Ford Sucks!

[RD62]

My Fords have been good to me.

That said, I do agree that even simple systems have been made so overly complex that what used to be simple maintenence and repairs run big $$$ now. I remember taking my 1965 Mustang to the Ford Dealership in the mid 90's for repair and seeing their faces when they could plug it into a diagnostic machine to determine the problem with poor idle.

The battery in my Ford 500 sedan died in the fall, once replaced the Check Engine Light illuminated. Seems the computer looses idle settings or some such when the battery dies. Ingenious design....

I have recently been looking for a mid 70's Jeep CJ. I've about decided that if I can't repair minor issues on the side of the road with simple hand tools, I don't want that vehicle.

[chadbag]

If you feel strongly about this, this is what Small Claims Court is for.

[Suwannee Tim]

Interesting fact: More millionaires drive Fords than any other car.

I've got a Taurus approaching 170,000 miles. Aside from a replacing the coolant tank, PCV, and rear wheel cylinders, it's been running like a champ.

What year?

My mother had a 1990 Sable which is the Mercury version. That thing wore my ass out. Radiator, starter, alternator, hydraulic (yes hydraulic) motor mounts, head gasket, AC, rear engine oil seal, timing chain, all in less than 60K. She was a little old lady and didn't drive much and all these issues were out of warranty. One of the motor mounts particularly chapped my ass. It had a stud about 2-1/2 inches long into the engine and the nut was all but impossible to get to. After a week of puzzling over it I finally made a special offset socket extension in the machine shop and ground half a dozen sockets to length in 1/4 inch increments so I could move the nut 1/4 inch per socket, 1/12 of a turn at a time. What a nightmare! I cut 1-1/4 inch off the stud of the new mount which greatly simplified re-installation and any subsequent removal. I can figure this out but Ford can't? I asked a Ford mechanic how they did it. "Burn the damn things out with a cutting torch." "Do the cars ever catch fire?" "Sometimes. That's what the customers have insurance for." I had a 1988 and a 1990 Escort at the same time. They were not much better. Chronic clutch problem due to a design defect. 60K miles from a clutch. Putting a clutch in a FWD car under a shade tree is a tough job but I got pretty good at it. One of the happiest days of my life was the day I sent the last of these pieces of shit down the road on the back of the junk man's tow truck. No prettier sight in the world to me than a Ford on the back of the junk man's tow truck.

I have two Chevys now and a friend that is a former Goodwrench mechanic. I have gotten pretty good service out of the Chevys but he assures me there are plenty of nightmares similar to mine under Chevy's roof. He is a former mechanic now because GM has rigged the system so a mechanic can't earn a living without lying cheating and stealing from the customer. He says Ford is much the same. Chrysler too.

[HES]

They do they just don't sell them in US

Who do we have to sacrifice to get them sold here?

And for everyone who thought this was a grab your torch and pitchfork we should all go kill Ford post it OBVIOUSLY is not. Its a rant over Ford building a defective (proven defective) radiator and not backing up their product until the numbers are high enough for a formal recall. Which is BULLSHIT! These are the words from the Ford Dealership about parent Ford and when the manager at the dealership is telling you how Ford is screwing you, but the dealer can't really do anything there is something wrong with that

I understand, but keep in mind its the same situation with nearly every auto manufacturer out there.

[M4Fundi]

Temper tantrum over. Not the most mature thread Title on my part. Just get tired of bending over and being told you have to take it. I just don't believe I should have to accept this crap from Ford, Chevy, AT&T, whoever. I bought a truck once for less than $2000 and paying for an admittedly defect radiator for that just chaps my ass. The manager tried to give me this explanation.
" The reason Toyota has such a good reputation is that they used to make all their parts inhouse and so they were high quality to spec and the reason US auto makers have a bad rep is they get their parts made by the subcontractor who bids the lowest not who can make to the best specs. Then Toyota got so big here they started using the same subcontractors that we use and that is why now you see they are having all their recall problems. So, its not Ford's fault its the subcontractors"

I told him that when I'm the boss and one of my employees screws up and my client gets subpar work then its not my employees fault/responsibility the blame and responsibility is mine as the boss and telling me your trucks suck because of the subcontractors you choose is ridiculous. I don't know if anything he told me was true, but if it is... I'm at a loss.

Sorry to have vented here and upset the Ford lovers. Did not mean to malign all Fords just the current situation I find disheartening that we as Americans put up with this.
Moving on...

[The_War_Wagon]

I wish I had my '79 Bronco back. Once you de-smogged the Milford engine, it ran rather well.

Ford - like most mfgs. these days - is trying to do too much, with too little. Too little an engine, that is. As we used to saying in racing, "There is NO SUBSTITUTE, for cubic inches."

[ColdDeadHands]

After owning 2 crappy Ford and 1 Chevy trucks I own 2 Dodge's now. Lower operating costs and no warranty or other issues make ownership a lot nicer. The '07 Cummins Dually is awesome for towing and the '10 Hemi 1500 is a beast and very comfortable daily driver.

[BrianS]

Although I never was a Ford man in the past, they have earned my respect over the past few years, have fielded a very impressive product line, and recently won me over as a customer. I've been pleasantly surprised at every turn thus far, so I'm fairly confident that a single post on the Internet probably isn't going to win my consensus here.

Sorry, I don't believe that Ford sucks.

AC

What did you recently get? I have been thinking of buying one of the new mustang GTs either the straight 5.0 or one of the BOSS remakes. Then I want to take some classes on how to drive the shit out of it.

[Belmont31R]

I will never buy a big 3 car again. I have no need for a truck but if I did it wouldn't be a big 3 either.





Nissan, on the other hand, has been truly great throughout my purchase and after purchase support. The car I am 100% happy with, too, unlike every American car I have driven and owned. In fact I refused to drive my dad's (now gone) 99 Ranger because of the issues it had. I almost t-boned someone going 60MPH because the brakes would randomly not work. Instead of the truck slowing down all you would get is a rapid clicking sound with no braking at all. Not the ABS type of clicking, either. Of course Ford said it was fine. That truck was then dedicated to being a "farm truck" where it wouldn't kill any of us.


I could write a book about the issues my wife's Jeep has had, too. Nothing life threatening other than the computer going dead on the freeway and shutting the car off but tons of little issues that if we fixed end up being big bucks to fix. Window motors that have been used maybe 20X going out (both back windows- 1st was 500 to fix the 2nd we keep a set of needle nose pliers in the back to pull the window back up if it falls down inside the door), electrical problems we've spent over 1k on that still havent been resolved, drive train issues, ect.

[Thomas M-4]

Did it have one of those composite radiators [plastic side tanks with aluminum core]??
Was the $1900 just for parts or was it for parts and labor?
For half that price you could probably have ordered custom made aluminum radiator by custom I mean cross flow radiator with aluminum side tanks all tig welded. BTW never have liked the composite radiators I have seen to many of them come apart. Its also not unheard of a a dealer screwing somebody over either by charging to much for parts and or labor.