Ford???

[michael ward]

I was at my ford dealer today to get my trans power flushed. my car is all finished and I'm waiting for my bill by my service advisors desk and in comes this woman in a 06 ford explorer with 213 miles on it. she had six kids with her and everything they needed for there trip to the beach. but i guess the explorer dident want to go because it was overheading and bucking and reving and knocking. and boy was she pissed:mad2: and she had every right to be. she just bought it less than a week . and FORD and GM wonder why there in trouble .. things like this don't help....

[RoyLPita]

It happens. It is pot luck.

[Dragcity]

Same thing happened to my '89 Escort GT. Air intake clamp was loose.... That simple. It only takes one loose screw...

[Breadfan]

That stinks. Along the same lines, a coworker just told me in the hallway that Toyota may be "buying" GM. Ouch.

I dunno, I can't wait for the Corvette Hybrid...*sigh*

[dwasson]

In the computer business we call that "infant mortality". It happens. I used to tell customers that if they got through the first 90 days on their computer systems they would last for three years. The first 90 days are always the hard part.

[RoyLPita]

That stinks. Along the same lines, a coworker just told me in the hallway that Toyota may be "buying" GM. Ouch.

I dunno, I can't wait for the Corvette Hybrid...*sigh*

It's Nissan and Renault.

[Breadfan]

It's Nissan and Renault.

Eh, this guy drives a Prius anyway. :)

[SergntMac]

In the computer business we call that "infant mortality". It happens. I used to tell customers that if they got through the first 90 days on their computer systems they would last for three years. The first 90 days are always the hard part. Ditto...I was in this business for about 10 years, and you are right. One out of 10 CPUs would be a problem child, and we tracked problems in the setup and build. Once a threshold of bull***** was crossed, the unit was disassembled and everything marked and sent back for replacement. We also added hidden marks of our own to make sure our supplier(s) could not turn them back to us (and boy they sure did try).

Seems a waste, but at least we cut down on customer disatisfaction, nothing hurts business worse than "and I JUST bought it!"

[Bluerauder]

One out of 10 CPUs would be a problem child...
That is a pretty crappy reliability for electronic components. :o Moreover it does not correllate to other such components whose average failures are measured in thousands and tens-of-thousands of hours.

As far as the lady is concerned with the 213 mile bucking and jerking Explorer .... if they could not fix it within a short period of time (1-2 hours) on a priority basis, the dealer should have offered a loaner "free-of-charge" for the duration of her vacation or offer a complete swap out for an identical vehicle. The dealer would then fight the battle of warranty with FoMoCo rather than a brand new customer. That is Excellent Customer Service. :D Anything less and they will have lost a customer and any potential business from her family and friends.

[Fourth Horseman]

That stinks. Along the same lines, a coworker just told me in the hallway that Toyota may be "buying" GM. Ouch.

I dunno, I can't wait for the Corvette Hybrid...*sigh*

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that Nissan-Renault would buy about a 20% stake in GM and then the companies would all share engineering efforts; engines, platforms, etc. I do not believe it is an outright buy-out.

[dwasson]

That is a pretty crappy reliability for electronic components. :o Moreover it does not correllate to other such components whose average failures are measured in thousands and tens-of-thousands of hours.

As far as the lady is concerned with the 213 mile bucking and jerking Explorer .... if they could not fix it within a short period of time (1-2 hours) on a priority basis, the dealer should have offered a loaner "free-of-charge" for the duration of her vacation or offer a complete swap out for an identical vehicle. The dealer would then fight the battle of warranty with FoMoCo rather than a brand new customer. That is Excellent Customer Service. :D Anything less and they will have lost a customer and any potential business from her family and friends.

I agree that the dealer should handle those problems quickly and agressively. In fact, I believe that bad dealer experiences are a common reason customers change brands. I know that I won't buy a Chevy due to a bad dealer experience and no action by GM to fix it. That was over 20 years ago.

But if we assume a .0001% failure rate in electronic components in the first 90 days, the thousands of individual components in a typical system can mean over 10% of the computer systems will have at least one failure in 90 days. We used to run a utility that checked every subsystem repeatedly for at least 24 hours before we delivered it. This was on top of what "burn in" the manufacturer and suppliers ran. But, we would still have systems fail over the next day or two. And, you can say we should burn them in longer and I'll ask, how long is long enough?

Ultimately, modern manufacturing is about many a large number of things as efficiently as possible, shipping them as efficiently as possible, and selling them for the lowest price possible. None of these things can be reconciled with making things perfect.

[ctrcbob]

The Nissan/Renault thing would be a "Working Agreement" and not a purchase in The General. In a working agreement, they share information, factories, parts, etc, but stay their own company. Something like what The General is/was already doing with Toyota in building their own cars at a shared factory in California, using shared parts. If memory serves me correct, I think that factory in California is/was called NUMMI. Forget what it stands for.

Best to forget your former bias. In todays world, it is a global market.

[quota]

I have been the owner of an FX45 (Infinity) during 11 months. That SUV was bought new for around 75 K (Canadian).
I did not take me long to understand that this car was too hastily put on the market :down: . Firstly, with a design which makes very difficult the access to the rear seat, which allows a tiny space for the luggage, and which gives you no clue about what happens behind of the car (that's probably why they installed a camera):bigcry: . Secondly, with its gadgets. The mentioned camera got dirty as soon as it rains (I live in Quebec and we do have more than rain in the winter). Same with the "clever" cruise control which brakes the car when detecting a close obstacle. Believe it or not but they installed the detector under the front bumper. When you got snow or mud, the thing gets blind. When it happens abruptly while getting close to a car, as it does not detect any object anymore, it eventually revert to the speed set before and...accelerates ! Scary. I would not tell a lot about the factory installed GPS which shows no road (nor anything else) 20 miles passed the outer limits of Montreal :cry: . Thirdly, with its lack of reliability. After 6 months, the computer started warning me about "flat tires" everywhere. Two months after reprogramming the whole computer (Dealer said), the same computer started issuing warnings about "slippery conditions" and locked the front differential. So I was going in 4 x 4 mode in June under a bright sun...:fire:
I decided to sell that Infinity. I bought a MM and and LSE 2003 Grand Marquis. No problem so far after 10K miles with these 2 "FORD" products.
I feel that you might be unlucky with any "FORD" or "Mercury". **** happens. Nevertheless, I feel that by buying from these 2 brands, you would still reduce your exposure to defects and drawbacks resulting from wrong design and from wrong conception.
JP

[JVJ]

I Will Always Stay With My Panther (cvlx Sport '02) I Have This Car For About 2 Years Now. Without Any Major Problems. But Anything Can Happen To A Machine At Any Given Time.

[ckadiddle]

Buy The Exciting New Chevrota Corvolla!!!

Looks just like your old Corvette, but has a screaming 1.2 litre V-4. Top speed of 47 mph and zero to thirty in around two days.

[FastMerc]

That stinks. Along the same lines, a coworker just told me in the hallway that Toyota may be "buying" GM. Ouch.

I dunno, I can't wait for the Corvette Hybrid...*sigh* Well all those people that bought those overpriced imports over the years made the asians richer than the american car companys,that is why they can come up with money to do what ever the hell they want to or buy what they want!

[Marauder2005]

Well all those people that bought those overpriced imports over the years made the asians richer than the american car companys,that is why they can come up with money to do what ever the hell they want to or buy what they want!


Did you ever consider WHY people were buying those over priced imports? :rolleyes: