Is Ford Running on Empty?

I don't know. I read somewhere that every body panel is being reworked along with a new V6 motor. Might just be rumour. Might be too many beers while surfing the net :)

Anyone??

long as the drives stay in the rear, and they keep the v8 ;P

I really wish they wouldnt even PUT the v6 > >

It's like pulling a robber baron out of the pre-Depression era and giving him the helm of a modern company. Business is evolving, and it does NOT make sense to base your future on old formulas.

Management styles are like any other technology. Take as a very good analogy black and white TV - it went through a period of being state-of-the-art and expensive but sought-after, then affordable and owned by everyone, and now it is virtually free ($9.95 will buy you a B&W television set, brand new) but nobody wants it because it has been superseded by superior products. Free-to-air TV signals still work on an old TV but you're missing a lot. When digital comes in, B&W TV sets will be completely worthless.

Welch's pontificatory writings are in the same spot as B&W TV. His ideas are still backwards compatible with modern businesses - JUST. So they have some use, but it's small and dwindling. It would be stupid to set up a facility manufacturing CRTs with blue-white TV-grade phosphors right now, and it would be equally stupid to "turn around" a business into a known dead end like GE's methodologies. Even GE is changing.

Careful now, lol. In 1985 one of the performance mags did a head to head to find the "fastest" production car. Of course the Corvette won hands down over all even after Chevrolet made them put a roll cage in the car and locked out 6th gear on the tranny, the Camaro IROC nudged out the Pontiac Firebird for 2 nd place, and forth place went to the Buick Grand National, which beat the Firebird for top end, but got beat bad in the 1/4 mile, but the big surprise was the Dodge Omni GLH whooped the 5.0 Ford Mustang, not just on top end, but in the

1/4 mile as well.. A couple years later the Omni was gone, as was the Grand National, but the big upset winners were both GM trucks, the Cyclone, and the Typhoon, which almost beat the damn Corvette in the 1/4 mile.

Whitelightning

On Sun, 16 Jul 2006 23:56:42 +0000, Picasso rearranged some electrons to form:

If you actually drove a new Mustang with the V6, you might think again. It really runs pretty good, for a 6-cyl.

Imagine it with a super charger like the Cobalt SS.

Whitelightning

Light duty F-250's??? What year was that? Every year I'm familiar with share axels, brakes and springs with the F-350. I do know Chevy made half-ton based light duty 3/4 ton trucks, I'm not aware of a Ford light duty F-250.

J.D. Powers, Consumer Reports, Popular Mechanics, Gelco Leasing, dealers that sell both Japanese, American, and Chrysler brands, and even the internal reports of Ford and GM.

Irrelevant (quality != quantity) and misleading ( GM + Ford is bigger than Toyota, but Toyota + Ford is bigger than GM, but so what?). GM is also #1 in China, but again, so what? For a business with such large economies of scale as the car industry, worldwide sales matter more, and here GM will soon be overtaken, unless it merges with Renault/Nissan. GM and Ford have got to bring out new best-in-class vehicles, and they haven't been doing that much, GM perhaps not at all.. Rick Wagoner and Bill Ford need to understand, "It's the vehicles, stupid."

I wouldn't want GE-style management for any small, fast-growing company that can't afford to have its innovation stifled, but if you have to run a large, established firm that's not on the cutting edge, GE management, of which Jack Welch was a product rather than a creator, isn't bad, and it's probably why GE is the only remaining original member of the Dow Jones Industrials. But Johnson & Johnson and 3M are probably better-run large companies.

But Bill Ford runs an actual business and can't tax almost every car made the way Bill Gates can essentially tax computers with Windows. Bill Gates didn't create but just brought order to the PC business the way the public highway system brought order to auto travel.

Funny economics. People who worship capitalism as a religion should realize that their god isn't just far from perfect but often outright absurd.

Have you ever personally experienced the GE management style?

Here's how it works. Each year every employee is ranked. This is a political process. It's not how well you do your job, how smart you are, how much money you made or saved the corporation, but how well liked you are and how high your salary is. The bottom 10% is subject to downsizing, and usually is.

After a few years, those who fought for change and became disliked by bosses for not supporting the status quo, those who were creative and fought to try new politically risky solutions, those who had experience and knowledge are all gone.

Sure, wall street and the executives love it when the engineering staff has been reduced to fresh-outs and ass kissers. However, innovation, creativity and institutional knowledge suffers. Nobody still working there knows that doing such and such leads to fires once the cars are out in the real world... 'little' things like that.

If Ford and GM want to survive they need to take the shackles off their engineers, not find new ways to pound down the highest nails. (as per the japanese saying) And that's what the GE method does, pounds down the highest nails.

If they did not sell the V-6 Mustang, the "secretary car" would have long ago suffered the same fate as the camaro and charger... It's a good thing some people like the low performance models...

When someone adds, "for a six-cyl" at the end, I don't want to drive it... I can already feel the power, and hear the motor grinding away...........................

The camaro too offered a V6, a very weak V6, but it wasthere

NOw if someone upgraded from a neon, or a cavelier, I could see why they would think a v6 stang would work good.

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 08:47:48 +0000, Picasso rearranged some electrons to form:

Well, until you do, your opinion is just that, an opinion not based in fact.

Actually.... I don't have to imagine it... Vortech makes a nice little kit with and without a charge cooler... I opted for the charge cooler... My little 'ol V6 puts down 313RWHP/290RWTQ... and she's an automatic (OMG an Auto V6! How can I even show my face! LOL!) so you're looking at round 360HP at the crank.... runs 13.4's in 90 degree heat and a 325 pound driver! LOL!

My Vorech info is at:

or upgrading from one of your beloved V8's from the mid-90's... LOL! I lined up against some mid-90's GT's at the track... they were running a blistering mid-16s! WOOHOO! A stock S197 V6 can turn low 15's! Couple cheap mods and you can run 14.9... LOL!

This is not your Dad's rental V6... LOL!

Few. I have a 2007 GT Convertible on order. After two reds a black and another red since '99, I picked a new color, 'Alloy' as dark metallic grey, and added the hood scope. I should have it in two weeks.

mike hunt

Todays Mustang GT has the 4.6V8 is a better engine than the 302, 300 HP and

345 FP of torque. The limited production Cobra has the engine from the Ford GT with a supercharger and 500 HP and 445 FP of torque from what I've heard. The MSRP for the coupe is 40K, 45K for the convertible but dealers are getting 5K to 10K over MSRP. Every Ford dealer gets one, Presidents Award dealers get two.

mike hunt