Ford takes most honors in JDPowers Initial Quality Survey 2007

[TomServo92]

Thank you for summing this up better than I could. Ford cannot afford to burn ANY customers.

 

OK, so Ford should just spread that money out and do a half-assed job of it everywhere instead concentrating on key areas first and then address the others later?

 

Let me say this one more time: I'm not saying never fix these problems. What I'm saying is that they should prioritize the issues and work down the list from the top. It's really quite simple actually. If the Explorer quality is at the top of the list, then so be it.

[Deanh]

Perhaps you missed recent articles where Mulally had to tell his engineers to listen instead of making up excuses?

 

Ford loses about 3k per Focus, the corporation is/was a mess, don't even try to imply things were ok and you can't find ways to optimize resources.

 

We've suggested ways to make Ford more competitive financially, even Mulally has suggested plenty of things we've said over the years.

 

Care to tell us how you're spending the money so I can give you a reasonable answer?

payoffs , severences and management bonus's.....?.....sorry, last one was a dig...but once again this is being based on CR...as far as declining quality and dependability on Explorers and Exp'diddys i don't see it...IN THE SLIGHTEST!

Edited June 8, 2007 by Deanh

[TomServo92]

Perhaps you missed recent articles where Mulally had to tell his engineers to listen instead of making up excuses?

 

Ford loses about 3k per Focus, the corporation is/was a mess, don't even try to imply things were ok and you can't find ways to optimize resources.

 

We've suggested ways to make Ford more competitive financially, even Mulally has suggested plenty of things we've said over the years.

 

Care to tell us how you're spending the money so I can give you a reasonable answer?

 

Kinda stupid to ask me for an answer when you yourself don't want to say anything.

 

See above for my answer.

[pcsario]

What are these "key" areas then, and which aren't?

 

Where is it ok to cut corners "for a while"?

 

I understand what you're saying, I just want to get a bigger picture of the scale and/or criteria we're talking about.

Edited June 8, 2007 by pcsario

[TomServo92]

What are these "key" areas then, and which aren't?

 

Where is it ok to cut corners "for a while"?

 

I understand what you're saying, I just want to get a bigger picture of the scale we're talking about.

 

I don't know. I don't work for Ford (or any automobile manufacturer for that matter). Only Ford's upper management knows the priorities. For all I know, Ford has enough budget to do all this. All I'm trying to relate is how we do it in the company I work for when there's not enough budget to cover all the work that has to be done. We do a risk based analysis of the work and the low risk stuff goes to the bottom of the list and we start hammering away the high risk stuff at the top and work our way down.

Edited June 8, 2007 by TomServo92

[RichardJensen]

I'm glad grbeck and pcsario aren't ER doctors. The amount of time they'd spend setting the broken bones of people with internal hemorrhaging.....

[akirby]

Where is it ok to cut corners "for a while"?

 

Wherever the cost to fix it outweighs the benefits. Why is this so difficult for you to comprehend? You have to figure out the potential increase in sales (if there is any) or reduction in manufacturing cost or warranty cost and compare that to the cost of the change. It's that simple.

[Meelaan]

I'm glad grbeck and pcsario aren't ER doctors. The amount of time they'd spend setting the broken bones of people with internal hemorrhaging.....

 

 

Awesome!

 

On point though: Seems Ford's been practicing the "squeakiest wheel gets the grease" methodology for the past six years--probably two years too long. The target of the attention was their truck/SUV line instead of where they're getting slammed by the import competition (passenger cars).

 

Development on any real Taurus or Fusion successor was clearly not the top priority as those platforms gathered dust while being spit out to an unimpressed public. Year after year, people wrote off the option of a Ford product. Why buy a brand new eight year-old car (Taurus was mechanically unchanged for ten years; Focus for seven; both were refitted once each) when you can go over to Honda or Toyota and get a brand-new two-year old car?

 

It can be argued one way or the other, but general public (see: American idiot) perception is that a newer design is a better investment... so that's the trend that lost Ford a lot of customers: put R&D of products that work O.K. on hold and invest everything in the quick big-money maker.

 

It would appear that Ford's attention was on the truck line because it has historically been highly profitable. Where it should have been was where the public sales volume is--the mid-size sedan. Now that Ford finally has the right product, no one is paying attention because they've owned the last three complete redesigns of the Camry (1997, 2002, 2006) in the time Ford has had essentially the same Taurus (1996-2006, refitted in 2000).

[grbeck]

I'm glad grbeck and pcsario aren't ER doctors. The amount of time they'd spend setting the broken bones of people with internal hemorrhaging.....

 

And I'm glad that I can tell my friends not to buy an Explorer and Expedition, as even the parent company apparently views them as less than important, which, I guess, also extends to the customers who would buy them.

 

After all, if Ford can set its priorities, so can paying customers.

[suv_guy_19]

And I'm glad that I can tell my friends not to buy an Explorer and Expedition, as even the parent company apparently views them as less than important, which, I guess, also extends to the customers who would buy them.

 

After all, if Ford can set its priorities, so can paying customers.

 

 

I still don't understand how you know their quality is inferior....oh...wait....you don't

[TomServo92]

I still don't understand how you know their quality is inferior....oh...wait....you don't

 

I don't know how he knows that Ford views them as less important either.