How Ford lost its way

How Ford lost its way

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-- Life's tough. It's tougher if you're stupid.

John Wayne

Reply to
Jim Higgins
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Another silly article that ignores reality.

Explain the difference between Ford and Toyota's Strategies for the last 15 years. Both have emphasized trucks and SUVs at the expense of passenger cars. Both companies highest volume car line is an old lightly refreshed design. So what makes Toyota so successful?

For the first time in 14 years, the Camry is actually different. Sure they changed the sheet metal significantly once and had a couple of refreshes, but from the early 90's till now, the differences were trivial. The Echo was a bust. The Corolla is a dull over priced small car that is not as good as a Focus and costs more. The Tundra is a second rate copy of the old generation F150. The Sequoia isn't even as good as the previous generation Tahoe. The new 4Runner is a good truck, but nothing special and ridiculously overpriced. The Tacoma is also a nice truck, but, like the 4Runner, wildly over-priced. The Prius is interesting, but plagued with glitches and over hyped. The RAV4 is third or fourth best in class. I suppose the Highlander is OK, but what makes it better than a Ford Freestyle? For sure the Sienna is one of the best mini-vans, but how long did it take Toyota to get it right (the old Toyota Previa mini-van was horrid, and the first generation Sienna was non-competitive).

And yet, despite crashing customer satisfaction ratings and plunging reliability ratings, people still overpay for second and third rate Toyota products. Why? Stupidity?

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

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I have had painful experiences with American car company products-Chevy Vega ('nuff said), Ford Escort (pistons wearing down in cylinders, despite religious maintenance), Chevy Cavalier engine (dissimilar head and block metals-manifold and block cracks), Buick (repeat transmission troubles). I have been badly stung on domestic car companies and I see NO reason whatsoever to give Detroit more money for inferior engineering. The best cars my wife and I have ever owned were VW Beetle, Bus, Golf and my '98 Chevy Prizm (think Toyota Corolla-that is where the engineering came from). Detroit is way behind the curve but their quality has improved over the last few years, but not enough. Detroit does not have a product that I think is worthwhile. Perhaps in a few years but does Detroit have a few years? No.

Reply to
Jim Higgins

Its all psychological...another mans ice is always colder. Its how Americans think.

Reply to
Franky Furter

There are lots of opinions regarding why American cars suck. The one that makes the most sense, I think, is that American companies overpay for their executive "talent" and underpay for actual talent: engineering, design, manufacturing, facilities maintenance, etc. As a buyer, any fool knows that a Toyota holds value far better than a Ford, GM, or Chrysler product. You can argue value, reliability, or appearance until you are speechless, but the fact remains. If that fact is based on poor consumer information, it's up the American manufacturers to prove it. I think an occasional consumer report finds that some models of American cars actually perform to Japanese standards, but many do not.

Detroit lost the quality battle long ago and has been playing catchup ever since. Even more disappointingly, they are now losing that same battle to Korea. Yet they still overpay execs for stupid decisions and lousy management skills. These companies don't invest in their labor skills, their facilities, their technology, or their public relations in the communites that support them the strongest. Their management, like our political and military "leadership," seems incapable of embarassment.

These are the reasons why Ford, GM, and little buddy Chrysler are dying. Why anyone feels sorry for them is beyond me. The first move for a real fix would be to divest, without golden parachutes, these companies of most of the current management.

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Reply to
T.W. Day

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