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That's great in theory, however if you lose your job that may not be possible. Layoffs are happening, don't let the unemployment numbers fool you. It's one thing to make good money, have a bunch of cash saved, and be wealthy to have overpaid for a car because you could and wanted it now. It's an entirely different story, when you just make ok money, have no savings, and a pile of debt, yet pay more than MSRP. Those folks are already redlining it and any sort of uptick (read inflation) in expenses can turn their lives upside down. I'd imagine these are the folks that are struggling right now. They can try and sell their car but are underwater now, after 2 years of being able to sell your used car close to what you paid for it. Would you rather pay for housing/food or an over priced car note? And yes, a lot of Americans are stupid with their money.....YOLO!!!!

Happy Holidays to all. I just want to say hang in there, mine got here 4/29/22 just about 10,000 blissful miles ago. It’s the best truck / car I have ever owned and well worth the wait. For me it was only 31 weeks but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. The biggest problem I have is I’m terrified of anything happening to it.

Farley can say what he wants, but he's too far removed from the details to really have an impact. You need strong middle/senior management and the PD Chief is the most important position in the company IMO. Ford had a great one in Derrick Kuzak and things have not been the same since he left. They need to find another guy like him, as right now they have to many guys who have short-term goals to help their own careers, as opposed to taking the long view and doing things right. (Which is a common problem in publicly traded companies.) Also, Fuzzy, please stop with the over-played "stop letting the bean counters handicap program managers from the get go" theory. This is so far from the truth. The finance guys simply "report" the financial status of each part/vehicle, and it's up to the Chief Engineer and Program Manager, both of whom typically come from Engineering, to decide what cuts to make and/or what parts to add cost from year to year. Here is how it works: 1) The strategy office, a handful of cross-functional upper management members, develops the cycle plan which is the year-by-year plan of what vehicles get introduced, which ones get major/minor freshenings, etc. (Usually a 5-8 year rolling plan.) This includes up-front investment and variable per unit costs by vehicle. 2) The strategy office presents the cycle plan to top management (Farley, etc) and the Board of Directors. Once a specific program is given the green light and approved in the corporate budget, then work starts to begin and a leadership team is appointed. (Program Manager, Chief Engineer, Finance Manager, Marketing Manager, Purchasing Manager, etc.) 3) The initial variable cost and investment budget is given to the vehicle's leadership team and from there, the Chief Engineer/Program Manager decide how to spend the money they are given, both on the overall initial up-front investment and the variable cost per vehicle. All the "bean counters" do, is literally count the beans and handle 2 main tasks: 1) They are the lead on the presentations used at all the various checkpoints when reviewing with upper management (these can be massive and very detailed) 2) They review, daily and hourly at times, the latest cost estimates for the new program and how it compares with the budget we've been assigned If a vehicle is over budget, the Chief Engineer/Program Manager decide where to cut cost, not the bean counters.

Here's my take away. The only way to get a good change in the quality of the product coming out of Ford to increase in reliability is for it to start with the CEO. If he isn't publicly banging on the drum, it isn't likely to change dramatically. No Farley isn't going to do it himself. He'll need his middle managers and production chiefs to do the work. But Farley has made his way up the chain of command. He has a fair idea of how to get it done. He'll put the people in charge on notice and start working on this.

Who said that’s what was going to happen?

Why? So you can Immediately destroy thee new Bronco image?

Step 1: stop letting the bean counters handicap program managers from the get go Step 2: stop with the ever changing standards for the line workers. Focus on getting it right the first time. Changing shit every few weeks makes it difficult for us to do our jobs.

It’s not just a cost issue with the pistons. It’s the location of the top ring. On a normally aspirated modern engine the top ring is located much closer to the top of the piston. This is done to reduce unburned fuel and thereby clean up emissions. This ring placement leaves less material strength above the ring land. They can crack or burn far more easily. A typical piston designed to withstand a power adder has a lower ring placement leaving a much stronger and cooler running piston dome.

Financial people don’t put the squeeze on manufacturing to cut jobs, thereby making our jobs harder and lowering quality? I find that very hard to believe.

