Ford is better than Toyota. Take a look at the cabs in Toronto (where I live); most are Taurus. They buy them because they are reliable. My company provided me with a top of the line Toyota Sienna van to drive. It’s the new body style and is almost four years old. The back sliding doors freeze shut in any kind of snow/freezing condition and you have to crawl over the front seats to get into the back of the vehicle. (This cannot be fixed.) The alternator belt squeals every time you put the seat heaters on. (This cannot be fixed.) The wheels are all corroding and Toyota will not fix them under warranty. The leather steering wheel is deteriorating and they don’t cover it under warranty. My Toyota is well into its second set of brakes in 60,000 miles. My Taurus was on its first set at this point. The battery died in three years. I have never replaced a battery in this short of a time. I had a flashing seat belt light on last week. The engines mechanical valve lifters need adjustment now. (The Fords are hydraulic and never require an expensive adjustment.) It will need a new expensive timing chain at I believe 100 M miles. (The Ford will never need to be replaced as it is a metal one.) Toyota had a threatened class action suit because of engine foaming in their Lexus and Toyota vehicles. After the treat Toyota extended the warranty to look after it. A new engine can cost $8000.00. What happens after the extended warranty? I believe the transmission in my Sienna is starting to slip in second gear. (I have read others on the internet with a similar concern.) Don’t tell me Toyota is better than Ford. Also, Ford employs many more Americans than Toyota. Not just at assembly plants but including original equipment parts producers. Don’t be fooled by Toyotas ads on TV about employment. I recently was able to have Consumer Reports admit this fact regarding total employment. (See Consumers 2007 Annual Auto Issue)

As Bill Ford commented in the past, “Any American who thinks they aren’t affected by the recent struggles of Ford and GM since they don’t work for either automaker had better think again. Why? Because you can’t take literally billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy without it affecting everyone in the country”

JR

GREAT JOB FORD!

I guess GM isn’t dumb after all?!

Meanwhile Ford has been playing dumb that’s because the Ford children the ingrates they are. Don’t know how to manage or whom is best to manage their great grandfather company. Will or does Allan Mullally really have the right stuff??

that is all.

95′ Ford Escort LX Hatchback — 285,000 km LOL anyone who knows these cars knows that they ALMOST NEVER reach this km. I’m proud that I did that.
83′ Camero Z28 275,000km. Properly taken care of.
2000 Ford Taurus 165,000 km. My newest car. Very well taken car of and still runs as if it were new.
Anything can happen!!! So be a little more open the moves made by any auto manufacturing.
Thank you for even reading my little blerb there.

I expect the vehicle to have two or less issues in the first 30,000 miles and those should be 100 percent taken care of by the manufacturer.

Between that and 150,000 miles I shouldn’t have to spend more than $200 for anything other than general maintanance and the vehicle should still be performing almost as well as it was at 30,000 miles. It should also still be worth at least 15% of the initial cost.

No Ford vehicle has every done that for me. I’ve had three of them. Toyota has NEVER let me down with any of the four Toyotas I’ve ever had.

Note that I don’t care if I bought the lowest end or highest end vehicles. My expectations of quality and dependability remain the same. The difference I’m paying for is features. It should not in ANY way reflect the amount of quality of the vehicle.

Until Ford gets that, they will never have me as a customer.

(PS: I do NOT want Microsoft technology in my vehicles. But the quality and Microsoft don’t belong in the same sentence anyway. I’m referring to the audio that MS and Ford are teaming up on. Another bad mark on Ford’s part.)

“and better than those made by Nissan”

Ford factories will increase production.

Ford quality is among the best.

WAIT……this isn’t 1968 anymore.

_________well said PrimeGTP ha ha. Comment by homeboy234,

You read my mind, homeboy, Comment by PrimeGTP

I always knew losers didnt like Ford but I just never figured they’d act like they came from some kind of Mickey Mouse Organization. lol car noobs

You both need to find a womans magazine to read or something…
When you both wake up and open your eyes, please then can you start contributing to this board in a meaningful way?

The way Ford is fumbling through business lately, you have to wonder if maybe someone on the inside is TRYING to sink the company, perhaps in the hopes of getting some juicy stock-buyout offer.

