packardbob
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Posts posted by packardbob
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I like the new Focus, I haven't seen any on the road yet though, and our Ford dealership here hasn't had any come in yet. I just wish they would bring a wagon over here, I would buy one without a doubt.
Here in Corn Country ethanol is a joke, E85 is subsidized by the Federal Government. It needs to lose its subsidies and then we will see how much it will cost. Farmers around here admit it's a scam, but they just laugh and joke about it on their way to the bank to cash their crop and subsidy checks.
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No, it is not the cast iron Lima 2.3L, it is the all aluminum Duratec. The 4.0L is not the 300 or the 240, it is a 244 I think it is the Aussie 4.0L I6.
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Anderson Equipment in Omaha still carries Ford engines, a 1.6L I4, a 2.3L I4, 4.0L I6, and the 6.8L V10. I've seen some boats with the 2.3L and they certainly had some get up and go, wonder how the 4.0 I6 would compare? The website looks current so it looks like Ford still sells power products, maybe Ford just isn't as concerned with the market as GM.
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I wonder if Ford would be willing to sell a propane version of the V10 to Blue Bird for use in the Vision since the Vortec 8100 is no longer in production? I would like to see it happen. Personally I wish Ford would never have gotten out of the bus chassis market. I guess they had their reasons to quit. I didn't understand why Ford chose not to supply Blue Bird in 2003 when BBs chassis contract was up with GM. Could it have been stipulations with Blue Diamond or breach of contract with Freightliner perhaps?. I remember reading that there were prototypes based off the F750 chassis and that they were quite good. Too bad nothing came of them, there are tons of Blue Bird Visions around here and to think that every one of them could have been built on a Ford chassis is kind of sad. I have been told when the Ford contract fell through, Blue Bird designed the front of the Vision using a similar sloped hood as found on the prototype Ford F750 bus because they provided greater visibility around the front. I have found nothing in print to back that up, it's just an interesting thought that although it isn't a Ford, maybe it was inspired by one somewhat, lol.
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Didn't Pipas from Ford say today that GM was doing the same targeted incentives they were doing before bankruptcy? It's good to see that GM has learned absolutely nothing in the past two years on how to run a business, except how to run it in the ground. Idiots!
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Are they going to sell the Focus Wagon in the US? There seems to be sources that say yes and others that say no. I really hope they do. I need a more fuel efficient vehicle soon, but the wagon was the only Focus model that appealed to me. Any info would be appreciated.
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This is the Motor City and this is what we do...what does that mean? You could apply that however you wanted. This is the Motor City and we build cars with Hyundai grilles that nobody wants with shoddy build quality and lousey resale, thats what we do. I guess its no worse than the stupid Ford Focus commercial nobody got, they were asking me if it was a commercial for a car or for a race, I just told them both. Or how about the dumb, Chevy Runs Deep in debt and wants old people to buy Chevys brand new cars that already look 10 years old commercials...Come on, this was the Super Bowl! What happened to good, funny, emotional, meaningful advertising? I'm kind of pissed now, but I think I deserve to be, I watched the Super Bowl for the car commercials and was really expecting more from all of them. I guess Ford had the least to lose seeing as how they didn't spend tons of money advertising during the game, but a commercial ABOUT the upcoming Focus would have been better IMO.
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It's no wonder why it was tucked away in the corner by itself. It's ugly. It's like they wanted to know what a grille would look like if they took the previous 10 years of Ford Super Duty grilles and mashed them in to one.
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This is one of those cars that if it ever gets in an accident it will only make it look better. That thing is hideous. The only thing it kind of has going for it is the 1.4 L Turbo, although it only has 18 or so HP more than the naturally aspirated Ford if I read correctly. When is the Fiesta ST going to be ready to roll? The Ford will school them no problem.
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I really enjoyed the old ads in the slideshow, I have always liked the looks of Mercury over its Ford counterpart, I am truly sad to see it go. My father and grandfather usually bought only Mercury cars, I had been following suit but now am left with quite a dilemma. I was thinking about Mercury and its past yesterday while watching Hawaii Five O (the original) and was wondering how rare and how much some of those old Mercurys are worth. His 68 Park Lane Brougham and his 74 Marquis Brougham Hardtop (last year for a full size, four door hardtop I believe) and all. 1970s cars were bulky, huge tanks, but I loved them all, they float over every bump (especially Ford products), who can deny the fact that fender skirts looked good on this era of cars, and on top of that a 460 V8 and curb feelers! I wish I could find myself a big old Merc like McGarretts and give it a good home.