During the housing crisis, things were different. You could get a house with little to no money down. Put that along with interest only loans and adjustable arm loans on massively inflated prices. People didn't sink much into them and then payments went way up and housing values went way down. I know several that walked away or short sold their homes. Was it bad for their credit score? Yes. Did FICO and other scores lessen the impact of that on credit scores during that time since so many people were experiencing this? Yes, if they didn't ease it up a bit we would of mostly would of added several years to that recession. They all were fine after about 4/5 years. Each now owns a home. Back on topic though, I see it as bunch of things all adding up to people making poor decisions during a strange time. Cars, houses, Peletons, etc. Add that to government handing out thousands of dollars to families. Unemployment benefits that were increased 25-50%. The whole pandemic was the FOMO (Fear of missing out). Whether it was toilet paper, food, school supplies, Christmas trees, cars, homes....the media (remember, everyone was stuck at home either watching TV or on the internet) made it a frenzy and the government helped pick up the tab. People kept up that habit as the pandemic was easing up and as supplies for a lot of things was still lower than usual. There is no such thing as a free lunch though and now we are paying the price for it. People are furiously trying to flip homes and cars, before the bottom fully drops out. This is what will cause Carvana to go bankrupt. They perpetuated the inflated car pricing problem. Not by using already inflated auction prices but by beating auction prices by 10% so people would sell their cars there and boost their inventory. So then they could further mark them up and inflate prices. In short, 2023 is going to be a tough year for those that overextended themselves in 2020-22. Expect a lot of people to get their cars repod.

It does have to start with him but just saying things won’t work. He has to start holding people accountable for bad quality starting with how they treat their vendors and how they manage schedules. Quality has to count more than cost or schedule (within reason). Reward for quality performance and decisions and punish for putting personal or group gain ahead of quality.

I've given up tracking DEF fluid levels. I did make the mistake at one fuel stop, seeing it was showing 1,500 miles left, and literally 100 miles down the road, I got an alert that I was down to 500 miles. Now, if I'm fueling up in a truck lane, and have less than 1/2 tank, I go ahead and refill DEF. It goes through a lot while towing, and virtually none when not towing. Secondary issue that DEF does go bad, so I don't try and keep it full when not towing.

IMO, the quality issues start at the top. When you literally force cost reductions through without following through with complete testing, and then wonder why there are quality issues? When you go with lowest cost supplier no matter what condition the supplier is in, what do you think is going to happen? When you literally layoff your most experienced engineering staff, who is going to handle issues that develop?

it’s not just on the engineering end….

So let’s put this way-one of the major reasons why fuel injection was introduced in the 1980s was because of better gas mileage and emissions control…both because of government mandates. Fuel injection existed for years prior to this, but had issues with cost and complexity, but manufacturers kept using carburetors because they where cheaper but had distinct issues with them like cold weather startup. don’t disregard change becuase one of the major reasons it doesn’t happen is because of cost and when it needs to happen, normally companies/people are forced too.

I seriously doubt anything translates Megazilla comes with CNC ported heads, big cam with no VCT, forged rods/pistons, new intake manifold, etc. Results are pretty typical of modified "heads/cam/intake" and I don't see how any of it will translate to a warrantied production engine with durability, NVH, emissions and cost metrics that need to be met.

Didn’t see this one coming at all! How big of a crap storm, i don’t know but it’s pretty clear some folks are about to be in a world of hurt. My anecdotal evidence I’ve seen is vehicles are flooding FB marketplace, craigslist, and auto trader from owners that don’t own their cars. When Carvana goes bankrupt, it’s just going to get worse. And yes, that’s almost guaranteed to happen. Why anyone thought on paying over sticker for a commodity vehicle was a good idea I will never understand. I get supply and demand , but from what I’ve seen most people that were buying weren’t necessarily buying for need.

I think you summed it up nicely. My only issue is losing options because of government policy. That’s what disappoints me. If electric is best, let it win out on its own.

He lost access to the dealer portal.

That is really cool! Thanks!!

