So since #1 car manufacturer Toyota also builds hideous, bubbly cars,in my opinion, one can assume the only loyalty is in years of reliable service or perception of that track record.
Since parts are virtually from same suppliers for all car manufacturers, then it can be the no hassle repair/quality customer service that builds brand loyalty.
Lastly, for foreign cars there are no union dues on a car, which I guess is $1500 premium per USA vehicle.
UNION workers and pension plans.
Ford of Michigan or Ford of Tennesse? :)
Sounds like they're not feeling very GAY over at Ford.
and for this they were paying $900,000 per year for Mark Fields to commute to Miami on weekends?
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/18/news/companies/fields_flights/?postversion=2007011814
Although there are Ford brands- Jag and Land Rover.
You also pay somewhat more than $500 per vehicle for the insurance premium that the manufacturer has to carry in the USA.
Ford will collapse. Someone else will buy the plant up and continue producing cars... this time without having to support the ridiculous union compensation levels and after firing all the managers that brought the company to this pass. The govt will end up carrying the weight of the ridiculous pensions.
Until ford can bulid a full size pick up worth a dam i will keep buying toyotas every ten years and worry only about gas tires and oil
Well, Ford is still better than the NY Times.
Boeing turned it around, so can GM and Ford.
Chrysler's second nearest bankruptcy came as a result of their designs in the late forties/early fifties. They did extensive surveys about what customers wanted. Looks was far down the list. Chrysler designed the boxy cars that people said they wanted and got laughed at for their efforts.
Maybe Toyota just builds cars that people will buy. Seems to work for them. Buyers like to think about "style" and performance but many buy on price and reliability.
I guess putting all that time and energy into engineering a reliable, attractive, affordable product didn't seem necessary.
And then there's the unions.
Even Edsel didn't screw it up this bad!
My 2002 Ford Mustang is awesome. I've been very happy with Fords.
Wow. I hope they can make it.
It is only a matter of time before Toyota, Honda, and Nissan design and market a pickup that farmers, hunters, and contractors in Indiana, Iowa, and Georgia will buy. When they start replacing their F-150's, Silveradoes, and Rams with imports, the Big Three will have nothing left to stand on. Pickup sales are all they really have left.
I cannot believe they're selling that ugly little anonymous car as being"sexy" or "edgy."
I worked for Ford- Engine Plant #1 in Cleveland- for a year, before I volunteered for the draft in 1969. Ran a piston rod grinder and had to grind 9,000 rods a night. When I'd run 5,000, each night, the foreman would come over and adjust the counter to 9,000 and send me up to the cafeteria to play gin for 3 hours. The other 4,000 were known as "paper rods". Being a dumb kid, one day I asked the foreman why we were making "paper rods". He looked at me with hillbilly incredulousness and said, "because they're making piston heads over on the head line"!
The military came as a breath of fresh air.
I've owned Fords since I started driving, 30 years ago.
I'm not a blind loaylist, I just thought they made better cars for the money.
I recently needed to replace my 95 Ford Escort. I went to the Ford dealership first. No more Escort. No more Taurus. They've been replaced by smaller models that are bland both inside and out. And they were comparatively pricey. I was very disappointed.
I bought a Honda instead.