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I would be all for that, I think that would be great to see. Up until recently Ford has been the best in trucks, any truck you wanted, Ford had it. Light duty, medium duty, heavy duty, Ford had the truck for the job. I still see tons of old L Series and even some C Series trucks around western nebraska and eastern wyoming, and they haven't made them for 12, 13, 20 years or so? It's obvious if they are still around that long after they made them, that Ford knew what they were doing when they built them. Our city used to employ nothing but Fords for everything, snow plows, sewer trucks, garbage trucks, service trucks, and now most of it is international and chevy
Come on Ford, get serious about it, you were top dog for quite some time, we know you have it in you, so get to it. -
Why are they going for model years 2003-2007 only? Didn't they continue to put the 6.0 in Econoline vans through the 2009 model year? The only thing any of our fleet had wrong with the 6.0 was the 03 we had was in the shop for recalls all the time, other than that the only reason it was in the shop was for regular service and our 07's have been great. The general reputation of the 6.0 has soured our purchasing of all diesels though, our last couple of trucks have been a 3/4 Dodge with a Hemi and a 3/4 Chevy with a 8.1 gasser. Both are gashogs and the Chevy has had serious tranny problems 3 times. The Dodge seems to do nothing other make alot of noise at low rpms, you seem to have to really punch it to get any power out of it which is why I suspect it uses so much gas. I really hope the 6.7 earns a reputation as a great engine, I want to go back to diesels and quit screwing around with gassers.
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I bet when you pull up to the pump you wish Ford would really lighten the truck up. LOL just kidding. Long term durability is only one of the reasons the Ford weighs more. That 800-1200 pounds extra you get on a Ford is designed to create the most stable towing platform you can buy. Have you ever maxed out GVWRs on a Chevy or Dodge? It's a challenge on the Dodge and downright scary on the Chevy. Granted it has been a few years since I have pulled anything with a truck as I now have a more stable gig, but towing with a Ford feels alot safer than towing with either of the other two in both solidity and control.
On a side note I saw one of those Max and Al commercials on TV, I had no idea that crap was seriously made for a TV commercial, I thought it was kind of an internet advertisement that only diesel diehards might see. They really need to come up with some better stuff than that if they want to appeal to heavy duty truck buyers. The first thing my uncle asked me was if Max and Al were supposed to come off as gay. So unless GM is trying to appeal to gay heavy duty truck buyers only, they might want to change their advertising strategies a bit.
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Does anybody ever read Popular Mechanics? Ford beat Chevy and Dodge in their comparison. I would believe Popular Mechanics long before any car rag nowadays MT are after advertising dollars and I think whoever has the spent the most has the best chance of winning. I will admit the Chevy HD does make a better car than the Ford SD though. Ever ridden in one? At least they're good for something. Too bad the IFS needs rebuilt every 40000 miles if being used to tow anything serious. And the best mod to these trucks is taking the "legendary" Allison tranny apart and putting HD components in them, otherwise they will crap out. These trucks are pretty much a joke and I would be far more concerned with Dodge than with Chevy. Dodge has Cummins on their side and years of diesel building experience to back them up, they use axles from Dana like Ford does, they finally have started buying automatic transmissions from Aisin and they have made great improvements in their interiors. Now if their trucks weren't so damn ugly they might have something.
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The grille looks like it's off a freightliner.
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I was perplexed by the engine braking results, or the results in general. From reading about the exhaust braking system here and at FTE, it doesn't seem possible it could be that bad. It was brought up at FTE that the way they were described in the write up, they weren't using it correctly or at least not using it the same way the truck owners do. One tap of the brakes and it should slow the truck down10mph from where it was originally set or something ?, how could Ford have not tested this under a heavy load? I kind of agree with these guys that maybe they didn't know how it worked. Another thing I was wondering is why Ford didn't send a rep like Chevy did? Was this sponsored by Chevy? Did Chevy pick the testing place and procedure? Plus somebody mentioned the wheels/tires on an F450 are bigger than the Chevy 3500HD, thats a factor. Anyway, I don't think this changes many minds, in HD applications, it is common knowledge that the Allison can't take much more HP than stock without being rebuilt with more stout parts, and the front IRS falls apart long before Dodges and Fords solid front axle. GMs front ends are garbage, their interiors are dated and boring, and the doors on all 3 of our Chevys seemed to have developed a nasty habit of not lining up right so you really have to slam it to get the door shut all the way.
