I too was like Vanilla Sperm (family drove a 1987 Ford Aerostar and a '93 Ford Escort, both of which I hated).
Since I am actually open to what is going on in the world and have noticed that Ford now has the highest rated initial vehicle quality in the entire automotive industry (look it up) and is making cars for gadget geeks like me I'm looking to be a 2011 Ford Edge (turbocharged...hmm nice) owner
This kind of thing is exactly why I'm keeping an eye on Ford.
@thinkthis It's not just one survey/study either. But hey, I don't ask people take my word for any of this - spend time with their cars in the last two years and judge for yourself. And don't even include GM in this, please. They aren't even close to being in the same league as the cars Ford are producing right now (though I hope they too do better eventually). By the way, it's not just Americans who love the newer Fords - as of March, they are now the NUMBER ONE selling brand in the 27-Country European Union, outselling even the largest Euro automaker, Volkswagen.
@IanA Yep Europeans seem to love Fords, and you can't really blame them when you consider the fact that Ford has been selling excellent cars there for years before they started their turnaround in the USA.
Which is why I'm particularly excited about upcoming vehicles like the Fiesta, the 2010 Ford Focus and the C-Max, all of which are Ford's new "global" cars that will be sold in relatively unchanged form in the US and Europe.
Of course, recent American Fords have been excellent as well (Fusion, Edge, Taurus, etc.)
If I haven't already made it obvious, I've become a huge Ford fanboy, ever since Alan Mulally stepped in.
@nojorge You are spot-on with that. Ford Europe have produced great cars for a while now, and I'm with you on the new Fiesta....I got to see one inside & out last summer (in-between young people flocking around it). I'm not remotely surprised that it's so popular in Europe, and am glad we are finally getting it....I just wish we could only get that Focus RS/RS500 too, heh.
As far as I'm concerned, Alan Mulally has earned every dime of his pay and more. I have a fairly close local Ford engineer friend, and what he's told me is this: the company is like night & day from before Mulally came in vs. today...that he's turned the entire structure of the company upside down and really shook things up internally. That engineers today play a vastly greater role in across-the-board decision-making than they did in the past, and that their new quality improvement methodology is ridiculously better & more efficient than before (I gathered the weak-link identification/correction model is actually similar to Honda's). Barring some internal disaster, I think people are going to be very surprised at how fast, far & up Ford climb in the next few years.
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I too was like Vanilla Sperm (family drove a 1987 Ford Aerostar and a '93 Ford Escort, both of which I hated).
Since I am actually open to what is going on in the world and have noticed that Ford now has the highest rated initial vehicle quality in the entire automotive industry (look it up) and is making cars for gadget geeks like me I'm looking to be a 2011 Ford Edge (turbocharged...hmm nice) owner
This kind of thing is exactly why I'm keeping an eye on Ford.
@VanillaSperm
windows 7 kills mac
@thinkthis
It's not just one survey/study either. But hey, I don't ask people take my word for any of this - spend time with their cars in the last two years and judge for yourself. And don't even include GM in this, please. They aren't even close to being in the same league as the cars Ford are producing right now (though I hope they too do better eventually).
By the way, it's not just Americans who love the newer Fords - as of March, they are now the NUMBER ONE selling brand in the 27-Country European Union, outselling even the largest Euro automaker, Volkswagen.
@IanA
Yep Europeans seem to love Fords, and you can't really blame them when you consider the fact that Ford has been selling excellent cars there for years before they started their turnaround in the USA.
Which is why I'm particularly excited about upcoming vehicles like the Fiesta, the 2010 Ford Focus and the C-Max, all of which are Ford's new "global" cars that will be sold in relatively unchanged form in the US and Europe.
Of course, recent American Fords have been excellent as well (Fusion, Edge, Taurus, etc.)
If I haven't already made it obvious, I've become a huge Ford fanboy, ever since Alan Mulally stepped in.
@nojorge
You are spot-on with that. Ford Europe have produced great cars for a while now, and I'm with you on the new Fiesta....I got to see one inside & out last summer (in-between young people flocking around it). I'm not remotely surprised that it's so popular in Europe, and am glad we are finally getting it....I just wish we could only get that Focus RS/RS500 too, heh.
As far as I'm concerned, Alan Mulally has earned every dime of his pay and more. I have a fairly close local Ford engineer friend, and what he's told me is this: the company is like night & day from before Mulally came in vs. today...that he's turned the entire structure of the company upside down and really shook things up internally. That engineers today play a vastly greater role in across-the-board decision-making than they did in the past, and that their new quality improvement methodology is ridiculously better & more efficient than before (I gathered the weak-link identification/correction model is actually similar to Honda's). Barring some internal disaster, I think people are going to be very surprised at how fast, far & up Ford climb in the next few years.