And yet Ford quality remains severely lacking next to General Motors quality. Everyone in the world is chasing GM in that dept. (And all others actually). Ford is on death row and Bob Lutz or Rick Wagoner will be the ones to swing the axe and cut their head off.

ford still sucks

I think their trucks are ok.

was it those workers who recommended that grille on the new Navigator? If so fire them immediately… no… take them out back and shoot them… yeah, that’s better.

I don’t think that the UAW deserves any credit for quality improvements. They might as well have wrote “workers over 5′ tall” or “workers who wear steel-toed boots”.

Their trucks are extremely durable, to say the least. Let’s hope the new 6.4L diesel engine is better than the previous-generation POS 6.0L.

Wow, listening to your workforce that is producing your product day-in and day-out results in better quality? I’m shocked!

With a few more suggestions like that and Ford will leap frog GM.

1c3d0g, agreed. I said a long time ago that, the Ford division at least, should stop making cars all together and just focus on trucks. Let Mercury handle the cars, at least that would finally give them a purpose.. and Lincoln.. well the can just be the “Acura”… Fords and Mercurys with leather and a nav system…

AMGoff: lincold should have dedicated models. NO REBADGED FORDS!

Ford Trucks are great, a 99 to GM’s 100. It’s like who would you rather go to bed with, Monica Sweetheart or Brooke burke?

Ford trucks are just like the cars, unreliable, flimsy, junk. You people need to get your facts straight. GM consistently outsells Ford because unlike Ford, GM knows how to build quality pieces that give their owners decades of use with very little to no issue over that time. Other than the idiots who run out of gas or the moron who gets a flat tire, GM trucks are built to last.

Ford truck guys just lease their crap until it breaks and they can lease another one. 12 month leases are 90% of Fords business for that reason.

I love my Ford Truck. Fantastically built.

I looked at GMs when I bought but the salespeople were arrogant A-holes who wanted very little to do with negotiotion (on a flippin truck?) and so I skipped over to Ford and got the same thing for about $6k less.

And neither I nor my bankbook have regretted it once.

Always a good idea getting input from the people that work with the parts & vehicle. Not sure it has anything to do with the UAW. Wouldn’t be surpised if the UAW didn’t file a grievance if those “100 best hourly UAW workers” got more overtime than the rest of the collective.

1487_GM_SALES, have you ever sold a vehicle in your life? What the hell does ‘1487′ mean, anyways? The amount of ups that’ve walked all over you?

jackjim… that was a jab at a certain ALDB (acura loving douche bag). But I whole heartedly agree. They should be big, bold, over the top, V8, rear drive cars that are unabashedly American… if they can’t do that then they might as well take their ball and go home. Though I still think that Mercury should be their “car” company and let Ford build their trucks.

And GMSALES… for the love of god man… it’s bad enough having to swat at the import pansies without you coming along and bickering amongst the domestic makes. Say what you want about their cars but the do make a damn good truck, if you can’t admit that you’re as diluted as that limey bitch Stuart.

Bryce… no those were just the customers that flipped him off when walking out… the number of lost sales is really about four times that.

Damn, we’d hate to be in Ricardos shoes. Shoulda bought a GM, you’ll realize that soon enough. Ford trucks are overrated garbage, everyone knows that. That’s why GM sells hundreds of thousands more each year and growing considerably. Besides, who the flock cares about your POS on a GM site?

Did someone say something about GM sales people being arrogant? I don’t suppose it was GM SAles?

Good job Ford! Its rare that a UAW worker is actually a good thing – all other times they just want ridiculous benefits, free healthcare, and nearly $30 an hour minimum

Ford is steadily coming around, but it is slower and much less dramatically than Say GM or Chrysler. But one could see FORD being strong again in the future, but no one will be able to point to any one point that change actually happened. It’s just going to be weird.

Having the line workers actually same, this part should be metal, or that screw needed to be longer, is nothing new. I’m sure foreign makers have been doing this for decades. If this is actually news, as in ” FORD has never done this before”, then this is a “hang your head in shame, fool” moment for FORD.

Even though a prototype will hold up to the stress testing before production, it’s the line workers who actually put theses machines together that will see the mistakes the engineers will miss, like that screw than never goes in tight enough, or the wires than get badly pinched during assembly.

FORD needs to get on the ball like mad before I can say anything positive about them again.

AMGoff, that was not a jab at anyone: I simply want Luxury makes to have cars that are worth the luxury label. That’s the worst thing about the Cadillac Suburban. At least the navigator came out before the Expedition.

I think Mercury needs some better-defined niche. Why buy a Mountaneer instead of an explorer? Let’s see a new Cougar or a new Marauder that’s unique, and not “very similar” to something you can get at a Ford dealer. Maybe Ford should be trucks/SUVs and the Mustang (that CAN’T move)and mercury have the 500, Fusion and Focus, renamed

Jackjim — I think your thoughts on re-branding would be good for Ford as a whole, but I can’t see the dealer network ever agreeing to that. Unless all dealerships are F/L/M, but I don’t think they are.

Ford should just buy the previous generation GM cars and trucks and sell them as their own. Then maybe people will trust them again. Other than the shared 6-speed automatic transmission that they both share, there is not one reliable part or component in a Ford car or truck.