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Maybe GM wants something a little less French sounding than Chevrolet. So now they are going with just Chevy...and a slogan that means nothing...to promote cars that appeal to nobody. Hmmm.
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I personally don't want to shake hands with anything that has a sexual connotation as it's name...
Thats kind of funny you say that, we were talking about Dodges name schemes the other day at work and noticed that there are a few have to do with sex, esspecially when it comes to the male side of things. Ram, Magnum, Big Horn, Hemi sounds kind of like Semi, there were a few more but I can't remember them off the top of my head.
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Why would one purchase a "luxury vehicle" from a bankrupt vehicle manufacturer? I just don't get it. It's like buying your wife lingerie from a hooker, it's tainted. They most certainly aren't anything special to look at either, they are quite obnoxious looking. Don't get me wrong, Lincoln is a joke right now too, but Lincoln isn't claiming much right now and Cadillac thinks they can compete with European car makers, I will tell them that they can't. The 7 Series and E Series Mercs are everything Cadillac will never be. They have substance, they have soul, they are purpose designed, whereas a Cadillac is just another GM. Apart from that, these anouncements from GM are evidence that in fact they haven't learned their lesson. How ever many years ago GM started dumping all this money into Cadillac, didn't they even bother to stop and think to throw some of that money to Chevy (they sound alot like our federal government, "just throw some money at it, it will fix it"). Isn't Chevy their volume seller? You know the brand that should have been keeping GM profitable while they were reinventing Cadillac? So, now they have a "luxury" brand that has been reinvented and probably quite unprofitable for years to come due to their large initial investment, and their volume seller that is starved for R&D and is embarassing at best. Bravo GM, with lousy decisions like these you have proven to be an excellent addition to the US federal gov't.
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I couldn't believe it when I saw Steve driving a Camaro, Steve hanging a guy off of a roof, Steve torturing people, and I have to watch Chevy commercials during the show (oooooh, watch out focus). I'm a nut for the original 5-0, I own the first 9 seasons on DVD, but the new 5-0 is turning in to a big disapointment.
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Maybe Ford should claim to be the best selling US auto manufacturer by ignoring GM. If the Caprice is coming to the US equiped as was tested and the unavailable Ford kicked its ass now, just imagine how much better the PI will be when it is released. I have a feeling Ford will not be sitting around for the next year, content with the car the way it is. They will be making it better every day until it is released.
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I'm sure the people that bought the 50 "Final Edition" Vipers are going to be happy about this. Personally I don't see the point in Chrysler investing money they don't have in to a car that can't make them very much money.
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BTW, I think a comedian is an appropriate choice as a spokesman for GM.
Why is that? Because GM is a joke?
I think Tim Allen built two cars on his TV show, Home Improvement and both were Fords as I recall. Can anybody confirm that? They surely could have found somebody better, they should have tried Frank Caliendo, he's a comedian, and he can be most anybody you want to in voice overs.
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His Mercs were a 67 Marquis (two door), a 68 Park Lane Brougham, and a 74 Marquis Brougham. The 74 Marquis is supposed to make appearances in the new show, I'm not sure as its role though. It is kind of funny to watch the cars carefully and see a different car show up than what we just saw driving, or watching who is driving them or how many people are in the car and then see how many arrive and get out of the car, often it wasn't the same number. I guess they just figured it would be cheaper to reuse older footage with the hopes people wouldn't notice when watching.
Ford Shortages Cost it Sales
in Ford Motor Company Discussion Forum
Posted
My mothers Edge finally made its way up from Denver along with 7 other Fords. The dealership remarked that they were all spoken for before arrival, and already have two cars coming up on the next car hauler sold. Much like the article stated, the dealership isn't having trouble moving product, they are having trouble getting product in. Ford is really selling the hell out of their vehicles. I guess that's better than having to dump a bunch of money on the hood to get it off the lot.