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Thread ID: 80737	2007-07-03 19:22:00	Quagmire + Ford = Glug. Glug	SurferJoe46 (51)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
565457	2007-07-03 19:22:00	Ford for all intents and purposes is dead..dead...dead! Not able to kite any more bad checks to their suppliers, they are getting cut off on deliveries of replacement parts and pieces to keep just the warrantee repairs going. Some "dealers" are experiencing a 1 or 2 year wait for critical parts to fix F-series trucks that have had transmission and engine failures right and left. Check the service parking lots for dead and disabled F-trucks and other high-end SUVs waiting for parts that will likely never come. The spontaneous combustion of the ABS systems in F-series, Mercury big cars and the SUV line except the small toy-truck Ranger line, has caused so much court expense and attorney time that Ford doesn't know whether to look or go blind. The CEO and upper echelon rats are taking golden parachutes out and just running with the money while the stores flounder and the financial arm (FordFinance) is draining the once powerful cash cow dry. Rentals and "a dollar-down, catch-me-if-you-can" sales are 'way off even though EVERYBODY qualifies as a purchaser even with no job history or even an income. Seventeen-year olds are driving off the lots with big tired and tricked-out 4WDs with DVD players, custom rims and custom paint jobs as their firsttime purchase. Older potential buyers just look and wonder at it all. Here's an article to consider from the other side of the pond: BBC NEWS Ford's US sales fall yet further Struggling carmaker Ford has seen yet another sharp drop in US sales as it continues to fail to win over buyers. Ford's overall monthly sales fell 8.1% in June, led by a continuing decline in the popularity of its cars, which saw a 24.6% drop in sales. By contrast, sales of its trucks added 2.9% last month. Sales at Ford's US rival Chrysler, which got a new owner in May, declined by 1.4% in June. By contrast, Japan's Nissan saw its US sales jump 22.7%. Meanwhile, Toyota's sales added 6.1%. 'Lower rental sales' Ford, which is continuing with cost-cutting plans, blamed the bulk of its sales decline on a planned reduction in low-margin sales to rental companies. The company, which plans to sell its luxury UK-based Jaguar arm, is looking to cut 45,000 jobs in North America. Its sales in May had declined by 6.9%, seeing it fall from second to third-largest car seller in the US, as it was overtaken by Toyota. Chrysler is being taken off the stock market by private equity group Cerberus Capital Management in a $7.4bn (£3.7bn) deal expected to be completed as early as this month. It is being sold by German owner Daimler. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk Published: 2007/07/03 17:03:19 GMT Credits cited/given are as posted and required by BBC news for this sort of c/p and have been left intact. © BBC MMVII	SurferJoe46 (51)
565458	2007-07-03 23:15:00	Ford is doing well here in Australia with their Australian-designed and built Falcon and Territory ranges. The smaller Euro Focus and the coming Mondeo are good cars. So what is it with the US market? I hear Ford US' obligations to their workers (pensions, healthcare etc) are drowning it in debt. And that they have put too much effort in those gas-guzzling monsters that less and less people are buying. Is this the same with GM and Chrysler? I heard a report the other week about Daimler shareholders agitating for cutting adrift the 'orrible Chrysler. They have this thing here called the 300C. It is driven only by people who watch too much gansta-rap. It screams "Cheese!" Here, the Corolla has ruled the best-sellers list for around 10 years. Nothing comes close.	vinref (6194)
565459	2007-07-04 00:17:00	Ford is doing well here in Australia with their Australian-designed and built Falcon and Territory ranges . The smaller Euro Focus and the coming Mondeo are good cars . Yeah . . but are they just decals from Ford? A lot if not most of Fords are foreign iron and just get badged as F-cars . Mostly Mazdas and Kia-junk winds up with the "proud" Ford moniker . So what is it with the US market? I hear Ford US' obligations to their workers (pensions, healthcare etc) are drowning it in debt . And that they have put too much effort in those gas-guzzling monsters that less and less people are buying . Is this the same with GM and Chrysler? People are finally figgering out that F-stuff is junk and not safe to park in a carport or near a house . They go on fire all by themselves and Ford just straightarms legal complaints by saying that the customer did something wrong and caused the fire . That's not good pr . Their transmissions are from the ZF factory . . that's the old Zundapp factory that made 2-cycle dirt bikes in the 50's and 60's . The aluminum has porosity factors that are obvious, and the other alloys are taffy at best and the case hardening on the gear faces is pretty much non-existent . I heard a report the other week about Daimler shareholders agitating for cutting adrift the 'orrible Chrysler . They have this thing here called the 300C . It is driven only by people who watch too much gansta-rap . It screams "Cheese!" If you mean the PT Cruiser . . the throw-up that looks like a 1936 something-or-other . . then yes . . . it is just a Neon with a boob-job . It still has that "adaptive strategy" transmission that dies with NO warning and blows headgaskets again with no warning and with astronomical damages . It IS made