mrballsonya

:D

You have to love an optimist!!!! I Sure hope you're right Sheetmetal, but for some reason I think we'll always be paying through the teeth for some kind of energy.

???? Where do oranges come from? They grow on trees... Apples also grow on trees... therefore once oranges get too expensive people will obviously want apples.... why? because they grow on trees. What kind of Jacked up logic are you using? Oil would have to become dirt cheap before it would be supplanted by Coal. We have enough Coal in the U.S. to support the next 150 years of power production. I would hope that in the next 150 years, we could develop some nice clean alternatives.. but in the short term lets take advantage of our natural resources. I won't argue with you here, you are absolutely correct. But are you factoring in the cost of a Multi trillion dollar OIL war into your equation? I'd much rather see another 50,000 good paying coal mining jobs created rather than 3,000 U.S. soldiers killed and countless others wounded. True, I wouldn't want one in my back yard. But I'm sure there are plenty of innovations since the 60's. None, we can start work on Wave generators stationed along our coasts. THE POWER OF THE OCEAN Harnessed!!! This probably would be funny if you live in Seattle, but in desolate, sunny places like the south west this is a very viable power source. Very Dirty, But also very plentiful here in OUR country.

This is pretty much the response I expected.... good work young grasshopper, you've responded like so many other mindless simpletons have in the past. Alas this is the progression of all internet forum discussion.... It starts with playful banter, then Name calling, after which verbal threats arise, and then finally my favorite.... PHYSICAL THREATS. By the way my dad can kick your dads ass, so when we meet in the parking lot after school today make sure you bring your dad and I'll bring my dad. That way they can fight first and then we can fight last, And we can prove who the biggest jackass really is. O.K. .... lets start with federal budget surpluses, I know you probably don't remember what these are... but under the Clinton administration these were common place. How about the value of the U.S. dollar when Clinton left office $1 U.S = $1.02 Euro, now after 7 years of Moron $1 U.S. = $.65 Euro. How about the cost of gas in the U.S. under Clinton $1 a Gal. vs $3.60 a Gal. for Bush. How about the 2.5 million high paying factory jobs that have disappeared since 2001. How about lying to the American People.... not about a BLOW JOB.... but about a FUCKING WAR. Really brother, I could go on and on about Clinton's Superiority over Bush...But as you said what difference will it make. Absolutely True 1) Impeach Bush!! 2) Regulate oil the same way other U.S. Energy sources are regulated. 3) ENFORCE trade agreements. 4) Start providing Real government subsidized incentives for the development and purchase of Alt. fuel vehicles. 5) Convict Bush!!! (this will never happen, because you can't convict the mentally handicapped) As long as there are misinformed people like you out there, this will never happen!

WRONG..... "A technological breakthrough required to make this concept a reality is a large lithium-ion battery. This type of electric car, which the technical community calls an "EV range-extender," would require a battery pack that weighs nearly 400 pounds (181 kg). Some experts predict that such a battery - or a similar battery - could be production-ready by 2010 to 2012."

How exactly is Big Oil involved in Nuclear, Hydro, Solar and Coal power? What do you dick heads suggest as a better viable short term option than EV/hybrid ? Should we continue to drive our Expeditions 100 miles a day and insure that Exxon Mobile makes 60 billion a year? For fucks sake, aren't you guys just a little bit mad about donating your hard earned $'s to Big oil?

