dealer. The goverment doesn't want any engine tampering with the emissions. I would be satisfied to buy a ranger with manual tranny, t-case and lockout hubs again. They say soon the manual tranny will be gone from the super duty. Not fords doing, but what the people are buying. People are getting lazy'er and lazy'er, so they are looking to build cars that will drive them selve's, so people will buy them. Most of what we complain about, we have brought on our selve's with what we buy or won't buy. In 97, the last year the ranger had a manual t-case and lockouts available, only 9% of 4x4 rangers were ordered that way, 91% were ordered with the electric shift t-case and autohubs. A lot of the high cost of vehicles is due to goverment regs on emission standards and safty. I know a lot of us old school boy's long for vehicles from the good old days. Thats why I buy old jeeps to play with. Just bare bones, go anywhere, easy to work on vehicles. Even so, I still love my FX4 off road ranger with it's manual tranny, peppy 4.0, rancho shocks and torsen gear driven lsd. The mariner 4x4 is perfect for my wife, it's comfotable, rugged and she doesn't have to think. If it detect wheel slipage, it kicks it's self into 4wd. My 07 mustang gt I had looked really retro and ran as fast as most of the muscle cars I had back in the day. My fusion I had was a very classy car, it was a sharp car and over all impressive. The new fusion hybrid gets 52 mpg in mixed driving. I think ford is doing a good job and doing thier best to give people what they want, except some old dogs like us who live in the past ha ha. I agree with Rick, ford should strive to be #1 and lead the way with modern tech and old school know how as they have built some of the best cars and trucks to ever hit the american roads over the last 100 years. They haven't totally forgotten thier roots, with vehicles like the shelby mustang, the ford gt and the soon comming F-150 raptor. For the econobox lovers, there's the new fiesta that gets 48 mpg with a 118 hp duratec 4 and 6 speed manual tranny option. Ford is going to one set of cars and trucks for the world market, instead of different vehicles for different markets. A 2012 world ranger that will bring us a 4 cylinder diesel. Even all thier performance programs from around the world has been brought under one roof in detroit and has a new manager from the UK, I forget his name, but it's on blue ovel news. I believe ford is staking thier claim as the worlds best automaker, but there's still a lot of work to do.

 

You said and I quote "In 97, the last year the ranger had a manual t-case and lockouts available, only 9% of 4x4 rangers were ordered that way, 91% were ordered with the electric shift t-case and autohubs."

My guess is the 91% was stock orders for the dealership lots with the other 9% being ordered from the buyers themselves.

It would be interesting to know for sure how the numbers really break down.

Also you missed the point of this thread.

The point is what does Ford need to do to become #1 in the world in selling Vehicles and having the best product people and reputation?

Rick.

 

No not really, I sorta expressed some of the things ford is doing to become #1 and vehicle they have and are comming. I did tell a fib, you could get the 02 and 03 ranger FX4 level II's with a manual t-case if you got the manual tranny, then they dropped that option in favor of the E-case on level II's.

 

Slim down their model lines and trim levels, make a diesel optional for all vehicles(even the Focus), stop screwing with Ford "DNA", lastly the point about warrenty work is huge.

Get real about who buys what vehicle and for what purpose. "Profiling"

 

 

I think if Ford was to look at doing a stripped down truck or car they would indeed find a market for them.'

I would think just the basics, For power ie... steering and brakes and then maybe one model up that had A/C and maybe cruise.

So no carpet no power seats or traction control no GPS or expensive sound system, no heated mirrors or fancy paint jobs no roadside assistants.

Really they could probably lop off 25% to 45% off the price of a new vehicle.

It worked with the "Model T" why not give it a try again.


Rick.

 

HMMM- sounds like you want the F150 xl -21,320($355/month+ tax/lic & interest)
or a Ranger $14,303($239/month+ tax/lic & interest)

"50 grand new 3 years later 15 to 20 grand loss . heck with that kind of loss . to put it in perspective , look at it this way . You buy a new truck , pay on it for 4 years , just before you make youre last few payments, it gets totalled , insurence comes in and writes you a check for a half at best . probably around 35 percent of new ."

- Perhaps you should drive more carefully- totaled trucks(and other vehicles) do happen but that's not the norm- plus you can purchase gap insurance to protect against the difference between depreciation and insurance payout. My 94 B4000(ranger) w/ 200k in 01 was totaled by the thieves who stole it- Insurance paid 8k- less my $500 deductible and I paid 15,500 plus interest

" it just cost you 25 grand to drive a truck for three or 4 years !! 600 a month to rent a truck . CRAZY "

You're math seems a little fuzzy- I'm coming out w/ about $416 to $520. $600/month comes out to about 19.72/day- you can rent a truck for about that per day around here but it sure ain't gonna have the sweet creature comforts you get w/ an upscale truck.

Ford is on the right path. They just need to bump the mileage on the trucks(which they have to do to meet future gov standards- 28mpg by 2016 I believe) and then offer a direct competitor to the foreign mfg's best selling vehicles but with slightly better mpg's while maintaining 5 star crash ratings and the higher quality we are starting to see. Reputations are hard to shake- it is a process that requires real world experiences from the masses and time. As far a customer service- I've experienced plenty of quality service as well as some awful service. With the awful service I was able to communicate my dissatisfaction in a manner that effectively resolved the issue to my satisfaction- I would hope it was more than just luck but more a true effort on the dealers part to satisfy a customer.

