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Truck and farm machinery, I thought that's what the Mustang was, the fastest farm tractor on 4 wheels. LOL.
I heard about the Jag deal and Tata motors yeaterday. It doesn't suprise me. Ford has been bleeding for so long, that they desperately needed cash. I wouldn't be shocked if Volvo and maybe Mazda went soon too.
For the last 30 years, Ford has focused on moving production away from the US. During that same period, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes, BMW and Hyundai have all focused on bringing production stateside. Look at the financial situation of the 6 that have brought production here versus Ford that is funneling it away from here. Ford does a poor job negotiating with the UAW and then blame UAW workers for Ford managements stupidity. They knew when they gave the goose away that there wouldn't be any more golden eggs, but instead of holding their ground, well that's enough on that rant.
Then their product line-up is piss poor. The current Taurus is boring and not very attractive. The Fusion is decent, but aging with nothing in the wings to replace it. The Focus redesign was cosmetic only and the platform is almost 10 years old. It was barely competitive when it came out and now finishes last behind Suzuki's and such. The F150 redesign is decent, but the engines lack power to be competitive and don't offer a fuel economy savings for the lack of power. The Ranger is 375 years old and about as stiff a platform as a bowl of jello. The Explorer has gotten too big, the Escape Hybrid was a total design failure, you lose the A/C when the engine shuts down. The Edge is a decent design that for some reason isn't selling well. But that's it, a bunch of failures on new stuff and old stuff that's well past it's prime.
The 4.6L V8 that is the basis for their modular series of motors was designed to be a cost effective motor without regards for performance or fuel economy. Now it is an underperformer in both those catagories, but it sure is cheap to build. They don't have any cuttng edge powertrains and are suffering from that too.
I will not cry a tear when they leave the market, they have made their own bed. My mother had a Taurus that between 60 and 63,000 miles, just 500-3,000 miles out of waranty, and had the transmission, the master cylinder, the wheel cylinders, the power steering rack, the power steering pump, and the radiator fail. Ford's answer was the warranty period is the warranty period, sorry about your luck. No partial help, no nothing. Well every dollar I have spent on vehicles since their stance, and it's been a considerable amount, and every dollar my family has spent has been at something other than a Ford dealership. Their refusal to help a loyal Ford customer that got her car serviced at a Ford dealer regularly, caused them to lose more than a half million in business since 2000.
Sorry Ford, R.I.P.
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