UltimateX

I wanted Sync, and there are no Taurus X with Sync in the area yet.

The worst part was not the wait, but the constant flip-flopping on whether it was built or not. This week it is getting built for the third time. The dealer did come through and provided me with a demo car off the lot. My issue obviously is not with the dealer, but rather with Ford and we they manage there order process.

I have tried to email this to Ford, probably unsuccessfully. Maybe someone at Ford will see this. Alan Mulally: I have owned many Fords and Mercury’s over the years and I have been very happy with all of them. Earlier this year I saw several things from Ford that compelled me to consider replacing my current car, particularly the Sync and new redesigned Freestyle (Taurus X). This May I came to the conclusion that my 2000 Mercury Sable Wagon needed to be replaced, so off I went and tested all the competition along with an 07 Freestyle. The Taurus X came to the top of my list sight unseen, so I talked to my local dealer and they said I could put $500 refundable deposit down and order a Taurus X with Sync. I understood that Sync was late availability, and I would have a long wait, but my car was fine for the moment. In July the first Taurus X’s came in and I was able to test drive the vehicle, and confirm that this was the vehicle I wanted. So at this point it was a waiting game, but I placed my order in May so I reasoned that I would be one of the first in line to get my Taurus X with Sync. I stopped by the dealer once or twice a month for the first four months, just to check on the status and to see if they had heard any rumors about the release of Sync. On September 22, the dealer informed me that the hold on the Sync would be lifted on October 8th, so I figured that we were on the home stretch right. Here is the Chronology the order: 05/21/07 Order with $500 deposit 06/08/07 Sync is placing hold on order until October 09/22/08 Dealer says hold on Sync will be lifted October 8th 10/16/08 Taurus X on material hold, still. Dealer called regional sales rep. The hold was lifted in the afternoon. 10/19/08 Salesman called and said the car is being built as we speak. 11/23/08 Sales Manager informed me that the car was "clean" to build and would actually be built between 11/1 and 11/7 11/02/08 Still not built 11/12/08 Being built today or tomorrow. Delivery 2-3 weeks out. Need to sell the Sable Sunday, Dealer will try to get me a loaner. 11/16/08 Still not built, Status seems to have moved to "almost might be built soon maybe". As you can see my car was built and unbuilt several times over about month, leading me to become very frustrated with Ford and the order process. Based on this information, I sold my old car to a friend of the family, and promised it to him before the Thanksgiving weekend. So tomorrow I am selling the car to him, and it is looking like I may not have a car for at least several weeks now. This has left me in a very awkward situation were I may be forced to rent a car or consider a different vehicle. I have the money and I need a car, Ford makes the cars and needs the money. We are not talking about a rare Shelby Mustang; we are talking about a family car. This could be a beautiful thing, if we could just make it work. Maybe we could even build a whole business model around selling cars to customer who actually want them. This is what you need to do: - When a customer orders a vehicle, give them web page were they can track their order and see the status. The current system of asking the High Priest who consults the Oracle and comes back with a cryptic answer is not working. You could even throw in some digital cameras on the assembly line showing the vehicle at key positions in the process. Physical evidence that it is actually being built. - I found some information on the internet about allocation, and this process sounds like a mess. Retail paying customers should have the highest priority, again going back to the concept of selling cars to customers who actually want to buy them. I talked extensively with the dealer and they are very frustrated with this order, but also seem to have a lot of issues with the overall process. - Your parts suppliers need to be more adaptive to market demands. If chrome wheels are popular, make more chrome wheels. - You need to advertise your vehicles with exciting and compelling ads. The first Taurus ads were sappy, boring and rare. I hope Jim Farley is going to change this. The new Sync ads are great by the way. - I would also like to see more U.S. built vehicles, please don’t move anymore manufacturing to Mexico or Canada. Alan, thanks for your time. I hope this provides some incite from a customer’s point of view.

They reported correctly. The Tundra only received 4 stars from the government. IIHS gave the Tundra a top rating of good all round, see the link below. Starting this year pickups are getting side impact ratings. Looks like the Toyota is the first and only full sized pickup to have the new side impact test so far. Basically Toyota is best of one. http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=444 Here is the ABC article http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=3868064

You should look at the Taurus X. You can 2 kids in each row, and give each kid some room, and if you order the 7 seat option, you can have 3 kids in the second row, one kid in the third row and flip down the the other third row seat and have room for luggage. There is a decent amount of space behind the 3 row for all but the biggest trips.

