Comments on: Ford lets employees test drive future products

By: olds307

olds307 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:39:43 +0000

and about turn signal switches….. my 94 Crown Vic had a great feeling switch, felt fluid, not the proverbial chicken bone breaking, however, those cars went through 2 or 3 or them through their lifetime. My 1981 Olds Delta 88 feels like the chicken bone, a THICK one, but it so far has lasted 27 years and works perfectly….

By: olds307

olds307 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:37:26 +0000

They should make then drive a Crown Vic also, so that know what a REAL car feels like.

By: DrFill

DrFill — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:31:05 +0000

Damn!
I think we’ve been waiting about 30 years for Ford to have a future.
By the time the future gets here, it’ll will have paul bearers and enough lawsuits to choke a donkey!
DrFill

By: ktulu

ktulu — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:25:08 +0000

By: mayer_ray_nagin

mayer_ray_nagin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:06:01 +0000

Blakkarr, 98% of US corporations get into this touchy feely “create the illusion that the employees matter” BS.

It’s bull, everyone knows it, but for the employees they don’t just spend their time praying for 5PM to roll around because now they get to waste their time playing with switches and crap just like the marketing retards.

By: Blakkarr

Blakkarr — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:16:29 +0000

So does this mean the employees will have more input into what they are going to be building and then selling? Or is this just a hollow gesture to make the employees feel like they are doing okay.

By: RaineMan

RaineMan — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:13:29 +0000

At least they aren’t going to those aggrivating touch screens.

By: oldraven

oldraven — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:41:24 +0000

Switchgear isn’t just turn-signal stalks. Pretty much every button, dial and toggle in your interior is considered switchgear.

By: RaineMan

RaineMan — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:31:38 +0000

Funny… the only “switchgear” I’ve ever felt that reminds me of a chicken leg is the one in my 89 Daytona… but I think the fact that it still works after 20 years is testament in some part to the quality of it. Do auto manufacturers think that by making a more “high quality” turn signal lever that people will actually use them more often? I seriously doubt it.

By: Spingood Tanoya

Spingood Tanoya — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:28:49 +0000

High-quality switchgear is a turn signal lever that, when used, doesn’t feel like you’re breaking the leg off a chicken. I don’t know why Ford had to go out of their way to have employees sample good switchgear. They could have just sent their teams to Honda dealers.

By: RaineMan

RaineMan — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:23:12 +0000

And WTF is a switchgear? Is that some made up fancy sounding word for gear shift?

By: RaineMan

RaineMan — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:22:12 +0000

So when will they let them start testing the EcoBoost (I still can’t believe they stuck with that name) Mustang?

By: mayer_ray_nagin

mayer_ray_nagin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:21:50 +0000

Easy, raven. To save the severance pay. It’s simple business.

By: oldraven

oldraven — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:52:28 +0000

Why would they be crashing them? They’re Ford employees, not monkeys. Test-Drive, man, not Crash-Test.

By: mayer_ray_nagin

mayer_ray_nagin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:24:36 +0000

The cool thing is that Ford gets their employees to volunteer to be free, living crash-test dummies and if they happen to croak in the crash-test then Ford is off the hook for cutting them $200k in severance during the next layoff.

By: johnnycanuck

johnnycanuck — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:00:36 +0000

Pretty cool. Beats the hell out of driving your desk any day.

Also nice to see they’re working on high quality switchgear even though that’s pretty much an admission of guilt in reference to their previous switchgear.

By: oldraven

oldraven — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:54:20 +0000

“firmer, European-inspired seats.”

YES! All seats in all domestic vehicles should be redesigned with sport in mind if there is any sense of sport in the model. For fat people, they can check the ‘Drive-thru Seat’ option box. I really don’t need a bucket seat that can hold me and four bags of groceries astride.

Bimmer, yes, we’re getting the Mondeo. I’m surprised you missed that news.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/?s=mondeo

By: bigp

bigp — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:50:15 +0000

well i wish i worked for them now

By: ryanpstr

ryanpstr — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:15:01 +0000

Shouldnt you do this as part of the “Quality control” for your products.. lol.. They should have the public drive their cars that way we can get a better feel of where they’re heading..

By: golf4me

golf4me — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:07:42 +0000

What’s funny is that there are 4000 (and probably more) people at Ford who have no idea what the company is doing. That’s the problem with the domestics. Lot of beurocratic layers of lifers who just wanted a “j-o-b”, and don’t know or care what the mission of the company is.

By: howsmydriving

howsmydriving — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:07:26 +0000

Blue instrument lighting…wow…finally a reason to buy a Ford…..

By: Bimmer

Bimmer — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:52:54 +0000

Does that mean that Mondeo is coming to our side of a pond?

By: beatusmongous

beatusmongous — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:52:53 +0000

Fuel-cell Focus? That’s cool. I also wouldn’t mind testing the 2010 Mustang. But the transit van? I wonder how many employees tested that?