Tim

 

hmm pay for more ins. to recoup an overpriced car or truck . I think many will agree prices on cars and trucks are out of line , my o6 350 drw isnt a whole lot differant than my old 350 drw just the price tag . yOU KNOW NOTHING about how i drive so dont assume anything , but for the record its spotless with no accidents in the preferred issurance group . also my math may be alittle off but you get the point . yet another jerkoff on this site

 

I dont know if ford ever lost their mojo on the truck side of things. They seem to provide people with what they want for the most part, except customer service.
Also it seems like ford is struggling and has struggled with the past few diesel trucks. I think they could have made things right and did some of the upgrades for a very reduced cost, or maybe even free to some of those trucks that had bad problems, but they didnt.
Dealers and ford itself brushed customers away, and I think that really put a hurt on their image.

Also I think that there needs to be more options, not less. I think if people could order a truck anyway they want it, that would be awesome. I realize that isnt very possible, but it would be cool.

King ranch leather seats with no carpet on the floors, no power windows, a manual transmission, and no ac/ in a regular cab truck, IF thats what ya prefer!

Now when it comes to cars, they seem to be improving them lately, and all I can say is it is about damn time. To me it seemed like anything without a v8 engine in it in the previous years, wouldnt be much of a car in the long run.

I also realize that a huge company like ford, cant be top dog in all categories. With other huge companies out there, they are gonna have some first place vehicles, as well as some last place ones.

Also wanted to point out, that just cause they are doing the healthiest of the big three, isnt always a good thing. Its like being the wealthiest bum on the street haha.

 

Good thread, but one thing that has kept Ford and the other domestics profitable is huge margins on loaded vehicles.

One poster above said that Ford could lop 25-45% off the price of a new vehicle by removing some of the "content" (like heated and cooled DVD players for each seat), but the fact is that this bling probably only adds 10% to the actual build cost of the truck, and adds 25-45% to the price that Ford has been charging. This has been their profit model. From what I recall reading, they make very little money (like less than a grand) on a new Focus, but make 20 grand on a loaded Expedition or Navigator.

The American buying public has been taught that cars are priced "by the pound", with small cars needing to be really cheap, or people won't buy them. After a number of years with high gas prices (and we will see $4-5 gas again), we may have a situation more like that in Europe, where a small BMW really does cost a bunch of money and people pay the money for the economy AND for the build quality. (Although BMW's quality has been faltering too.)

Above all, Ford needs to establish a LONG track record of quality and high resale prices--this is what has gotten the Japanese companies their reputation and increased sales. A 2-year old Honda Civic that was $18k new will often bring $16k on a dealer lot with 30k miles on it. (And IMO it's stupid to buy a used one at that price--I'd spend a couple grand more and buy a new one.)

I also agree about the warranty and reliability issues. Honda and Toyota have had problems with engines and transmissions, but they have extended warranties and FIXED the problems on a design and manufacturing level within a year or two of the problem surfacing. Seems like Ford is slower to respond to that--with mod motor spark plug problems for instance. (After the blowout problem on the 97-03 models, they follow up with the stuck plug problem on the 04 3-valve engine--some engineers' heads should have been rolling in the cylinder head department.) Likewise problems with Explorer transmissions, wheel bearings, etc. I have seen umpteen forum threads where people say "this is the last Ford I'll ever buy" and in fact have sworn off GM cars myself because of a '96 Savana van from hell.

And I agree with the easier service thing as well. There is no reason to use overhead cams on the modular truck motors (even though I really like the 4.6 in my '02 van which--under warranty--got a new set of cylinder heads because of the Romeo problem with valve guide carboning). All it does is make the engines huge, harder to service, and more complex. This is a truck motor--it does not need to rev to 8000 rpm's. Why should a 281 cubic inch engine be wider than an old 460? Doesn't sound like progress to me.

Anyway, I always will root for Ford, but they do need to get the long term QC thing together.

George

 

I pretty much agree with you.

Ford's customer service straight up sucks. They need to be more customer oriented instead of trying to fight with us over warranty work. They also need to pick up the pace on warranty work.

They need to trim truck and SUV production to be in line with demand. Make sure they don't build too many and put all thier eggs into that basket.

They need to dump the duplicate brands. Dump Mercury altogether. Add another trim line if you want to. If you have to keep Lincoln, make it an exciting brand like Caddy is. Make it more than an old people's brand.

STOP CHANGING THE MODEL NAMES. IMO this is one of the biggest things that keep the foreign brands selling. Everyone knows what a Camry, Accord, F150, Corolla, and Mustang is. Nobody knows what a 500 was, what and Edge is, what a Freestyle is etc. Don't drop the Ranger name. I know this is the F100 forum, but I'm 100% against the F100 model name. Few remember what the F100 was. Make whatever you want, but call it a Ranger.

They need to focus on cars. That needs to be your main income with trucks and SUVs being the icing on the cake. People buy cars if gas is high or low, if the economy is good or bad. People on buy trucks they don't need or luxery trucks when the economy is good and gas is low.

Mike