twintornados

The Crown has made the jump to fleet with both feet...it seems like this is Fords' way to promote the new Taurus. Now....about the fleet CV...make it the ultimate bad ass cop car...put the most powerful engine ya got under the hood...and for all the taxi's...how about a 4.2 V6 with a Hybrid setup...should be no problems with room/packaging. If the V6/Hybrid is a durable success in this package.....then it could migrate to Grand Marquis and light trucks. As for a car that you could walk into a dealership and buy....the Crown is dead, long live the Crown! Hell, if they have relegated CV to the fleets....they should take the Crown Victoria name off it and rename it the LTD for taxi and rental, and 500 for police. (or vice versa) Save the Crown Vic name for an upscale future product. Don't let the Crown Victoria name be sullied by "fleeting" it....it is what drove the value of the previous Taurus into the ground.

...And lets not forget the Firestone/Explorer debacle....was it Firestones' fault?? Hell no!! All the media hype was "Explorer rolls over..' never, "Firestone tires cause rollover.."

Variable gear rack and pinion??

I dont give a good goddamn how Toyota does it as long as Im making good pay. Im only in it for the money. ...And that is what is wrong with America today....no loyalty, just give me $$$. I want more money too, but I draw the line somewhere. I am glad that you finally saw the light Tom and realize that Toyotas are not a gift from the gods...but instead are made by humans, and designed by humans, and therefore are fixed by humans when they get broken by humans. That supplier no doubt has some 'splainin to do to Mother Toyota. It also highlights why "outsourcing" is such a bad concept. I worry about Fords continued use of outsourcing with the recent loss of Windsor and other casting plants.

Well, its nice to know they are finally "on the ground" at dealerships....will have to ride by my Ford store and take a look....

Meelaan...any advertisement needs to include the whole aspect of Ford...from sales, to use, to returning for service, to trading for another new Ford...and the circle continues. Only Ford knows Fords best.....

Tom, Seeing as you work on Toyota product, I am glad that you stepped up and admitted that they too break. My prediction is now that Camry is in the hands of so many consumers....you will see a slow shift to poorly maintained cars that will become expensive to repair. Back in the day when I sold Toyota (early 90's) There weren't as many people buying them compared to Ford and GM, and the main customer was chiefly higher educated professionals that rarely, if ever missed a service cycle, and always had the service done at the dealerships with factory genuine parts. Fast forward to today and Camry is being bought in droves by people that used to buy Fords and Chevrolets. The same droves that drive them into the ground, and get the cheapest place they can find to fix them.....oil change intervals are going by, cheap-o bulk tank oil being used (wrong viscosity too no doubt), clogged filters, no tire rotations being done, service checks being ignored....once the hallmark of the domestic crowd....now being done to Toyotas and Hondas...as you already know as a mechanic, no car can be ignored like that and expect to get good use out of it forever. Couple that with the latest round of dealer consolidations where long standing smaller dealerships (where the owner of the place had an office there, and his wife was his secretary) are being bought up by mega dealers whose first, last, and always concern is the almighty dollar sign. The older, smaller dealerships actually gave a $H!t about your business, and when a mechanic made a mistake on your car....the owner would come to you and apologize and make it right...now its, "hide it and charge more if you can." I hope that something changes, but it doesn't look good....mega dealers will slowly push small local shops out of business, then to increase their bottom line, get rid of the higher skilled mechanics that get paid more money due to their education and experience and replace them with "service sharks" as you call them...little concern for actually doing a good job....just fix it quick and move on to the next job. That happened at my hometown Ford store....all the higher paid mechanics were canned and replaced by a bunch of kids that worked for less $$$ and the backshop quality went right out the window. It is already happening at the Toyota store my parents bought their Camry at...they refuse to bring it back there for service and either drive it to the next town for service or have me do it, because as my father says, "At least when you service it, I know it is done right." Is there a way to make this into a commercial?? Doubtful, but I am sure it can be done if we try.

Good job GM!! If they can get more people to put domestics on the list....they may even consider a Ford as well....Ford needs to keep the advertising pressure on...how about a domestic tie in....GM and Ford running ads going after that customer. And if all else fails....the dealer can always sell the Camry and get another one....one thing to remember is that with todays mega-dealers and auto malls....where one owner has multiple dealers at one location....this will only help them sell more cars.....the shopper sees the Camry at "XYZ Chevrolet mega dealer" will then just walk over to "XYZ Toyota mega dealer" and both salespeople will "share" the sale.

Tom...apology accepted.

Oh...I didn't mention working as a salesman at a Toyota dealership since I didn't work in the backshop...but seeing as you brought it up (working at a dealership) Got a huge news flash for ya "Tommy Boy"....the Toyota mechanics are the same sharks you claim to have seen at the Ford dealership....I have seen the Toyota shop "fix" a customer car with parts off a car on the lot....charge Toyota for the job, then bring the donor car in for warranty work and hit Toyota again....waddaya think there "Tommy Boy"....you were the only one to see the inner workings of a dealership? Don't think for a minute that the gates of heaven open and harps begin to play when you walk into the Toyota repair shop....the same guy that owns the Toyota dealership...owns the Ford store up the street.

