WingBender

Haven't heard any. Why don't we start one?

Perhaps you should consider switching to lite beer. Hope this helps.

July, actually. http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/13/news/compa...dex.htm?cnn=yes

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/reviews/2...eo-ghia-review/ A positive Ford review from them. I don't get it.

Let the fire sale begin. http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/21/news/compa...ysler/index.htm

Ford is doing its utmost to bore people to death when advertising the Taurus. They have chosen to focus on the cars crash test results. In combination with the car's non-descript looks, it's enough to put potential buyers to sleep. The Taurus may not be a thrill machine, but for heaven's sake do something to spice up its image!

Well, lessee here. Bought the RAV4 back in April. One of the windshield wipers was misaligned. The Bose stereo crapped out after one week. And when I park it in the garage, I sometimes catch the faint odor of coolant. Other than that, it's been fine. :D (All this with less than 5k on the odo.)

I was once chatting with a group of Microsofties when the subject of jetliner avionics came up. It was noted that Microsoft has never gotten into writing aircraft control software. I remarked that when you're cruising at 35,000 feet and the software locks up, you can't exactly invoke the Microsoft fix by shutting the airplane off and turning it back on again. I was met with icy glares.

This thread needs to be moved to The Competition forum.

The RAV4 is back, after a minor snafu. The dealer ordered the wrong leather kit for the car, so they had to order a new one. They replaced the dead stereo, and also adjusted a misaligned wiper. They didn't actually "install" the cargo mat and net; they just threw them in the back, but it was an easy fix. The car was gone a total of 8 days.

Another brand new RAV4 similar to mine, except it has the girlie four-banger instead of the V6.

Updates: One of the things the RAV4 is in for is to get leather installed. I found out today that the dealer ordered the wrong leather upholstery kit, and had to order a new one. Oops! The service guy took the stereo out of a brand-new RAV4 on the lot and wired it into my car to troubleshoot the problem (power but no sound). He confirmed that the stereo unit in my car is bad and ordered an new one from the supplier (JBL). I noted that one of the windshield wipers on my RAV4 looks like it parks about 10 degrees too high; they will check it out. It's looking like my car will be at the dealer for a total of about a week. That's okay though, because I have their loaner car hostage.

I have an on-line subscription to Condemner Reports, so I will be sure to note the audio system problem the next time they send out the car surveys!

The car will be staying for a few days for the add-on installations. They'll be giving us a loaner car. If the dealer is smart, he'll figure out if he needs to order parts to fix the stereo before doing anything, so he can have them in by the time the other work is finished. Like I said, we'll see....

Ha ha ha.... I thought of that, but it was scheduled to go in anyway next week to get some add-ons. This way, I'll only have to make one trip.

We took delivery of our new '07 RAV4 last week, and yesterday the fabulous JBL stereo quit working! It turns on, lights up, changes stations, but no sound! Allright all you 'Yota bashers, let it fly! I'll let you know how the dealer handles it when I take it in next week.

Ford's recent initial quality results are encouraging, but I agree that long-term reliability is what most people are concerned about. A lot of people buy a new car with the intent of owning it long after the warranty expires. That is when you find out what a car is really made of. Is Vehicle X known for water pump failures around 50k miles? 100k miles? Or can you expect the water pump to never fail for the life of the car? Initial quality surveys really only cover things that were either installed or built wrong.

As much as some people may want to cry foul over Mulally's paycheck, you have to remember that in order to attract top management talent, Ford (or anyone) has to pay top dollar. The company could have offered a smaller compensation package when it was doing its CEO search, but it would have wound up with a mediocre CEO.

Having owned two Hondas and two Fords, I feel qualified to comment on the ownership experience with both brands. We had a bare-bones '89 Civic hatchback which was purchased new for $7100. After 8 years and 80,000 miles, we sold it for $4000 -- less than 50% depreciation! It wasn't a perfect car by any means. The handling was not what I would describe as "tight". The engine sounded like a diesel when started cold. The upholstery shredded itself. But one incident showed me why Honda has been so successful in the U.S. market. The ignitor switch quit, leaving my wife stranded. The dealer said this was a known problem, paid for the towing, and paid for the replacement even though the car was past warranty! Compare that to an experience with my Probe. The distributor died, and the car was towed to a dealer. Turns out, this was also a known problem. Since the distributor is part of the emissions system, it falls under the 5/50 warranty. The car was under 50k miles and one month past 5 years at the time. Ford basically told me to go hose myself as far as getting any kind of compensation on the $800 repair. So in my experience, there is a vast difference between how Honda and Ford treat their customers. And don't even get me started on the Check Engine Light queen Contour.

Jeremy Clarkson is in love with the sound of his own voice. His views on cars tend to be polarized. Everything is either brilliant, or it is crap. The differences between the Cadillac and Mercedes coupes are probably not nearly as extreme as he makes them out to be. Remember, he is an entertainer first, and an automotive authority second.

Don't forget that British Leyland was a nationalized industry. As such, it was doomed to failure from the start. Having the government run an automobile manufacturer is a slightly worse idea than having GM run the show.

Very well said, DM. Ford began losing the plot back in the mid-90's. One-by-one, it began eliminating car lines without replacing them (T-bird, Probe, Contour, etc.). The company was feasting at the pickup/SUV banquet, and their passenger car lines became an afterthought. Their strategy was to neglect their cars, content to let them become fleet fodder (high volume, low margin), while rolling in the huge profits on trucks and SUVs. Remember the '99 Cougar? Ford had a number of high-performance concepts for it: all-wheel drive, supercharging, SVT engine.... And what did they end up doing? They did jack. They just went on building it with the basic Contour powertrains, and watched it sink in the market. They teased us with the goodies, but they never put out. You live by the truck, you die by the truck, and right now the company is on life support. It is going to be a long, hard slog to get enthusiasts interested in Ford again. It is very important that these types of buyers talk up your products, because car enthusiasts influence the buying decisions of non-enthusiasts through word-of-mouth. One can only hope that Alan Mulally will be able to break down the fiefdoms that rule the company, and get the appealing products it produces globally to the American marketplace. We'll be watching with interest.

It's an upide-down John Leahy, the sales chief for Airbus. An American, he is known for publically trash talking Boeing, although with the success of the 787 and the delays on the A380, he has been amazingly quiet lately. He is a very tenacious salesman.

What is notable about Mulally is some of the things that are absent from his management style. He will never use punishment and retribution to solve a problem. And woe to those he witnesses trying to do that to others. He will implore you, "What are you going to do to help your colleague fix the problem he finds himself with?" The best thing you can do when dealing with Mulally is to throw open the door to your closet, show him all the skeletons, and tell him that you are open to ideas. If you try to tell him the sun is shining when it is pissing down rain, he will figure you out very quickly. It sounds like a lot of those "sunny day" guys have been shown the door already.

So you could see that the brake lights were on from your vantage point lying under the front of the car? You lose credibility right there. Why not just accept the driver's testimony that he had his foot on the wrong pedal. Quit trying to blame Ford for your injuries, stop being so bitter about your lot, and move on with your life.