WOW! where do I start. I hate to steal Pumps thunder, but you sir are an idiot. Not only because of your "personel" attacks, or your "beutifully" performing troops but mainly because it seems you support the war in Iraq. Evidently you also support the raping of the U.S. taxpayer. I don't know about you but I'd rather give my money to feed and provide health care to poor U.S. citizens, rather than make haliburton and KBR executives into multi-millionaires. If you really think this war was about liberating the Iraqi people or WMD's, then you're dumber than I initially thought. This war was a product of a complete Moron President, who was surrounded by advisor's that had their own agendas to fill. Have you ever heard of the Project for the New American Century http://www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_louise_010603_pnac.html this was a plan written by Dick Cheney in the early 90's that has become eerily closer to reality since he became vice president. What ever happened to "the oil will pay for the war", do you remember that statement as you pump $3.60 a gal. gas into your car? Exxon somehow managed to make 40 billion dollars last year, doesn't that seem a little strange as you pump $3.60 a gal. gas into your car. What exactly has the Bush administration done about the obscene oil company profits? Oh .... thats right he stated "that the American people have to change our habits"...nothing about Oil Corporations ASS- F@cking you, me and average Joe citizen. This is your Dumb ass president, his Dumb ass administration, his Dumb ass foreign policy, and His Dumb ass war. We as Americans are all Dumb ass's for giving the moron 4 more years. Bush will go down in history as the worst president ever, I have no doubt about this. My only worry is can the U.S. recover from 8 years of Moron? Can we recover from this ridiculous war, and the ridiculous "free" trade agreements that have put 100's of thousands of American workers out of jobs? What do you think Furious...can we? As far as supporting the troops... absolutely..... how could you not as a U.S. citizen. The troops are nothing more than pawns in a huge oil chess game. These poor men and women are losing their lives so rich executives can hire "extra help" and upgrade their 150' Yachts to 200' Yachts. How could you not support these brave individuals. The soldiers are nothing like the Chicken Hawks, that are responsible for this war. They are willing to fight for what they are led to believe, the Chicken Hawks just make the poor people fight, for them. Do you think Bush, Cheney, Rove, and Wolfowitz would've decided to invade Iraq if they knew they'd be on the front lines? HA! HA! HA!..... No! What we have is draft dodging pussies running the country. They're more than willing to risk other peoples kids for a meaningless war.... but not willing to risk their own. P.S. I've got a great tool to help you gain some credibility, it's called SPELL CHECK! It really isn't that hard of a concept to grasp, in fact my 8 year old seems to have already mastered it.

Interesting article, but I've got to say...F@ck $3.00 a Gal. gas or equivalent. If they can't produce the hydrogen for less than $2 a Gal. equivalent, then it's no better than any other alternative fuel pipe dream. Our economy starts to suffer with anything above $1.75 a gal. gas or equivalent. The Chevy Volt EV/hybrid concept vehicle can run the first 40 miles on batteries and then the next 600 miles on a 12 gal. tank of gas. The Volt concepts battery has a 16KWH capacity so if you calculate the first 40 miles at aprox. 8 cents a KWH from your local electric company, you'd be paying $1.28 to go 40 miles. I don't think it'll get much better than this in the short term. We could all be driving cars that theoretically never have to go to a gas station, we'd be buying good ole' American electricity made from American coal, wind, solar, hydro or nuclear power. We wouldn't have to give two f@cks less what an Emir in Saudi Arabia thinks of our foreign policy or whether the local oil refineries production "isn't up to full capacity". We all could just drive our cars home and plug them into an outlet in our garage... then do the same thing the next day and the day after and after etc. I don't know about you guys, but if our government isn't going to do something about oil companies raping U.S. citizens, then I'm going to do all I can to ensure they don't make another 100 billion off the backs of the hard working Americans....F@ck BIG OIL... I hope in 5 years they can't give that shit away.

Employee repugnance of new work rules and $4.00 a gallon gas will be the death of MTP. I've read one to many posts from MTP jackasses, and have come to A GRAND CONCLUSION...... you guys are fucked. So I've got a couple of suggestions for all the MTP employees.... please feel free to "Speedbag" all your union reps, make sure you tell all your supervisors "It's not my job" and absolutely post some more phonetic, idiotic, my pussy hurts, ungrateful bullshit. Without all these MTP posts, I'd be lost.... these posts are about the only thing that makes me laugh anymore. REMEMBER MTP WORKERS...... FORD OWES YOU $30 AN HOUR!!!!

Maybe it's a 7 year old girl thing, My 7 year old is a saver and is also very conscientious of how lucky she is. She constantly thinks about others before herself, she is very hesitant to spend her saved money on herself but is delighted to buy gifts for friends and her siblings. She really is a very grateful child that realizes Money and Toys don't grow on trees and that you have to work and save to get the things you really want. My wife and I couldn't be happier with the way she's developing into a women, unfortunately her two younger sisters are almost the complete polar opposites. They both will cry and whine when either or gets a gift or a new toy, they both could care less about hurting the feelings of anyone else. I just hope it's something that they will grow out of, but I really have my doubts. My wife doesn't seem to be nearly as concerned as I, and this in itself bothers me. The last thing I want to do is raise yet another inconsiderate, money grubbing, materialistic woman into this world.... we've already got plenty of those. I just hope that my younger two start to emulate their older sister and break out of this "I deserve everything mentality". I can just imagine them as 16 year olds now... but So and So's parents just but her a NEW BMW.....Oh no how am I going to survive without a new Beemer.... Woe is me. I hope I'm wrong about them, but unless things change drastically soon I think I'm going to be stuck with some very unpleasant, ungrateful, and materialistic daughters.

Makes a lot of sense doesn't it....... plenty of jobs available for NON-skilled employees but nothing for skilled employees.