We can blame Mazda for that one.

how is this a gm site? are you a bigger xxxxing idiot than everyone already thinks… it’s called advertising friend… GM isn’t the only one who PAYS to have their ads on here. I hold the General near and dear but good lord man… you make yourself and other GM supports look bad.

FORD consistently builds highly reliable products.

But it is the media that, in their mad and mindless hunt for ratings, blows everything so far out of proportion that everyone thinks FORD makes junk. The tire fiasco and few years back was one thing (betcha they were Chinese tires), there have also been bad ignition switches and so on. But no other manufacturer has been immune, but in this country its Detroit that takes on the chin for any fault or recall. Toyota has had their reliability slip noticeably, but no one reports that as much as on Detroit. One would think that Toyota does not advertise on TV much because they are spending so much money on steering the media elsewhere.

Hybrids that wouldn’t stop accelerating, faulty electrical components causing fires or serious system malfunctions, badly failing crash tests, and worse, but no one reports on that like it were some kind of conspiracy to sell junk.

Plus Toyota is NOT the only company whose quality is less than par. Even Mercedes-Benz and BMW, Nissan, and others are guilty of sending out products that are either not ready or just shotty.

FORD is NOT the only company with reliability issues. Having that motto “Quality is job one.” doesn’t help either but they are hardly the worst offenders and this article should be seen more as “FORD is doing something about it” rather than, what every other person responding seems to be saying, what amounts to “FORD has a problem”.

Bold moves? Given the way people love to curb stomp someone when they stumble or are down trying to get back up, the bold move is allowing this to come out.

I’m not a huge fan of Ford cars, but their latest wave of SUVs and especially trucks are pretty decent. They needed badly to get rid of those black plastic buttons from 1995 on the interior.

GM_Sales…..

Your programmer from the Scientolgy group called, you missed your last “tune-up” meeting.

This site is for a lot of wannabees, wankers and “I know I could run (BMW, Audi, Chrysler, Ford -insert make here)-better than they do” Easy to trash a make when you do it from behind a handle and no one knows who you really are. Perhaps GM_Sales is REALLY Bob Lutz? I doubt it though, I talked to Bob Lutz years ago and he didn’t seem that stupid………..

Blakkar: I know what you mean. I had a ford tempo, supposed to be a big-tiem hunk of crap, but that was the first car I ever sold. (toyondas disentegrated to less than crap, and a Cavalier that got wrwcked.) 120K+, and I let it run out of oil TWICE, and each time it ran just fine with the addition of a couple of quarts. I think the problem with Ford and GM has been that they’ve made some great vehicles, but didn’t market them well. The Taurus was allowed to fester for about a decade, and the N-body (featuring the most durable midsize model) wasn’t properly supported).

Everybody knows the truck argument is “Ford Vs. Chevy,” but they allowed their cars afterthought status too long.

In a few years Fords gonna slam Toyota’s dick in the dirt. Its just a matter of time.

100 best workers.

Does this number not bother anyone…..even Ford ???

Shouldn’t it be 1,000 or 5,000 best workers ?

In all of FoMoCo only 100 could be found to offer any ideas on how to better build an automobile ??

^ Agreed, but the logistics behind getting 1000 opinions would be horrific.

And, we’re talking Ford here. They’re not exactly the paragon of organization.

Ford builds quality products, and I say more so with confidence because of my personal experience.

My whole life I have owned Ford, a Subaru and one Dodge. My 91′ Ford Taurus never had any problems, not one single time did it fail when I chocked it to the brim with heavy equipement, had a fair amount of power and was quality. It’s too bad it had rat fur carpeting, and was a bit too boring compared to the Subaru, but had more capacity and much better quality.

My 96′ Ford F-150 has never had any problems either, aside from the oil pan. It’s a nice truck, plenty of power and quality built. I don’t care what you say, it would beat my Dodge Dakota (V8) into the ground, with overall quality and equipement.

A friend of mine owned a Chevrolet Silverado, around the same age as my F-150 and very similar options, and he had problem after problem after problem. It seemed to never end, first something to do with the transmission, then the engine, something to do with the alternator, and back to the transmission again. Not only that, but the last generation Silverados were so bland and ugly, yet this generation is handsome, but boring.

Now, this is just personal experience, not actual JD Power and Associates, but I can say Ford’s gained my trust in the automotive industry.

Get Real, they opted for 100 of their best workers, most likely they had worked their for a long period of time. Would you rather have 100 devoted workers, or try to mess around with the 100 devoted workers group mixed into a group of new employees?

Rompn4x, I’ve been hearing that Ford’s “gonna slam Toyota’s (or Honda’s, or Nissan’s) dick in the dirt” since about 1974. When’s it going to happen? It’s not going to happen. Ford may approach Asian reliability and beat them in cost of ownership, but it will never slam anyone’s dick in the dirt over design. Every Ford design looks, feels and sounds like something the Asians were using as a baseline benchmark in 1988 or so. My wife and son just returned from a trip where they rented a new Ford Fusion from Avis, and they can’t stop talking about what a lump of crud it was: terrible blind spots, cheap interior, loud AC, poor usability on controls… so now Ford is off the table at our house next time the new-car hunt is on.

700 million is a nice save. Hopefully they got bonuses.

Most companies should take note of this and actually listen to the workers that haven’t given up and do still care. But they won’t!

yawn