out of rotten cheese . . cheese in design, construction and mechanical ability . Everything else they build is worse . Wait . . I know the car you mean . . it is an abomination too . . a genuine archival representation of the Great Depression . . . . Hmmmm . . . It fits . Here, the Corolla has ruled the best-sellers list for around 10 years . Nothing comes close . Yup . . another faceless Japanese import that just goes and goes . I agree that they are sensible and well made and tough as a cast iron pipe . . . but just about as ugly in my opinion . I am a GM fan . . love their computers and transmissions and engines and bodies and electronics and about everything else except the paint jobs . But . . . one cannot have everything . I own a Chevrolet Astro Van (picture, not mine ( . melissasautosales . com/cvyvan . JPG" target="_blank">www . melissasautosales . com)) , an Isuzu Amigo ( . imagef1 . net . nz/files/000_00041183504159 . jpg" target="_blank">www . imagef1 . net . nz) with the GM/Toyota design and construction, and another pair of K5 Chevrolet Blazers . We are a GM Family . All this is a lot of sour grapes . . but I worked on this junk for many years and I saw what the companies tried to do at the expense of t6he customer . Designs were sent offshore to construct . . and the most distrust was generated by MoPar . . or Chrysler . They had Renault parts in the US-built Jeeps and Motorola electrical alternators and regulators and Lucas wiring and Autocraft hardware and LOF glass and Bosch electric door window regulators and SKF and Timkin bearings and a lot of GAF stuff too . They even had a US bearing factory shipped to Russia to make ball bearings that went flat and swapped metal with the races and failed . BUT . . the BIGGGEST problem was the unions that bled the companies with demands on workers' rights and security and wages and all the benefits that went to an employee after just 90 days on the job . I gotta give the new Chrysler people a tip of my hat for telling the unions to pound sand and if their people wanted a job then they had to quit the unions and work for a living and for a change . There are gonna be quarterly reviews on work performance and if you don't make it, then there'll be 10,000 others who want to work for a living . I once had a job that was in a union shop that had a guy who worked hard every day and never got an in-frame overhaul done on a Detroit 350 squeezer in all the 2 . 5 years I worked there . The job normally takes 7 to 10 days for a really slow guy to perform . He was a union man . Know what I mean?	SurferJoe46 (51)
565460	2007-07-04 01:50:00	Nope . The Australian Fords are pure Fords - just not American Ford . They are not badge-engineered from Japanese cars . And so are the Euro Fords . There are independent design studions in Australia and Europe that produce Ford designs for the local markets . And they work very well . It is just that they are smaller than the American Fords, and are marketed differently . And I bet Kia and Mazda are doing better than the US Ford! And as for being a GM family - that sort of thing died a long time ago in Australia and New Zealand . Cars have long been a commodity - they deserve as much loyalty as their bang-for-buck-ness dictates, until the next one comes along .	vinref (6194)
565461	2007-07-04 08:47:00	Some "dealers" are experiencing a 1 or 2 year wait for critical parts to fix F-series trucks that have had transmission and engine failures right and left. Check the service parking lots for dead and disabled F-trucks and other high-end SUVs waiting for parts that will likely never come. And I saw somewhere recently that the F-series trucks were the biggest sellers in the USA ! I can't understand why the US public still buys this junk??	decibel (11645)
565462	2007-07-04 10:13:00	Because they get 0% financing and cash back in the hand and there's plenty of room on the floor for fast food wrappers :)	PaulD (232)
565463	2007-07-04 11:10:00	Ford Australia are fortunate to a loyal following for their larger cars, but that market is falling off with the increasing cost of petrol, although one of my friends reckons his new BA Falcon is turning in just over 10.5 litres /100 km. The Territory, however is another matter, 15 litres / 100km, a heavy vehicle with consumption to match and some owners can live with it, but use it as a tow vehicle and you need shares in an oil well to support it. Aussies are only just beginning to warm to Turbo Diesel engines in cars, which is the way to go, and definitely the Territory would be a much better and considerably more economical tow vehicle with a common rail turbo diesel engine, the idea has been floated but nothing has come of it so far. Ford Australia's light commercials are re-badged cosmetically modified Mazdas. The European Fords have enjoyed reasonable success in the market, and this segment should continue to grow as savvy motorists shy away from heavy gas guzzlers.	KenESmith (6287)
565464	2007-07-04 11:24:00	sounds like FORD usa is getting everything they deserve. i hope they see their customers right and pay back the money for the lemons. yeah there has been a drop in big cars sales here. the US still loves their big cars, no doubt to their cheap gas ;) btw, i was reading a write up in a local car mag and the fuel consumption of some small engined cars was LARGER than the falcons or commodores. mind you that was done with very good drivers driving economically. not the sort of driving the average joe does.	tweak'e (69)
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