Mechanical Trades........ Flowback? What? I thought this was just FORD URBAN LEGEND. You mean such a thing really exists? :shades:

GM's big mistake with the Cobalt SS was supercharging instead of turbocharging. By making that engineering decision, they probably cut their potential "sport compact" market in half. Factory supercharged cars just don't have the same upside as Factory Turbocharged models, I'm sure there are a few exceptions but in general you just can't extract a ton of cheap horsepower out of a supercharged model. With factory turbo models, it isn't unheard of to increase the power by about 50% with relatively few mods. I know GM probably didn't want to deal with all the warranty costs of people running double the boost and blowing up their motors, but unfortunately these 30psi guys are the ones that drive this market....high performance for low cost. I am very biased on this front as I own an 03' dodge SRT-4, but in my opinion Dodge had a much better market strategy than GM. Dodge underrated the power of the SRT-4 right from the start, then they offered Staged performance enhancements from their Mopar parts division to appeal to the tuning enthusiast and up graders. Knowing that they planned on offering these high performance options, the engineers really over-engineered the vehicle. For people like me that have done nothing performance wise, we've been rewarded by almost bullet proof reliability. I have about 60,000 miles on my SRT-4 now and have had no problems, In fact it's been the most reliable car I've ever owned. I've never cared for the looks of the SRT-4 or the Cobalt SS, But at least with my SRT-4 I know that the performance and reliability makes up for the ugliness.

CHEVY VOLT CONCEPT Cost of charge: The battery has a capacity of 16 kWh. If the battery is discharged every day, and you charge it every day, here are the costs (in Michigan, where our electricity is relatively cheap): Energy Cost: 8 cents per kWh Total Electrical Energy: 16 kWh Electricity Cost per night: $1.28 Cost per week (assuming you charge EVERY night): $8.96 Cost per average month (again, if you charge EVERY night: $36 Mile driven per month on electric: 1200 miles I'm sorry to hear that your electric rates are so high. For me this Volt concept would be great. Using the figures above, and with the current cost of gas around 3$ a gallon this volt concept would be the equivalent of a Gas only vehicle that gets 90MPG. Your Solar panel Idea is great, but I'd just be happy getting the equivalent of 90mpg while the engineers figured out how to make that work. The nice thing about the Volt concept is that it doesn't rely solely on electricity, using its 3 cylinder Turbocharged motor to charge the batteries on the fly gives the VOLT a cruising range of up to 650 miles on a 12 gallon tank. As far as expensive charging equipment goes, the Volt concept plugs right into a household 110 outlet. I just really don't see any negatives to this concept, unless you're paying .50$ Kwh for electricity. If thats the case then you've got problems that this vehicle won't solve.

It would be nice if someone could figure out a super efficient way to extract hydrogen, but as of now it's a very inefficient process. Ethanol from corn is another half hearted effort to release us from foreign oil, I like the concept but when you consider Sugercane yields twice the amount of ethanol from the equivalent amount of base product...it doesn't seem so great. I think electric is the way to go. We've already got the infrastructure, lets use it. I'd like to see everyone in America switch their lighting over to fluorescent. The average households lighting accounts for aprox. 9% of the total electrical consumption per year. Fluorescent lighting saves aprox. 75% over Incandescent, so basically you'd save about 6% a year on your electric bill and at the same time the U.S would free up 6% of its electrical capacity. We could use that extra 6% of electrical capacity for our mostly electric cars, cars like the original Volt concept. The advantages of electric motors are fantastic, no emissions and high torque= lots of good clean FUN. The U.S. has been making electricity for over 100 years, we have plenty of Coal and the ability to manufacture more nuclear power plants. Why should we have to worry about gas prices every time someone sneezes over in the middle east? I'm tired of Exxon-Mobile raping us, I'd much rather be raped by CON-EDISON. :P SCREW BIG OIL!!!!

Some great comments guys, hopefully someone from FORD is listening.... :shades: The only thing I can add would be to fast track a MOSTLY electric commuter car, when I say mostly I mean something similar to the GM VOLT concept. The GM Volt is primarily an Electric car that can be plugged into a 110 outlet and be fully charged in 6 hours for a 40 mile range on just the battery. Whats nice about the VOLT concept is that after that initial 40 miles on batteries, you have a 1 liter gas engine that powers a generator and you can go up to 650 miles off of the generator and 12 gallon tank. GM claims that on an average 60 mile drive you can achieve the equivalent of 150 MPG. Fords version would have to offer good performance I.E. 0-60 6-7secs, good looks, good handling and good range 60 miles+ on battery and 400+ on generator. If they could some how put this together for around 20K, I think they would sell a ton and at the same time strike the fear of God into BIG OIL. I don't know about you guys but I'm sick to death of hearing every 3 months how EXXON just broke the record for the most profits ever by any corporation. If our government isn't going to do something about the raping of every American citizen, then we have to start demanding that vehicles like these get produced. So,hey Ford how about something that looks and performs similar to this... http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1 for around 20K. lets put our brilliant engineers to work and save the company at the same time.

