North American corporations never will, and the Japanese are starting to move away from that "tradition" as well.

 

wow funny... how new is the plant? I work for the CAW and the highest quality in a ford plant before was from a plant that is almost 40 yrs old the St. Thomas Plant. People that state to make good products you have to move out of North America is completely unfair. Think about the reasons they move and build the plants outside of the borders? think its for quality control reason's? I don't thinks so...COST and not just the cost saving from hiring outside the union its endless HAZMAT waste and lighter labor regs those are the big cost savings. New plant means higher quality control period. St.Thomas did it with care and pride not just a new plant

 

I wanted to say thanks for making one of the most reliable and problem-free cars: the Crown Vic and Grand Marquis.

The S-197 GT has quite a lot of problems compared to the Crown Vic. However I hear STAP (St Thomas Assembly Plant) has gotten some negative press with the 05-up Panthers having more quality deficiencies lately. With Wixom closing, the Town Car production is moving to STAP. Hopefully Ford gets its head out of its a$$ and start putting a decent sized motor into the Panther to offset the 4200 lb weight. I bet the good track record of STAP has more to do with the age of the Panther platform. It remained relatively unchanged since 1979 until 2003 when a new chassis, new steering system, and new front AND rear suspension was introduced.
The new RWD Chevy Tahoe police SUV will outrun, outhandle, and outbrake the 07 CVPI!

 

Yup, how long have they been building the Panther platform? They've had over a decade to work out the bugs in the assembly process... But S197s have been built for about three years?

Also, if you look outside the S197 world and take a look at online forums of the imports around the same price range or more than the S197 (350z, G35, Accords, TSX, even Civics), you'll see that they have a lot of the same complaints seen on this forum (dash rattles, gas tank issues (G35s), stereo issues, paint quality). They also seem to have a lot of the same complaints about dealer service.

The funny thing is , when faced with these problems, the guys on import forums take it in stride.

I haven't read anyone on those other forums saying "Curse you and your low quality Nissan! (or Infiniti or Honda or Acura) I'll never buy one of your products again!"

Around here, a lot of times it's, it's "Curse you Ford! get your act together! I should have bought an import!"

 

I agree, if you look at the forums for other makes and models you will see a good number of complaints about various things.

That said, I'm not certain if they equal the sheer volume, frequency or variety of complaints I see on this board...or if they contain the number of manufacturer defects that get reported around here a lot. Not being argumentative, just curious if anyone has actually studied it closely enough to be able to offer a worthwhile comparison.

Oh, they can beatch and moan pretty good on those boards, too, believe me!

I think anyone who has an unpleasant experience with any brand - and then, to add insult to injury, gets told to "go f*ck themselves" by the manufacturer or the dealer - is likely to start cursing said manufacturer, whether it's Ford or Hondoyota or BMW. I personally know people who praise BMW up and down, and others who turn red with anger the moment you mention the name because they had a nasty experience with the product.

 

Wow !

Thanks for ruining my post with all this nonsense.........

 

Hey Mike! Sounds like you've been driving a little more lately, huh? You're catching up to me!