BILL FORD Jr. stepping down?
- Thread starter wikdsvt
- Start date
Scooter70
Club Member
DBK said:
:iamwithst
My biggest complaint is design. The 500? Bland. Freestyle? Bland. The Explorer? Hasn't changed in years. TownCar, CrownVic, Grand Marquis? Needed to go away years ago. Fusion? Decent. Mustang? Seems to be a hit so far. F150? Much better than PN96. Let's see what the next few launches bring.
How about going out on a limb and making something at least a little controversial? Not everybody likes the Chrysler 300C. However, most people do and it's won all kinds of awards and accolades. When we design something that Snoop Dog calls up Billy asking for one, you know you've got something good.
Ford is so worried about the launch of the new Edge that it hired quality expert Kathi Hanley away from Toyota late last year. She found more than 70 significant issues and hundreds of minor concerns. Hopefully, these issues will be addressed and the crossovers will be out on time (Oct 16). Ford has learned from its past mistakes (Focus) and realizes the Edge/MKX must be a hit with no recalls to help save the company.
boosted gt
Club Member
91trunk said:
you are correct!
igotaneed4speed
Club Member
Bill Ford doesnt want the blood thats about to be spilled to come from his hand directly.. so he basicly hired a loaded gun to do the dirty work..
boosted gt
Club Member
its fine now anyways. the failure has stepped down and ford will climb back up to mediocrity
boosted gt
Club Member
Bishop said:
the upcoming update of the '00 focus will save them!
silent E
Club Member
Scooter70 said:
And it's not for lack of designers, either. My school cuts tons of talented kids from transportation design each year. I don't get where their ideas go between college and the real world job at fomoco...I bet beaurocracy's got a lot to do with it. The designers don't get the creative freedom they need, so Ford is shooting itself in the foot.
Scooter70
Club Member
Downtown's Darkest said:
Em,
I'm in CAD (body) design so I've been in the studios. I've seen some of the drawings coming from the studio design staff and they usually look kick-ass. Somewhere between those drawings and the final clay, something happens and they no longer look so good. The original concept drawings for the 500 and Freestyle looked great. When the clay was cut, it didn't look so great.
-Matt
silver95taurus
Forum Member
i guess keeping it safe would be having the same ford ranger since 1993, and the same econoline since 1992. i mean really. people arent going to buy the same truck new if they can get the same damm thing barely used for 1/2. i understand the fact they arent the best sellers. but that might be due to thier old ass design. currently ford sucks, between axing the 4.4L v8 for the new lincoln. and not releasing the 3.5L on time. seems they are ALWAYS 3 yrs too late and 20hp shy of everyone else.
DBK
Club Member
boosted gt said:
Toyota apologizes over vehicle defects Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 (EST)
The president of Toyota Motor Corp has apologized in connection with a probe by Japanese police into alleged vehicle defect cover-ups.
TOKYO (AFP) - However, the world's second largest automaker again rejected the most serious allegations that it failed for about eight years to respond to a defect in a sport utility vehicle.
"We send our goodwill to people who were involved in accidents," Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe told a mid-year press conference.
"We've been facing tough questions from our customers who became anxious about their car's safety. We deeply apologize to them," Watanabe said, bowing.
Toyota in October 2004 recalled about 330,000 Hilux Surf vehicles. It said at the time it was aware of 11 cases of defects, far less that the 82 cases reported last week by local police following an investigation.
Three Toyota officials also face allegations that they failed for about eight years to announce a recall after learning the Hilux Surf had a defective relay rod, which connects the steering wheel to the front wheels.
Police in western Kumamoto Prefecture who conducted the probe, referred the case to prosecutors last week, saying the defect had resulted in at least one accident in August 2004 that left five people injured.
Toyota submitted a report on the recall allegations to the government Thursday, with the result of an internal investigation acknowledging that it had received reports of 82 defect cases by the time of the 2004 recall.
Toyota Motor Corp vice president Masatami Takimoto said the automaker had only reported 11 of those cases because it lacked the full details of the others.
Takimoto repeated the company's view that the three officials had acted "appropriately".
Masafumi Yasutomi, vice minister of land, infrastructure and transport, said that his ministry would instruct Toyota to improve its operations.
"We think there are some problems in Toyota's operational system, so we'll probably seek preventive measures," he told a press conference.
The controversy comes as Toyota chases US group General Motors for the top global rank and prepares for a possible industry realignment with alliance talks underway between GM and French-Japanese partners Renault and Nissan.
boosted gt
Club Member
91trunk said:Is this an April fool's joke? Come on Toyota having recalls and quailty issues? Not the almight Toyota!!!!ow:
The only think he understands is that he hates US made cars. He really needs to live over in Japan.
i dont hate u.s. made cars at all. one of the most reliable cars i ever owned was a dodge lancer:icon_mrgr and the most fun to drive cars i have owned were american too(mustangs).