This is funny... I'll remember to tell my boss that when the line is down and we're not producing any products. Yes maybe we don't ADD value, but I guarantee productivity would take a huge dive without us. Trades are like insurance policies, no one likes to pay insurance premiums....but as you watch your house burn down aren't you glad that you made those payments? In a perfect manufacturing world maintenance trades would not be needed, but we don't live in a perfect world. Lines go down, mechanical things break and wear out, electrical and computer gremlins pop up. So here's the million dollar question...Is it better to pay 2 tradesmen 60k a year or pay 600 production workers to do nothing for the day while you wait for an outside contractor to arrive and charge a kings ransom for the JUST IN TIME service call?

As a tradesmen at a Ford facility. this has been something that has bothered me for a long time as well. I'd just love to see how the numbers break down, how is it possible that a Union contractor making more than our hourly wage, having a better pension, and equivalent health coverage can be cheaper for Ford to utilize. I realize some jobs require more man power to be completed in a timely manner, but just once I'd like to see some concrete figures of how much ford has saved by using contractors. I've seen the figures on some of the projects we've completed at Wixom, and I think the least amount of money we ever saved Ford was close to $50,000 with the most being close to $250K, mind you these projects ranged from a week to a couple of months. So is Wixom the only facility in the Ford system that the Tradesmen have actually been cheaper on projects than outside contractors?.... I seriously doubt it. There are two other major issues I have with outside contractors, The major one being quality of work and the other being questionable Tradesman Status. The quality of work issue is the biggie, I can't even count how many times our tradesman had to go back and fix contractors screw ups and poor workmanship. The average Contractor just doesn't care, they are only at our facility for a couple of weeks... then its on to the next plant. They don't have the same motivation to do it right the first time, like our In-house trades. If we install something wrong or cut corners, guess who's got to fix and maintain that very same equipment?....Us. We do things the right way the first time, so we don't have to go back and fix it over and over again. My other issue is questionable Tradesman status, outside Trades groups have got to be one of the most Nepotistic organizations out there. I've never seen so many brothers, cousins, uncles, nephews...etc. working together. You also have a bad case of people "buying their cards" from corrupt union leaders... I.E. not actually going through apprenticeships. You cannot fake a U.A.W. apprenticeship, every record is scrutinized...school attendance, grades, performance reviews, performance tests, and work hours. With outside contractors, you're basically taking their word for it.

If you asked me six months ago if GEN would be around in the next contract, I would have said no way...but now I'm not so sure. I think if it does stick around, that there will be some major changes. I think one of the major changes will be the exclusion of people who have 30+ years, If you can retire then you can't be in GEN. I think there will be time limitations based on years of service, and as others have said I think that turning down in zone openings will not be an option.

LOOSE SEAL.... LOOSE SEAL..... wearing a bow tie. :hysterical: :hysterical: Man what a great show.... I miss Arrested Development. Great Post Roadrunner, done in pure Arrested Development fashion...Short, Sweet, and way too funny for the majority to understand.

Mark Fields needs to learn that you can polish a turd all you want, but in the End....it's still a turd. Give us some positive results from our 3rd turnaround plan in 6 years. Put out some must have products. Show us that all of our sacrifices have not been in vein. Show us something!!! I don't know how Fields expects employees to be positive when mid to upper level managers are jumping ship like rats, Hourly employees are getting ready for the shaft in September and Sales have been declining for almost 7 years now. I would absolutely recommend a Ford truck to anyone that asks me, IMO Ford makes the best trucks in the world. But to be honest, I won't go out of my way to recommend a Ford car to anyone. I take serious issue with the hypocrisies of recommending a vehicle that you yourself would not buy. Right now there are only 2 Ford cars that I like, The Mustang and the Fusion. And the only one I'd consider buying is the Mustang, as I will not buy a Mexican made vehicle. So if someone is looking for a Truck or a Muscle car, I've got just the vehicles to recommend to you...otherwise take a look at Jag and Volvo before you go Lexus and BMW shopping.