Poor "Tommy Boy"...anger again! I worked for a national chain of auto repair facilities in several capacities from service writer, mechanic, back shop manager, and department manager, I also worked in independent garages as well as my own driveway...I had to deal with mechanics with additudes similar to yours and I fired them for it. You obviously know a lot with your whopping 2 1/2 years of experience wrenching Fords. Congrats to your own experiences with your japanese cars....and as for your comment of engaging in deviant sexual copulation....sorry guy, your not my type and/or gender. Oh man, you really need to check to see if your insurance covers anger management classes.

...And I have been wrenching on cars for 10 years longer than that...bottom line here is, they are all good when they run, and they are all junk when they break, but when fixing a domestic, it is alot cheaper to repair than a comparable counterpart from offshore. My ex had an accord where the alternator died...astronomical cost, plus you had the choice of either pulling the intake off or removing a halfshaft to get to it. You don't know JACK of what you speak!

And my point is...if you want to yammer on endlessly about what you perceive as all that ails America...start a new thread, or resume your A.D.D. meds so you can focus on the topic instead of trying to blame it on a faceless entity (thread drift?? Really??) Why do I "cry" (didn't know that questioning an item was considered "crying") about supply problems and not the "other" high prices? When I am on the blogs that relate to them...I will "cry" about those as well. Since I am here on a car blog and gasoline is directly related to a car, I am asking that question (..or "crying" about it according to you.) As to your questions: 15 miles to work in a rural setting. Ford Fusion. No. Yes. etc... I don't have an entitlement complex other than I feel I am entitled to keep my hard earned $$$ Yes, an example of that would be that I have changed out my lighting in my house to low energy flouro bulbs, upgraded my furnace to a high efficiency unit, switched to a front load washer to use less water, replaced my hot water tank to a tankless design, and planted several trees on my property to replace the ones that needed to be removed for safety reasons. Future plans include getting a Hybrid Fusion when one is available ( the higher cost is not a factor here) I want to decrease my carbon output (didn't think I knew about that...did you?) even further, the fuel savings would be an asset and would offset the higher cost of the vehicle in timely use. Yes and No, I care about myself...but I also care about my children...teaching them about responsible living, and not forcing their beliefs on others, instead respecting others and the choices they make. So, ya got anything to add regarding why if refinery production is tight, the refineries still produce many differing octanes when 87 octane works well on most daily drivers? here is a solution....make one octane (90) so both my car and the cars that require a higher number work well. That should (notice I used the word "should") free up capacity to help ease the pinch in supply. I also believe as a previous poster recommended to pick the cleanest blend and use it nation wide instead of trying to knit a patchwork of regional blends that only seem to hamper capacity.

So seeing as you retracted that statement and apologized for your comment.....we can conclude that you don't really know the situations that you speak of... I will once again ask you how any of your baseless comments have anything to do with my original thread of tight refinery production.

A lot of hate there "Tommy boy".....a lot of hate someone help this kid

The transmission control computer needs to adapt to the drive style of the owner. My Fusion shifted "odd" for the first few days of me owning it, partly because it had not adapted to my style, and partly because I was having "fun" with my new V6 (previous car was an I4 Focus)....I have settled down my drive style and my car drives smooth as glass, and I have a buddy with an I4 Fusion and he says it rides and drives like silk.

define your statment of "over consume"...one of the reasons oil is so high is rapid expansion of countries like India and China....their economies are exploding as their populations are "over consuming" on everything from cars to doo dads for their active lifestyles. Couple this over consumption with the lax controls of environmental concerns and you have a man made disaster of epoch proportions that America will no doubt come to the aid of. Your logic has no basis for my original thread of tight refinery production.

Well....like it or not, it is available right now at a shop near you....I definitely gives the car a more "formal" look for not a lot of $$$

Here's a .pdf of a formal roof in black on a silver Montego/Sable http://www.egclassicsinc.com/inventory/uploads/480396A.pdf ...And one with a landau roof (aka "half roof") http://www.egclassicsinc.com/inventory/uploads/1220396B.pdf

As you can see....with the "C" pillar window covered....it gives the car a much different look. The best part of this is....you can get it installed NOW, on either a Five Hundred, a Montego, a new Taurus, or Sable. The .pdf file shows it larger, and with detail close up shots as well http://www.egclassicsinc.com/inventory/upl...1montegosct.jpg http://www.egclassicsinc.com/inventory/uploads/479396.pdf

Well....one thing to ponder is with all these plants that are closed or closing...if Ford needed some extra capacity for say, Fusion, or the as yet un-named B-segment car, plants like Wixom could easily be re-activated since they already own it and have used outside contractors in the past for plant upgrades.

How about, "Where ever you are.....Ford is there." Then show a montage of Fords in various capacities such as a Police Interceptor patrolling the highway....to an E-series ambulance at the emergency room entrance...an LTL9000 hauling a load down the interstate...a Super Duty tow rig at the side of the road assisting a stranded motorist ( a Toyota maybe??) A medium duty F-Series School bus taking on kids at a school bus stop...a construction site with several of Fords trucks...a NYC sky line with a Crown Vic taxi cab being hailed....some street urban young adults around a Mustang...a couple in a Taurus getting the shopping done... The list goes on and on... But the tag line should be, "Where ever you are, where ever you go....Ford is there."

Don't forget having the two crash test dummies being hauled away in a E-450 Cut-a-way ambulance

I was the original poster of this thread, and you are wrong. I worked at a gas station(Mobil) and there were three octane ratings and three separate tanks. Also, if what you say is true....why is it when I got gas this morning, there are three octanes, and three separate pump hoses....

Oh....for the love of god.....