Swizco

WRONG! Tires and calibration for the brake distances - that's all it'll take. They're coming '08 or sooner. As for pedal feel, which could use a LOT of improvement across the board at Ford, pads matter. Swizco

it doesn't / wont. This article is full of crap. Swizco

I'll say again: it's not coming out this September. Take that to the bank. It might come out September 15th, but it won't be THIS September 15th. Swizco

Its not coming out in September. It'll be this time next year, at the absolute earlist. Swizco

99.9% of us are all on the same team, buddy, union or not. There are a very few people at the very top that made some tough dicisions over the last few years, that turned out, in 20:20 hindsight, to be misguided. That doesn't mean that they wanted bad things for Ford, either. The rest of us come in every morning, just like you, and work to make the cars we're developing as good as they can be, with the time we have and the resources available. I get from you that you have this image of 'management' of a bunch of guys in suits, throwing money in the air and doing lines off of hookers backsides, while the company crashes and burns. The truth is, we only do that on Tuesday afternoons. Swizco

LSFan00, I like you more and more every day. Keep it up, buddy. Collective bargaining and trade protectionism are dead end roads. Remember how the financial capital of the world was going to be Frankfurt, Germany, 20 years ago? Now that's a joke, and the US is losing ground to Asia. It doesn't take a teriff or a union to protect one's livelyhood. It takes ambition. Swizco

Tires, people. Its all (mainly) tires that drive long or short braking distances. The brakes have plenty of power - its just an issue of grip. Secondary ride, fuel economy, cornering, steering feel, road noise, braking distances, top speed... all of these factors are driven in large part by tire tuning. Do-it-all tires are available, but they're fantastically expensive. Therefor, like everything else, it comes down to setting the right balance, with cost a large part of that equation. We got most of that balance right. We'll make adjustments in the future to further improve our product. Swizco

I survived a year at Hermosillo. After that experience, there's nothing OAP can throw at me that'll leave a mark. Swizco

Rumor has it, when Mullaley joined up, he took one look at the 'buyout' plan, and asked why Fields was paying people to leave. He wanted to just fire the bottom 30% and be done with it. ...He's a tough ol' SOB, apparently. -Swizco

We're engineers. We have soft hands, and fragile constitutions. Swizco

I sit next to the brake guy in the Plant Vehicle Team Office here at OAP. I overheard a conference call yesterday where they broke down the changes, knew this was a hot topic, and figured I'd pass along the news. As for lumping people together, its all in good fun. If anyone takes my MadLib post seriously, I'll be very disappointed. Swizco

Pioneer, let me introduce you to my complaints template: 1) Why wasn't this caught earlier? Ford is incompetent/crappy/dying. 2) Why does it take until '08 to fix this issue? Ford is incompetent/crappy/dying. 3) Why can't Ford engineers get anything right? Ford is incompetent/crappy/dying. So you could have just posted the following, and saved yourself some time: Good Evening, #1! #3! -Pioneer

See? This is exactly the kind of _____ (crap / $#@& / trolling / Ford-Love) I'd expect out of you. Face it, Richard, Ford is _____ (dead / dying / doomed). Its about time you _____ (stopped carrying water for them / got real / dried up / got hit by a meteor). Its like ____ (Kyle / Bluecon / TheLemon / that guy why said the Edge would bomb) said: ___________ (The Edge stinks / The Fusion stinks / The Mustang stinks / Ford stinks / Everything stinks). _________ (sensorship, etc. / free speech, etc. / desenting arguement not tolerated, etc. / strawman / personal attack)!!! -____ (Swizco)

"that doesn't mean the engine won't physically mate up to it" It COULD, but it DOESN'T. If we changed a bunch of stuff, which would cost a lot of money and take a lot of time, we could build an AWD I4, which no one would want. Both of the I4 transmissions are on their way out, though, so there's no good reason to spend money on them at this point. We're changing a bunch of stuff for '09, so we'll see how things come together for that program. Sidenote: I saw something like "Fusion GT" in a cycle plan, 'round about '10. You read it here first. Swizco

Good Afternoon, I've caught wind of changes to the 2008 Ford Edge that should cut 60-0 brake distances significantly. We'll go from being class-trailing to class leading. Commence with the doom&gloom. Here are a few lead-ins: Simply copy, paste, and complain! -Why wasn't this caught earlier? Ford is incompetent/crappy/dying. -Why does it take until '08 to fix this issue? Ford is incompetent/crappy/dying. -Why can't Ford engineers get anything right? Ford is incompetent/crappy/dying. Swizco

...Interestingly, when the guy directing VehDyn development was one of RPJs guys, and RPJ ran cover all the way to the top, then no. The vehicles came out the way RPJ and his people wanted them. I recall a lot of internal squabbling about this, a short time ago. I imagine a guy like Krafcikk wasn't terribly happy about the bone-jarring ride, but with the VehDyn community aligned behind RPJ, there wasn't a lot he could do. Swizco

I recall a lot of this around when I started in '02. RPJ had just screwed the '02 explorer down so tight it knocked your fillings loose over expansion joints. Customers were NOT happy - the '06 is much better. Kimiaki Makido did most of the work on the 2004 F150, hence the plushness - he came over from Mazda and did a fantastic job getting that truck right where it needed to be. Who's this clown demanding NAMES? Is that some sort of accusation that we don't know the nature of our own company? Swizco

Right now the trannys used with the I4 don't mate to the AWD system, hence its availability only with the V6. We could make it work, with a lot of redesigning, but with both I4 trannys new for '09 (6M and 6A), there's no good reason to do that much finangling, just to make a car that would be a DOG. 0-60 in 12.5 seconds wouldn't look too good on any spec sheets or comparisons... Swizco

*aherm* There are currently 9 (nine) European vehicles undergoing crash programs as we speak, headed our way. I assume this is one of them. I don't know which, specifically, but I'll pass along info as it becomes available. Swizco

Wow. I was hoping this thread would include this sort of rant. Triton Boy, you didn't disappoint. I'm not a union guy, but I didn't buy Jag, nor did I style the 500. One thing I know, though, is that those decisions were made, and they're in the past. As a result, all of us are going to have to make sacrifices to keep Ford afloat. This common attitude of "its not my fault the company is doing poorly, so I shouldn't have to make a single concession" will drive this company into the ground. Things are what they are, bad decisions and all. Get over it, move on, and grab those ankles. The alternative is simple: go work somewhere else. Swizco

Agreed, the '09 F150 was underwhelming. I guess this is the point of such an evevnt, though - they'll get a good ammount of feedback from all of us in time to adjust if they see fit. I wish they showed a better shot of the '10 mustang on the webcast - what they DID show us looked solid, though. The transit was a surprise guest, and will put the Dodge Sprinter out of business. Swizco

Its fixed. That's fixed, too. Have faith in us. Swizco

Recall also that the current 3.5L at 265hp only has a pair of vario-cam thingies on the intake cams, I believe. Once it sprouts a second pair on the exhaust cam, we'll be dealing with another 15hp, at least, without a displacement bump, DI, or premium tuning. Swizco

The PMFKAF will be built at OAP as an early '09. That other D car might be the next Explorer, and it pains me to say that.

Nope, Expy did, explorer didn't. The Explorer is much shorter and narrower, requiring unique architecture. Additionally, the T1 architecture would be massive overkill for the segment in terms of payload and towing.