That Photo is not of the production Mondeo nor was that vehicle in Casino Royale. Here's the production 2008 Ford mondeo that was in Casino Royale

I'm sorry this was an attempt at levity on my part, obviously we don't have the same type of humor. Regardless, that was a statement and not so much an opinion. So if my statement offended you, than by all means...call it a moronic statement. I'm fine with that, as that is YOUR OPINION. Yes, this is my Opinion. Man does that sound familiar, I still own way more Ford Stock than I probably should. I guess deep down, I still feel that there is value to be had in holding. I'd lose so much money now If I sold, there really is no point in abandoning it. Its sink or swim for me and Ford, lets hope we swim together to the ocean of prosperity. It's true, I too would rather see Ford take some risks instead of coming out with another 500. But as I re-Quoted in my previous post "good design costs no more than bad design", why can't they come up with a NON-Polarizing KNOCK OUT? Obviously you can't please everyone, but IMO there are some cars in the universe that the majority of people agree are good looking. We all know Ford is spending major money in the area of design and development, and We know that Ford designers are capable of beautiful designs. I just don't think the Flex is one of them. Duly noted, without any mention of the I.Q. of YOUR OPINION. :D

Clearly my mentioning of the CD3's was to validate my opinion and defend the accusation that it was MORONIC. If you "Don't Fuckin Care" about my opinions being proven right in the past, don't make blanket statements about my "sophomoric, Moronic Criticisms". It's true I didn't graduate from the ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN, but as a consumer in a fairly desirable demographic and as an automotive enthusiast I believe I have the right to lambaste what I think is a poor design. How the F*ck can you NOT be critical of a Company that lost 12 billion last year, and has steadily lost market share for the past 7 years? Do you think Ford is in it's current Do or Die position because of people "hiding behind an anonymous screen name and ripping on the company"? I tend to think when a company has performed as poorly as Ford, that maybe the problem is bad products... or at the very least not enough good products. I don't think people posting on a FORD forum "how they don't like a new design", is going to make anyone go out and want to buy a Toyota or a Honda instead. I don't know about you LEN, but I work for Ford... at least until September. One of the reasons I might not have a job in 6 months, is the fact that Ford has not offered products that are irresistible. I don't expect Ford to come out with the 64 1/2 Mustang every year, but it would be nice to have some competitive offerings in every segment. Fords car lineup has been improving, but it definitely hasn't reached the "I've got to go to the Ford Dealership, and Check out one of those new "?" models" levels. I just don't see the Flex being that "Gotta have Model" Ford needs so badly. I can't remember which great Auto designer in the past said "Good design costs no more than bad design" but I always think of that quote every time I see another disappointing product from Ford. Ford is spending the money on Design....they just aren't getting the return on their investment. As far as the positive press goes, I haven't heard anything. I do subscribe to about 10 car magazines, but I have to admit I've just glanced at them recently and not read them in depth so I have no way to validate your claim. But regardless of the press, I still maintain my OPINION that the Flex is ugly and disproportioned. As a side note, I've never liked the Scion BOX or the Honda Element either. To defend the fact that you may think I'm just a "FORD HATER". I must admit that I Love the 2008 Mondeo, I love the new Jag XK, all of the Astons and from what I've seen for the S-type replacement I like that to. So NO I don't Hate all of Fords new designs, just most of them. In summation I'd like to say that no matter how "sophomoric" or "moronic" you think my opinion is, I believe that my demographic, the fact that I work for Ford, the fact that I'm a known automotive enthusiast among my piers, and the fact that my criticisms have been validated in the past... gives me every right to voice my opinion. I hope I'm wrong about the Flex, In fact I hope I'm dead wrong. I hope everyone will trade in their Toyotas and Hondas to buy one, I just don't think thats going to happen.

I apologize if my OPINION was "MORONIC", I didn't realize such a phenomenon existed. I guess my previous "Moronic" opinions about the bland design and lack of power train options of the 500 have also proven to be unwarranted, given the brisk sales and mid-product cycle name change. I guess my "Moronic" opinions about the Fusion triplets proved to be wrong as I remember stating that "I think they will sell well".....boy what an Idiot I was. My previous Unfounded criticisms of the Expedition redesign seem to be way off base as well, because as we all know MTP is running 3 shifts now and can't seem to make enough Exp./Nav's. I've previously stated that I like the Edge but don't think the Lincoln version will sell, time hasn't yet told how much of a DOLT my opinion is on that one. LEN-A I guess you forgot the age old proverb "OPINIONS ARE LIKE ASSHOLES, EVERYONES GOT ONE".....so please back away from my asshole... as he really doesn't appreciate being called a MORON.