There will be a lot of repos hitting the bays. Pity the folks that totaled their Raptors, Mach 1s & Cobra GT500s bought at $10k+ over MSRP and settle at loan value or less. On a more positive note, the economy may slow down enough to allow industry to get supply caught up before they also have to batten down. $748/mo average new vehicle payment, $525 for used; $2064/mo plus escrow average mortgage payment in the US. Bad moon rising.

In my own personal life no one wants an electric vehicle to be honest. I'm usually one of the few car people that talks about this stuff, but people I have talked to have only wanted reliable gas transportation. Where I differ from them is wanting loud V8s, just because I love the sound, feel, etc. But they all think that electric is a boondoggle, to use nice language. I think that the Ecoboost is really good too. I drove the Ecoboost Ranger and it was fun! But, if it was my money really on the line (and with prices so high), I'd want a V8 to "have it all" to get my money's worth. Personally, I think that that whatever source of power- Electric, V8, Ecoboost, etc.- people want for their life is fine. I have no right to force my views on anyone. If electric is what someone wants, cool! If not, that's cool too. I am sure that there are many others like me too.

Access to VW’s battery supplier was one of the main reasons that Ford chose the MEB, it was from a time when Hackett wanted batteries outsourced because he thought wrong. Ford may be looking to change this requirements since the advance of LFP batteries would give it a distinct advantage against ID4/ID3. If Ford can switch to own source batteries, then that will be another big cost saving. production wise they’re only looking at an average combined production of 10,000/ mth out of Cologne, that’s not the big numbers that some people were expecting with the MEB deal.

I feel like quality was quite good under Mulally, but seems to have taken a step back since.

Cars are more reliable than ever before. Wasn't alive in the 70s and 80s. But everyone who was tells me American cars were a joke during that period. My parents had a gen 1 tarus, and a fiesta, both junk. The gen 1 tarus had transmission issues a few months after they bought it. Their fiesta kept overheating, and actually caught on fire once. Was one of those issues mechanics could never resolve. By comparison, their 2017 explorer is almost 7 years old, and has never had a part break. The hybrid in our Maverick is virtually identical to the 2.5 hybrid system ford's used for like 15 years, and is regarded as being extremely reliable, often lasting 500k without powertrain issues. Sorry, but I don't buy the "They don't make them like they used to argument" that pretends like cars from the 60s-80s were more reliable than cars now, they weren't. Every piece of evidence we have contradicts that narrative, esp statistical averages showing the average lifespan of cars on the roads.

6 sigma is a bastardized version of quality. The standard SPC chart is all that is needed and also all that will work. Demming had the answer 40 years ago and he is still correct. https://deming.org/explore/fourteen-points/ variation is the problem variation must be measured. understood and removed accurate and precise measurement system are the foundation and yes, Farley is correct, it will take years and when quality is achieved is a place we will never arrive so we should enjoy the journey as the destination will never be reached

Ford's quality initiatives including Six Sigma go back well beyond that. It introduced 8D methodology and APQP in the 1980s. But realizing quality and reliability for new vehicles consistently and broadly has proved elusive for Ford to this day, though for a few years in the late 2000s Ford did reasonably well in vehicle quality and reliability studies like Consumer Reports and J.D. Power IQS & VDS. As I mentioned in the "Ford Quality Czar Says Issues Should Subside in 2023" thread, this is because quality initiatives at Ford have always been like newfangled diets. At no point has quality been "the fabric of the organization" rather than just "part of the fabric" as quality guru Philip Crosby put it. The issues that fuzzymoomoo mentioned earlier in this thread are indicative of this.

That’s the position I find myself in right now. Yes I make good money but my hours keep getting cut for various reasons. I haven’t yet worked a full 8 hours this week. I’m seriously considering getting rid of my Fusion a year early because I’m having a hard time paying for it thanks to the cost of living going up so much recently.

What it boils down to is people are terrible with money. A friend of mine works NC State credit Union that deals with mostly State employees. Their are people out there who own a home then get a home equity loan to pay off 28 credit cards (!)or something like that and then do it again three years later when they run into the same problem of living outside of their means.

quality was achieved with the 1st Taurus but then money became the MOST important measure. GREED is the internal enemy and until HE is defeated there will be no long-term quality.