Posted on 10/19/2006 10:56:56 AM PDT by floridareader1
I actually sold both Toyota Tundra and the F-150, and think the F-150 is the superior and more luxurious truck.
Consumer Guide and Consumers Reports both put Ford ahead of Tundra. Plus there are a lot more options and more flexiblity with Ford. The sales figures aren't even close, so the market agress with me. To each his own.
Consumer Guide®
Our Best Buys include Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-Series, and GMC Sierra. Our Recommended picks are Dodge Ram, Nissan Titan, and Toyota Tundra.
Early in the product offering, Ford had a real winner on their hands with the Contour model. Car & Driver magazine had it as one of their Top 10 models for the 1995 model year, its first year in production.
The magazine and online tests spoke highly of the vehicle and all Ford needed to do was make incremental improvements to keep it competitive against Accords, Camrys, and Altimas. My experience with my enhanced (suspension/tire) Contour has been nothing less than great. This vehicle only goes to the shop for oil, filter, brake, and tire changes. It saddens me that I have to look to a foreign manufacturer (the VW GTI) this time around to obtain the enthusiast features I seek.
~ Blue Jays ~
To all the skeptics,
Yeah, the Taurus must really suck. Ford only sold about a zillion of them. There is no denying that within five years of its introduction, almost every car manufactured looked like a Ford Taurus. So much so that I remember one auto reviewer quipping that the redesigned Ford Taurus is the only car on the road that doesn't look like a Ford Taurus.
The Taurus was a homerun that every auto manufacturer dreams about.
Yes, they did, and you got lucky.
But the fact remains that an absurd number of Contour/Mystique had warranty repairs before they were ever sold. My friend went to buy one new and when he pulled on the glove box to open it, the entire dash fell off. That's just one of many examples.
The design was great. The execution by the UAW was abominable.
They sold a billion pet rocks, too. That doesn't mean that the product didn't suck.
The base GL variant of this Ford model was purchased by tons of fleets and rental car companies...folks who are sincerely interested in NOT having breakdowns because that is money out of their bottomline. This midsized vehicle doesn't strike me as any better or any worse than similarly-priced vehicles...with the exception of the Honda Accord which seems without peer in terms of reliability.
My feeling on the "nail in the coffin" for this vehicle was the absolutely miniscule rear accommodations and the extremely loud cabin. The driver and passenger can't speak in a normal tone due to the booming road noise and rear passengers are left completely out of the conversation. Had the Ford engineers addressed those easily-handled shortcomings they would have had a runaway success in consideration of the vehicle pricepoint.
~ Blue Jays ~
I remember that there was an ovals/curves craze in car design at the time. Unfortunately, Ford decided to take the ovals craze to the next level.
>>They sold a billion pet rocks, too. That doesn't mean that the product didn't suck.
Pet rocks were a fad that lasted basically one year. The Taurus lasted 20 years and forced every manufacturer in the world to follow the Taurus' lead for a number of years. If it really sucked it wouldn't have been the best-selling car on the market for all those years.
Part of the reason it was the "best selling car" was because it was stupendously cheap and lots of rental car companies and fleets bought them, even though they were horrible POS.
If you remove the fleet sales, Taurus was only a top seller for a couple of years after introduction - which is why Ford stopped breaking down sales into fleet and normal, to make their numbers look better.
I don't believe a fleet manager or rental car buyer would seek cars with a known poor reliability record because the price was right. Breakdowns are an enormous drain on profits for a rental car company since they also degrade goodwill. The last thing they want is an angry customer stranded at the side of the road.
~ Blue Jays ~
"I believe the biggest majority of Fords are now assembled in Mexico and Canada,.."
You believe wrong.
"And some of the F-series trucks are made in Mexico, anyway, so much for that argument."
Which F-Series truck that is sold in the US is made in Mexico? (Hint: None.) The F150 is made in KC, Norfolk and Dearborn. The Heavy Duties are made in Louisville. The F-series made in Mexico are sold in Mexico and South America.
Actually, they did... but just like the domestic makes, not ALL suffered. But the rates were identical
Ford only builds a small % of their vehicles in Mexico. VERY small.
As for Canada, they build a good number there, but keep in mind the trade laws they had to face when those factories were built (and the fact that the Japanese NEVER had to deal with those trade laws).
The US gov't has done its best at times to hurt US industry.
VERY wrong... but that won't stop people from posting things that aren't true.
Thanks for the back up. Gotta go for now it's miller time. Have a good weekend.
GO TIGERS!
Given that Ford has a very successful 20-year run with the Taurus, had years of favorable reviews, and set the standard for mid-sized sedans for years, I'm sure that all manufacturers would have loved to have made the Taurus. An opinion of "horrible POS" flies in the face of available evidence.
I sure that every manufacturer in the world would love to make a car you would deem a "horrible POS" if it would be a successful as the Taurus. I don't think that they would care one iota that you didn't like it or wouldn't drive it.
The Mexican made F-150 Lobo is sold here in TX.
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