packardbob
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Posts posted by packardbob
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Hencho en Mexico has little to do with it...Dodge is aggressively pricing their product to undercut Ford on purpose. Your dealership should have contacted Ford Commercial Sales to give them a shot at making the deal.
I agree Dodge is aggressively pricing their product to undercut Ford but there is a reason why Dodge can go lower than Ford. If Dodge pays their Mexican workers less than what Ford pays their Ketucky workers, Dodge can afford to sell their product for less and still make the same amount of profit as Ford does per truck. I would consider that a huge advantage when it comes to pricing. I can imagine the 6.0 is still a reason why people are staying away from Ford when it comes to replacing their truck, I just don't think it's that big of a reason anymore. I don't think the Crummins is that great of an option right now, esspecially since the Durajap and the Powerjoke are really great engines in trucks that don't seem to fall apart nearly as fast as a Dodge does, or at least did.
When it comes to fleet sales, municipalities are allowed to piggy back off of state bids and Ford was the highest with trucks but lowest with E Series vans and Fusions. (The new ambulances were 6.0 diesels. Where are they getting these things?) When we got the state bid for four new vehicles, we took them to our Ford dealer in an effort to buy local and they said they could not get the price down low enough to match the bids on trucks but we were able to buy a Fusion locally.
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It's all about the Cummins
I think price has alot to do with it too. I think the lower wage cost that "Hecho en Mexico" gives Dodge is a huge advantage in pricing that Ford does not have. Our municipality fleet is slowly switching from Ford even though we only have a Ford dealership in our town and it is because Fords bids are way higher than Dodges and GMs. For the sake of buying local, we broke policy and went to our Ford dealership and asked them if they would meet or beat the bids from GM and Dodge. They said they can't go any lower so we have three brand new Chevys. Maybe Ford is just chasing higher profit sales, but it looks bad when Dodge is beating you in sales with what most would agree is an inferior product. Speaking from our past Dodge products, they just do not hold up in fleet use as well as our Fords do.
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But not with a Chevy engine.
I agree. There isn't anything more aggravating than seeing a classic Ford or Mopar at a car show with a Chevy 350 engine providing power. How cheap and lazy can you be? Ford powers Ford, GM powers GM, Mopar powers Mopar. The good thing is that this is being looked down on by more and more people. The small block Chevy is such a boring looking engine and the LS engines are pretty much the same even though they are draped in plastic covers. Love them or hate them the Ford Modular engines look good and make great power. All I did was put "Power By Ford" coil covers on the valve covers on my Marauder and I get a lot of complements at shows.
I like what Ford is doing too. I'm so glad that they are doing this; it is pretty sweet. Hopefully they will be able to do a 34 Ford or maybe even a 64 Continental. I would love to have either one.
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Joe/7M3-good info- actually with that slopping hood I wondered if those buses did not have Deutz air cools. Remember the Osterlund Giant? (Diamond Reo cab with a Deutz) Not good news for Foird that F'liner will be offering the GM- V-8. No substitue for cubes in a truck application. Others have posted about the 6.2 V-8 having pottential to grtow but I don't think it has the potential to go to 8 liters.
any thoughts on that?
I thought that the GM Big Block went out of production. Is this 8.0L based on a different GM engine? As for the Ford/Blue Bird Vision connection, I remember seeing pictures of the two buses that were made with Ford badges on the front. I tried looking and will post them when I find them. It's too bad Ford couldn't have been supplier for the Visions, those things are everywhere.
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City police just took delivery of two of them on Thursday and I saw them on patrol Friday. They look better in person than in the pics we have been seeing. They look really mean. The wheels look kind of cheap, but not any worse than some of the last wheel covers they were putting on the CVPI its last few years. It will be interesting over the next few years to compare maintenance costs between the CVPI and the new Taurus. I'm sure they will go down because of fuel savings alone, but I want to see how it works out mechanically.
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Ford obviously doesn't take the studies seriously enough. With an all out assault from Hyundai and a rebounding Chrysler and GM as well as Toyota, Ford needs to get it together. They can't get by on looks alone, people will not deal with poor quality.
From a consumers point of view, does it really matter what the specific problems are that are that dragging Ford down? Seriously, the only thing people will do is look at the chart, see Ford toward the bottom and make a judgement based on that. They wont look to see why they are at the bottom, just that they are at the bottom.
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Transit Connect?
Transit
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I wonder what pricing will be, I need a van to replace the crappy Chevy Astro I have to haul my survey equipment around in. When will these be available here?
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Should've had a V8. Ford nails down their problems with diesels only to have new problems reappear on a gas engine. Not just any engine either, an engine that Ford was banking on replacing V8s with. If they don’t step up and fix the issue before people start getting really pissed off, the problems will be way over exaggerated and it will be the 6.0L all over again. Ford needs to nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand. It doesn't matter whether or not the problem is as big as critics think, it matters how well or how poorly Ford deals with it.
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This really sucks, what a name this plant has made for itself building engines that are tough as nails.
Right, that was where the Super Duty 401, 475, 477, and 534 came from.
