Will Ford Motors be around 5-10 years from now?

[renovation]

I was at the airport last night and while waiting for the plane we were all talking and this subject came up.

I want to see what our members view are to see how they rate to what was said in the airport.

[wung]

i'm not familiar with their finances, but i think they need a logo/emblem redesign.

[InfiniteNothing]

You people who think it's going to fail could probably make some good money shorting ford stock.

[bachviet]

Yes it will be around.

[DarkFury]

Honestly... Furd can go to hell. :angry:

[Maarchk]

The company may get smaller, but their pickup trucks and mustangs will be around forever. At least for our life times. Maybe one day they will evolve out or get bought out, but i don't think so.

[renovation]

The company may get smaller, but their pickup trucks and mustangs will be around forever. At least for our life times. Maybe one day they will evolve out or get bought out, but i don't think so.
i agree in part the pickup will last as long as ford is around .but the mustang will fall victim to there lack of design team .as it did in the mid seventy. when they went to the mustang 2 design. and then keep in mind GM and Chrysler are bringing out there retro cars . so sales will fall off some. i expect for GM to also bring back a firebird retro. if they keep the Pontiac name plate.
i also see a merger of Chrysler and ford as a possibility.
labor costs and bennys are the biggest problem facing the American auto industry . they have improved quality ,and fuel economy. but the costs of building a car state side is still killing the American auto world wide. its the reverse of lets say a German build mercedes-benz.here you pay lot more for the same car as you do in Europe . why because of importing fee's and there higher labor cost in German auto plants. you make a car in china . 100% the same auto other then were its assembled the differences in labor cost .will triple the retail price of that auto. also there are still government regulations over seas in some countrys that still block us from shipping are cars in there .but they ship any number of cars made there here to the USA .and they also get government subsidized for every one that makes it to are shores !
and its not only the American auto company's . we have lost shoe company's ,try finding a American made shoe in any store.
unless its a custom made one of a kind .its all from someplace other then the usa !
i take this one more step .
ask any auto work were are the robotic made that weld the American car. the assemble line was assembled here but the robots were imported.the raw materials we supply them.
then they produce the product . why cant we make and use the stuff we use here in the states ? union labor costs

[renovation]

in case anyone interested i asked this same question on other forums and the results have all been around the same.
80 % think ford will be around
15 % think they be gone
5 % are not sure .

[ray]

There is still a fairly loyal customer base out there for their trucks, suv's, and performance vehicles. I wouldn't be surprised if certain vehicles were retired or portions of the company were sold off (ie: Volvo is being shopped around now that Ford has implemented their safety technologies).

[mechmike0034]

I think so - they aren't out of the woods but are taking steps towards long-term survival.

Change comes slowly in any major corporation, akin to turning an aircraft carrier.

[DarkFury]

Change comes slowly in any major corporation, akin to turning an aircraft carrier.
Maybe Furd will turn right into a brick wall and die horribly in a fire. (DIAF... thanks Nija for that one. :D )

[ArkiStan]

Maybe Furd will turn right into a brick wall and die horribly in a fire. (DIAF... thanks Nija for that one. :D )

LOL. Was Ford your mother-in-law in a previous life or something?

[DarkFury]

LOL. Was Ford your mother-in-law in a previous life or something?
They way that they treated me... anything is possible.


Furd SUCKS! Believe it!

[johnnymk]

Maybe the reason the auto companies recently caved in to the MPG standards for 2020 is that deep down they all know that none of the American companies will be around by then. Let the foreign companies who will have bought them try to figure out how to meet the standards.

[Jeffbx]

I think it's more like they're either all going to meet them or none of them will be able to meet them, so what difference does it make?

Persnally, I'd love to see them all fail to meet the standards & then watch what happens. Will there be a law against all new car sales??

[Lady In Red]

If they don't start standing behind their loyal customers most like they will one day go under.

As for me I will NEVER own another Ford. My last one was a 2006 Mustang that I kept 16 mos and had no other choice but to get rid of the pile of junk.

[johnnymk]

If they don't start standing behind their loyal customers most like they will one day go under.

As for me I will NEVER own another Ford. My last one was a 2006 Mustang that I kept 16 mos and had no other choice but to get rid of the pile of junk.

I was thinking of buying a used Mustang. Major problems?

[DarkFury]

If they don't start standing behind their loyal customers most like they will one day go under.

As for me I will NEVER own another Ford. My last one was a 2006 Mustang that I kept 16 mos and had no other choice but to get rid of the pile of junk.
I like how you think...

A woman after my own heart. :D


I was thinking of buying a used Mustang. Major problems?