1) Ford’s quality is vastly improved. Initial and long-term. If you don’t know that, then you are completely out of touch. For those who think initial quality is not an indicator of long-term quality obviously haven’t seen the lists of initial and long-term winners and losers. Turns out they’re the same.

2) Most of what this board suffers from is perception problems. I still contend that Toyota has not been that much better for the last 15 or so years in terms of quality. What they have dominated in is customer service, an area that Ford is only now catching up on. So, for example, if it is known that there is a starter problem where the starters fail at 50-60k, in the past Ford (dealers) would charge as much as they could to fix it while Toyota might have an extended warranty for that part. The people I’ve known who have had both GM or Ford vehicles and Toyota or Honda products have noted that the quality and life of the vehicles weren’t significantly different. What was different was the service from the dealers and support from the company to address problems. Of note we’ve had a 1992 Aerostar 210,000 a 1997 Escort go 190,000, a 1988 Ranger go 320,000, a 1995 Civic go 180,000 and an 1989 Accord go 220,000 in our family. We still have a 2001 Civic, a 2005 Focus, a 2007 Fusion (purchased over a new Accord) and a 1999 F-150 at 180,000.

3) Resale value is related to a couple things. The first, most obvious is discounts applied at the time of purchase. Some of Ford’s vehicles have terrible resales regardless of incentives. However, a lot of the difference between Ford and Toyota (Honda is pretty much untouchable) right now can be attributed to transaction price rather than MSRP. If every Focus sells with at least $3000 incentives while every Corolla sells with $1000 in incentives, from MSRP averages of $17,000 that’s 18% off versus 6%. That’s a 12% difference going in and it turns out the the Focus and Corolla 3-year resale values are off by about that much this year. So, yes, your Corolla will be worth more percentage-wise after 3 years, but your percentage off of purchase price is going to be fairly close (if you’re paying MSRP on a Focus, you are really stupid).

Resale is also a matter of perception. It is perceived that Toyotas last longer and have fewer problems so they will command a higher price over the long run. And eventually perception will erode and align with reality. It will take a while, though. However, the reality is that Ford’s quality is on par with Toyota’s these days. GM is also closing fast. I expect that quality will become a much lower issue because of overall high quality in the next 3-5 years. What will grow in importance is customer service, and Ford still has some work to do there.

As far as Ford’s recent quality, they have improved. If you don’t believe me, ask yourself this question: “Have you driven a Ford lately?” One more thing, the Ford Five Hundred is an underrated car. At least you can see out of the thing! It’s not supposed to handle like a GT500, it’s a family sedan, not a sport sedan for cryin’ out loud.

Another comment, Toyota might have a higher resale because they just don’t offer the huge rebates and 0% like the Big 3 do. In Europe, Ford has the best cars, plain and simple. Keep up the good work, Ford! Now just bring a little of that styling over here.

I bought my ’99 F250 SuperDuty PSD/CC new. Now it has 325,000 miles with only normal stuff like oil changes, tires, brake pads, filters ets. One alternator is the only real repair required. It runs, drives, hauls and works as well as the day it was new. I tow as much as 15K pounds with it regularly, work out of it every day, haul the boat on weekends and it will roll with the best of them.

Apparently, as usual, most of you haven’t got a clue what you are talking about. I am sooooooooo suprised……NOT!
GBB”

you have to realize that your truck is a diesel, and diesels can run for ever with few problems, now get an F150 of the same year, and you will see the complete opposite.

Tell Toyota to keep making cars that look like that…Worst, most disproportioned, ugliest vehicle ever…
Give Ford 5 years and they’ll be kicking their ass up and down the street….Admit it people, Ford’s just not gonna make those mistakes they did in the past…Everything they’ve come out has been Bold lately and if they continue to follow up these bold looking vehicles with good quality then they’ll be on top of the game.

But yeah, problems do vary from each owner. What I would like to see is what 2,3,4,5, … year customers feel about their products.

impulsive, you need therapy.

And I would like to say that Toyotas and Hondas are doing just fine after 250,000 miles and can keep running and never have a major overhaul. Can Ford make the same claim. Right now I have a Taurus and its been good for almost 110,000 miles with minimal maintenance. If it can keep the same track record to 250,000 miles then Ford has something.
And if Ford wants to put its money where its mouth is ; then it should at least come out with a warranty that goes to 100,000 miles and/or 10 years as well.

that’s just not the case (especially with newer models)