Wow, that is a Chrysler sized excess inventory. How did Honda allow this to happen.

Honda's new design language is "Ugly" therefore Acura upscale image requires an upscale ugly.

Funny how things turn out. In order to beat GM, they have become GM. Sound like someone made a deal with the devil, and didn't have corporate legal review it.

Why has Ford chosen Canada to manufacture the Ford Flex? The Flex is based on the D3 platform and early mules were stretched Taurus X's. It would seem logical to build it in Chicago along side the other D3 platforms. Chicago is running significantly below capacity where as the Edge is selling very briskly and I would guess that Oakville is running much closer to capacity. Also with the sinking of the US dollar and the rise of the Canadian dollar this decision could drive the cost up significantly. Seems to be a poorly thought out decision that might impact the success of the Flex.

They are in the business of making money, and extended warranties are a big money maker for the dealers and insurers. In others words you are paying for the average cost of the warranties, the admin cost of the insurance and a (big?) profit margin. If you are a gambling man and can afford the small risk of large out of pocket expense don't do it. Hopefully by the time you have an issues, you will not be making car payments, so the bill will be offset some what. This advise applies to all purchases, not just cars.

Under heavy load the frame will just wrap around the driveshaft like a rubber band airplane.

What's the big red button on the dash. I looks like a Staples "Easy Button".

What issues? There are no issues. Ignore the man behind the curtain.

I would prefer disc brakes, but to be quite honest, about 70% of the braking comes from the front wheels, so the rear drums are not as critical as you might think.

Daimler still owns 20% of Chrysler, so I suspect that the Sprinter will remain.

Remember that Consumer Reports is a trailing indicator of quality, which means the indicator is several years behind current vehicles. It is based on the quality of vehicles manufactured 1 to 5 years ago, so lets say an average of 3 ago. If there is strong downward trend based on average 3 year old vehicle and certainly no obvious signs of improvement in the last 3 years. The downward trend will continue downward for the for at least several more years, even if they immediately start making reliable vehicles again. If you go to Edmunds and and check out the users reviews of the 07 Camry, there are many complains about the 4 cylinder hesitating in a dangerous fashion, under acceleration that seem to be related to the transmission. These are going to start weighing on the CR data over the next couple of years and probably remove the Camry completely from the recommended list, not just the V6. Ford has a strong upward trend, and obvious signs that the cars are getting better, so in a couple of years Ford may well be ahead of Toyota on these indicators, and there is nothing that Toyota can do about because the vehicles have already been manufactured. These long term indicators move very slowly and have a lot of momentum once they start moving either down or up, and can haunt a manufactures for many years. These indicators can also mislead a consumer who bases a purchase of a new vehicle based on past performance. As we stay in the stock market, "past performance, is no guarantee of future performance".

Because of the almighty dollar. If it is a design defect, they can't shutdown the factory for 6 months and lose 500,000 cars while they fix it. Better to push it out and let the dealers fix it. You know this sound really familiar, was there another manufacture or two that used to do this a while ago.

Simple, they move their lips.

My wife does not like the Ford styling but absolutely loves the Mercury styling. Ford is very bold and masculine where as Mercury is more refined and upscale. Mercury should match the upper end of the Ford lineup, and leave the lower end exclusively to Ford. Last I check about 50% of the buyers are female, that seems like a big market to me.

It is always better to lose a sale to yourself than to somebody else. In a lot of ways to auto industry has become one huge niche market. If Ford keeps walking away from these niche markets, there will be nothing left.

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/15/in-the-...us-limited-awd/

I saw the program this weekend, and they really seemed to like it.

Didn't you know, wagon is a bad word in the automobile industry.

Bonus's are performance driven, as are stock options. A stock option is just a right to purchase the stock in future at the current price. If Allan were to get a stock option today to buy 100,000 shares at the current price of $8.69. If the company does poorly, they are worthless, and if Ford is trading at $10 the value of the options is $10 minus $8.69 or $2.31 a share. Generally there are terms to the options, like you can't exercise the option for 2 years.

The Zephyr was a great name, and it is an actual name unlike the MK? or any of the other competitors. 32x, CTS, A6, RL, what kind of name are these, I like really proper names not letter-letter or number-number.