Just say NO JMK... Run .. run very fast! :eek:

[mojo]

if you buy a mustang, you should be able to go pretty fast...if that's what you're saying, df ;)

as with anything, you'll get your share of people that had their bad experiences, as well as good with any company.

i say "ford good."

and johnnymk, if you like the mustang...i say good choice :D

[DarkFury]

"Go pretty fast back to the service department" that is... ;)


You get what you pay for... and then you get a Furd and get screwed even worse. (BTW... I've owned more than one Furd, and pretty much have seen a trend with them in a relationship that lasted over 10 years and spanned over 5+ states)

To each his/her own... personally, they won't be getting anymore of my money... EVER!! :D

[mojo]

i haven't had mine to the service dept other than what's expected... so maybe user error? :hmm:

yeah, i got what i paid for. it's running well. if you had a different experience, i'm sorry and all. but, i don't think you count for 2 negative votes. or maybe you don't think we get that you don't like ford. i dunno.

maybe you should take some of your own advice and don't hate the playa... ;)

[DarkFury]

i haven't had mine to the service dept other than what's expected... so maybe user error? :hmm:

yeah, i got what i paid for. it's running well. if you had a different experience, i'm sorry and all. but, i don't think you count for 2 negative votes. or maybe you don't think we get that you don't like ford. i dunno.

maybe you should take some of your own advice and don't hate the playa... ;)
Honestly mojo.. you really don't know my situation with them. (like the time I went in to the shop for a minor engine repair and they ended up cracking my intake manifold and wanted to blame it on me... it wasn't cracked when it went into the shop, but it came out with a crack in it... or their "silent recall" of a part that failed on me just outside their warranty period and their refusal to fix it, costing me over a grand to fix something they KNEW was defective. Yeah... Umm hmm...)

And yes, by now, you do know how I feel about Furd... not that I'm asking for "2 votes" here. I was just stating that I had given them enough chances to do right by me and they never did... so my opinion is set on the :thumbdown for them.

If YOU like them, that's fine... I have no problem of how you spend your dollars... however from my perspective, consider yourself lucky. You coulda gotten the 2 lemons I ended up with :D

So why shouldn't I give my negative on Furds... should we only say "good things" about companies who obviously don't care a lick about customer service? Oh well.. maybe you are "special". Who knows?

I'll just put you in the "ones who love Furds" category (since it is known that I'm the opposite.) Now everything is right with the world :D

[brainsmile]

Seems like a reasonable question to ask. In 3 years they will be bought out by Hyundai and offer a 10 year 100,000 mile warranty. Most people will outlive the miles since they only last 70k miles. :D

[InfiniteNothing]

i haven't had mine to the service dept other than what's expected... so maybe user error? :hmm:

yeah, i got what i paid for. it's running well. if you had a different experience, i'm sorry and all. but, i don't think you count for 2 negative votes. or maybe you don't think we get that you don't like ford. i dunno.

maybe you should take some of your own advice and don't hate the playa... ;)
:stupid: Had a Focus for ~4 years. Never had a problem

[DarkFury]

Maybe it's just a coincidence that alot of the "major" recalls of late involve Furds... Hmm..

Pintos going boom...

Explorers doing crazy things on Firestone tires...

F-150s spontaneously combusting in people's garages...

:eek:

Then they do stuff that goes totally counter to what many of their consumers want... like when they axed the SVT team (thus eliminating the Lightning and the SVT Cobra... you shoulda seen the Furd message boards on fire after that decision)

Also, some of their car designs look like blind monkeys took a stab at rendering the vision for their vehicles (mostly the cars like what they did to the Taurus and the Furd 500 :eek: ).

Honestly, if it weren't for their truck sales and fleet sales, I'd wonder if they really would turn a profit?

Oh well, I guess I'm just in the minority on this here... but hey, after what they did to me, I'm more than compelled to help prevent/dissuade others from giving them any more cash.

[uncledaddy]

Honestly, if it weren't for their truck sales and fleet sales, I'd wonder if they really would turn a profit?

Oh well, I guess I'm just in the minority on this here... but hey, after what they did to me, I'm more than compelled to help prevent/dissuade others from giving them any more cash.

:stupid: Ford does control most of the fleet market and because of that I believe they may remain, at least long after I am gone.

However DF, you aren't alone. Though I haven't had to experience poor service from a dealer, I realized after 20+ years in the repair industry that Fords just suck. Sure they (HO Mustangs) are fast, sure the trucks can haul...They just don't particularly last and I've been able to perform enough recall work, (from '88-'93 ignition switch problems to more recent 4.6L engine intake manifolds that had plastic water crossover ducts that would eventually crack and overheating would ensue), for me to decide never to buy a Ford.

But my biggest problem to all the Mustang lovers. If it weren't for a few cosmetic additions, I couldn't tell the difference between a $20,000 Deluxe and a $50,000 GT 500. Where's the specialness in that? :D

[mojo]

the difference between a $20k deluxe and a $50k gt 500 is about 300 horses and a lot of handling.

i'd say i wasn't lucky as far as getting fords that are reliable. i'd say those that got them that weren't were less than lucky on those occasions.

i grew up on fords. 30 yrs of fords that drove well and lasted. i mean, i crashed one and all, but that was circumstance.

as far as recalls, i've heard a lot of recalls on a lot of manufacturers. all of them, in fact. cars doing funny things and a lot of other hmms. gm, subaru, toyota, suzuki, saturn...you name it. you call it "coincidence" (with sarcasm). i call it statistics.

[uncledaddy]

the difference between a $20k deluxe and a $50k gt 500 is about 300 horses and a lot of handling.

I knew that, (actually its 290 hp. :D). I've driven both. My point is just like the GM F bodies, they produce a cheap and a top end, but all-in-all they both look alike save for certain body packages. Doesn't make them special IMO.

Now a Vette....that's special. Only a 75 hp difference between coupe and Z06. They handle very similar IMO despite Z06 having racing tech and Carbon-fiber.

You can't tell my favorite sports car, can you? :D

[mojo]

testarossa? :hmm:

[uncledaddy]

testarossa? :hmm:

OK, that's special as well. I'll give you that. :)