Interesting engines. Never knew of the 475, only the other three. A few years ago, I drove a late 60s C800 with a water tank and a 477 (I was told). It seemed to maintain the same level of gutlessness no matter how much or how little it was loaded down. I couldn't believe how fast that sucker burned through gas too. Despite its shortcomings, it ran perfect, worked hard, never gave me a lick of trouble and always did what I asked it to do.
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The 289 was also an option on the 1964 Comet.
I thought the 289 came out as an option in 64.5 Mustangs and the rest of the lineup in 65. Oh well, I got the right engine family.
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I don't think I would worry much about Dodge or GM. I was kind of bummed when GM said they were putting the DMAX 4500 in the half tons and Ford would not follow with the 4.4. But after thinking about it, who is going to pay a $5000 to $7000 premium over a gas engine? Basically it's for nothing other than saying it has a diesel and gets better mileage even though it has impractical amounts of power for a half ton and you will never make the difference up in fuel savings to pay for the cost of the engine . The 3.2 that Ford is expected to be putting in their trucks will at least be able to sell itself on better fuel economy, lower cost than the DMAX, and practical amounts of power for a half ton. Remember, even though it may not be clear to us, there is a reason why Ford does not put the 4.4 in a half ton, whether it be cost, or only small improvements in fuel economy there is a reason. If Ford can make the case to put it in a half ton and make money off of it, they will. As for GM and Dodge being better than Ford, I picture them just now catching up to Ford, perhaps even benchmarking current Ford trucks to beat rather than trying to be better, but as we know Ford is very serious about trucks and has been working on a new one since the day the current model came out. It wont take much for Ford to best either one of these companies.
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In an earlier story about her pointing things out on the engine I saw it was a V8. The only V8 I could find for 64 Comets was the 260 Windsor. It also said the car had a valve job and her mechanic told her to stop using Pennzoil.
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It seems understandable to me, we can't get a bid on a Ford around here, the competition keeps getting the lowest bid. We have Ford guys having to drive Dodge and Chevy trucks since we have to go with lowest responsible bid and it is never Ford. Is Ford not wanting to sell at a competitive price or are dealerships pricing themselves out of competition? I sure would like to know, these trucks we're getting don't seem to hold up under abuse as well as a Ford, or in Chevys case they don't hold up at all.
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Maybe Ford is doing the same thing they did with the 6.7 diesel when it came out. Draw GM out with under inflated hp and torque numbers to see what the competition has in store. They fell for it once and GM is pretty stupid so why not twice? Even if hp and torque are not as good, the Fusion is no doubt the better looking of the two cars. I think it looks fantastic. I've been looking to dump my Buick for something and I think the new Fusion could be it.
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I have heard a few people claim that the 2006 Super Duty is the best looking. This is ludicrous. The current and 2013 Super Duty is the best looking hands down.
The second pic is of a 99-04 Super Duty not an 05-07. The bars in the grille were a little thicker and more broad than the one you have pictured for 06. I agree with them, best looking so far were the 05-07 trucks. Not too in your face, but bold enough to be noticed.
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We just got purchase orders to replace two CVs with Taurus PIs. We're sticking with Ford too.
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I can't believe Chevrolet is showing people the horrible interior and dated exterior of their pickups in their Super Bowl commercial. They should have made a Super Bowl ad for some other Chevrolet vehicle, something not outdated in every way.
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Lucky. I would love to have one of those. Definitely one of the best Lincolns ever made.
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One of the many things Top Gear has done with the Ford Transit. It is quite an impressive van.
Part 1
Part 2
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Proof that Ford can, or at least could, build a world class luxury car. I don't know what Ford needs to do with Lincoln, but I think something along the lines of the Continental would be nice. At least build something to get people talking about Lincoln as a luxury car manufacturer again as opposed to a rebadged Ford.
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At least it didn't go to Saudi Arabia.
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Thanks for the read. I will miss the Panthers as well. I was lucky enough to tour St. Thomas Assembly in June with 60 or so other Panther enthusiasts. Our tour guide was the powertrain engineer for the plant and made the tour very interesting. By the time we got our tour, there were only about 50 salaried workers left whereas the plant usually employed about 300 so they were struggling to find tour guides. I'm glad our guide stepped up to give the tour, he was very good.
I'm one of the few people that doesn't believe you should feel every bump in the road. It isn't any wonder why people don't cruise anymore, who wants to cruise the streets in a car that rides like crap? My mothers 2011 Edge rides like a lumber wagon compared to my Marauder and my father agrees. As I recall, the suspension on the Marauder is stiffer than Crown Vics and Grand Marquis. In short, I would rather deal with an underpowered V8 than have to feel every bit of the road under my tires.
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I saw two of them the other day which is kind of odd for rural Nebraska. They were doing some utility work in the highway ROW for some out of town boring company. I thought they were E-Series at first but then I realized they were much uglier than that.
Chicago 2013: Ram ProMaster commercial van
in Competing Products
Posted
Oh my goodness it is horrible looking. Not really the tough guy design I thought it would be and in fact quite the opposite. Isn't (or wasn't) the Ford Duratorq 2.2L the base diesel engine for the Fiat version? I think they should sell that one here too, lol. Ram, Powered by Ford.