akirby

Bingo! It sounds great to say you have the #1 selling vehicle in a certain market and in the past Ford actively chased such accolades. I remember buying my first Ranger in 1989 because they were practically giving them away to maintain their #1 sales position (std cab, SWB 2wd manual with chrome wheels, am/fm cassette 4 spkrs, sliding rear window and chrome bumpers for $7995). Ford would rather have one plant running full throttle and selling all of those vehicles without incentives than to increase production by 50% (requiring huge investment in another plant at 50% capacity) and putting $3K-$5K incentives on each one to sell them. GM doesn't get this yet so they're still trying to push volume even if it means huge incentives. Until they bite the bullet and cut back production to meet actual demand - like Ford did a couple of years ago - and get rid of Buick and GMC they'll never be anything but marginally successful. Ford sells as many (if not more) vehicles as GM but they do it with half the employees. Which company was more profitable (even with gov't debt relief for GM)?

The article says current orders are ok but they don't want any new orders.

Ask yourself this - if the odds were in your favor, what would happen to the company selling the warranty? Answer? They'd go out of business. On average you will come out cheaper overall if you insure yourself. You might lose on one or two vehicles but overall you'll save money (again, on average - there are always exceptions, just like there are people who sometimes win in Vegas). And it's not cheap - you're looking at $1500-$1800 for full coverage. I've had my last 4 vehicles at least 2 years beyond the warranty and I've never had a repair that would have been covered by an extended warranty. Add in 2 of my wife's vehicles that also went 2 years beyond warranty coverage and I've saved at least $9K by not buying extended warranties. I can pay for a new engine tomorrow and still be way ahead. I get a lot more peace of mind knowing I have $9K in my pocket, but to each his own. If you feel lucky (or unlucky) then go for it but understand its a gamble and the odds are not in your favor.

That's BS and possibly illegal.

Take a look at profits instead. Ford isn't chasing volumes any more - they're chasing profit.

Those were the actual test numbers using the OLD test procedures and calculations which heavily favored the Prius because it was a hybrid. They didn't change the tests or make up better numbers for the Prius.

Look at it this way - Ford gave Mulally 3.9M shares of stock back in 2008 worth somewhere around $6M. Is $6M too much? Because the stock price increased from $1.43 to $14, that stock is now worth $56M. It didn't cost Ford $56M - it came from the people who bought the stock that was sold. THAT is what happened. Ford did NOT write Mulally a check for $56M. Is it ok that people who bought Ford stock when it was $1.43 and sold it when it was $14 (or $18) made that much money?

Is this where we point out (again) how many employees at Ford vs. GM?

Bingo! SAAR dropped from 17M in 2006 to 11M in 2010 - or close to that.

Keep getting conflicting info on the incentive lock program. It used to only be available to a subset of dealers but not it appears they're widened it but I haven't seen anything official that says when or where it's available. Since I decided to hold off on the truck for 6-12 months and get my daughter's Focus instead I'll look into it.

Negotiation tactic.

I'm not an employee or salesperson - that's why I went to the website. I don't have access to the official order guide. Any reasonable person would assume the Ford website is correct until proven otherwise.

Really? Regardless, I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings by saying wrong, wrong, wrong. I should have just said according to the Ford website..........

What the union workers fail to acknowledge is that the market has changed and the wages and benefits that they received in the past are not necessarily warranted in the new market environment. Nobody wants to lose wages or benefits but that's what happens when the market changes. And it's something the entire rest of the workforce has had to deal with for decades.

Excuse me for assuming the official Ford website is correct. And I'm not about to go check the order guide against the website every time somebody asks a question. But now that we've established that you're NEVER wrong I guess you can just post all the correct answers from now on.

Hmmm.....that came directly from the ford.com website (click on Focus, Models, SE). But you're right - build and price says it's not included. So one of them is wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. That is MyFord + Sync. Basic Sync is part of the 200A SE base package.

It's part of the 200A "base" package.

Actually, Sync is available without MyFord or MyFord Touch and it is standard on SEs - it's part of the base package. It's not available at all on S models. S - no Sync or MyFord or MyFord Touch SE - standard Sync elements w/usb, MyFord optional SEL - standard Sync, MyFord, MyFordTouch optional Titanium - standard Sync and MyFordTouch

The "old and tired" part is having to continually remind people that you can't sell $20K economy cars and $50K - $75K true luxury vehicles under the same brand. That's why VW has Audi. That's why Honda has Acura. That's why Toyota has Lexus. That's why Nissan has Infiniti. That's why the VW Phaeton failed. You need a separate brand to justify the higher costs to most buyers. What you don't need is 3 brands. Because they kept Buick GM is now forced to decontent Chevys which cheapens the brand even more. Mercury served no purpose because Ford was willing to take the Ford brand upscale to cover that price range and feature set. Any vehicle that could have been targeted to Mercury can be done as a high end Ford or a low end Lincoln just as easily. It is absolutely the right business decision for Ford. How much it pays off depends on how well they do with the new vehicles and how successful they are turning around the Lincoln dealership experience. I think that will be much harder than designing and building great vehicles. And BTW - killing Mercury was also necessary to weed out the marginal Lincoln/Mercury dealers.

Ford sold off the other brands because they weren't profitable and they didn't need them. It wasn't because they were forced.

Looks like we fired missiles to disable Libya's anti-aircraft abilities to protect the planes enforcing the no-fly zone.

They haven't said yet. Probably depends on how much he wants to change them.

I understand completely why you're frustrated, disappointed, etc. I have a $750 rebate that expires 4/4 and I don't think I'll find a suitable Focus in stock by that time, so believe me I understand. There is a difference between being disappointed and blaming Ford for doing something wrong. Anytime you pre-order a car before it's in full production you run the risk of having to wait a long time. You should factor that into your buying decision.