I would have to say yes after reading this.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...a_quality.html

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...a_recalls.html

 

'Tis a bump in the road for the mighty 'Yota. Unless this continues on an ongoing basis it probably won't matter much. There new pickup should help overshawdow some of their recent troubles . . . . that's what the media is for isn't it?

I am interetsed in total recalls for auto manufacturers this year. I might have to take a trip to google.com land and see if I can acquire said information.

 

It's interesting, for sure. If Ford is wise, they will accelerate their own quality efforts as fast as possible (Fusion and Edge are a good beginning in the mainstream market) to take advantage of Toyota's slide. In time - unfortunately, the perception issue will still take time, perhaps even another decade - they may be able to swing the pendulum back in their favor and surpass Toyota.

How cool would that be?

 

Hold on a sec....you're actually admitting there is a perception issue?

Excuse me but I have some parkas to sell in Hell....

 

Once again, you mistakenly separate quality and 'perception of quality', as though customers are too stupid to be able to perceive quality when they see it - and when they don't.

 

You don't understand that when people have the perception that a car lacks quality, they don't even bother to look at it.

 

PERCEPTION: awareness, consciousness, appreciation, realization, knowledge, grasp, understanding, comprehension, judgment, estimation.

So all the negative stuff written about Ford by the automotive press and echoed in the experiences of the public is not knowledge, grasp or understanding, but rather guesswork, groundless perception, or America-hating brand bias; is that what you're saying?

So you would have us believe that for the past three decades or so (give or take a couple of years) people formed their opinions - not based upon their own experiences or the experiences of those whom they trust - but rather on some preconceived notion that was conjured up in the ethers? The perception all just arrived one day in a vacuum, is that what you'd have us believe?

By that logic, Ford is in no way responsible for the mess they're in.

You 'misunderestimate' the buying public if you really believe that.

Toyota has built quality products, hence perceived quality. Ford has had a history of visible cost-cutting, quality issues and not offering products people wanted (there's STILL no tiny car planned to slot beneath the Focus for North America, to combat the Yaris and Fit, to my knowledge), hence perceived lack of quality.

Now, to be fair, I will concede that while Toyota is demonstrating some serious quality problems right now, Ford seems to be on the right track with the Fusion and the Edge. The trick will be to duplicate that success ACROSS the product line...do it CONSISTENTLY...and do it IN TIME.

 

This is from my personal experience so you can't dispute it: I know people that when they shop for a car, they don't even look at domestics. When asked why, they say the quality isn't as good. When asked have you ever owned a domestic, the answer is no. When asked if they've ever even looked at dometics, the answer is, again, no. That opinion is based on perception, not experience. Sure there are people that have had bad experiences with domestics and won't buy for that reason. I've had a bad experience with a Japanese car (my Acura went to the dealership for warranty work about 3 times as much any Ford I've ever owned). Does that mean the Acuras are crap? No, it only means I had one bad experience that doesn't color my judgement of Acura (or Japanese cars in general). Unfortunately, you have too much faith in the reasoning ability of the average consumer to formulate such opinions.

 

Well, most people can't possibly experience every brand in the world in order to come to a decision about what they intend to buy. That would be ludicrous. So they look at the vehicle for themselves, listen to what their friends and colleauges have to say, read the magazine critics and automotive journalists' reports, et al, then make their decision. The problem is, with all that empirical data, they're mostly still not choosing Ford.

I think the A to B to C conclusions of that are rather self-evident.

 

If someone's not taking the time to look at a Ford, then they're just lazy. It's not like a Ford dealership is hard to find. The fact that they'd rather listen to someone else instead of actually stopping at the local dealership on their way home tells me they're already made up their mind.

 

Unfortunately, that shows the effectiveness of word-of-mouth "advertising" or opinions regarding a manufacturer's vehicle quality based on ownership experience. It works both ways. The inability of the US car manufacturers to keep up with, let alone match, the Japanese in terms of quality from the 80's onward is a part of the reason why they're in the position they are in today - with people willing to pay "a little more" for (perceived) quality and the subsequent loss of market share. And it's not like this shift happened overnight either.

 

The Fusion and it's siblings are the highest quality vehicles Ford has ever produced and apparantely the word-of-mouth advertising is getting around as a lot of the sales are coming from import owners. Ford needs to continue this trend with future offerings.

 

Well, all of us here have some affinity for Fords, so of course we would automatically expect consumers to look at Fords.

But are you honestly telling me that when cross-shopping for a vehicle in a particular category, that you go and look at EVERY brand that's out there? I'll bet dollars to doughnuts there are some brands that don't even cross your radar when you're shopping around; whether they're domestic or imported notwithstanding.

Personally, I've never looked at Subarus or Isuzus, and never would. Not that they're bad necessarily, they just hold zero appeal for me in ANY category.

 

Here I agree with you 150%.

 

Not in call cases, but yes, I do ALOT of cross-shopping. I may have a specific model already set in my mind but I often look at all the competing models (even ones I'm nearly 100% sure I don't want) as a way to make sure. I did that when I bought my Mazda6. I guess I need to feel like I've done due diligence (at least most of the time).

 

Except for everyone here who purchased a Mustang, or is plannning or considering. Have you driven a FORD lately? I have Mine!

 

Ford simply ignores a lot of parts that it should have recalled. This makes them look better in the news. Remember the intake manifold fiasco from 1996 through 2002?

 

I said that the quality of Toyota products was heading downhill, rather quickly no less, nearly ten years ago when I worked with that brand. And now, having had a good deal of seat time behind the wheel of an 05 Highlander and an 05 Sienna, I can say that build quality has only gotten worse since then.

Of course, the perception that Toyota still builds cars of the highest quality persists and likely will for some time. And in fairness I feel the need to mention that some vehicles built by Toyota remain quality products. Unfortunately for the consumer, unless your desires lead you to a Land Crusier, or a Lexus dealership, you wont likely be purchasing one of these IMO.

 

It does seem that car makers are often better off to simply ignore an area which they know to be troublesome than to actually issue a recall and repair it. Ford has ignored obvious problems in the past as has Toyota and every other mainstream manufacturer for that matter. And frankly they indeed seem to have taken far less heat for doing so than they do when they recall a vehicle.

 

They can either take some heat in the press for recalling millions of cars or get slapped with a class action lawsuit for millions or billions of dollars to fix an otherwise easy to fix problem. Ford isn't perceived as making high quality cars, even by Michiganders.