Logistics and past experience will have me owning at least one Ford at any time. Parts and service literature are easy to get at a good price, and I just plain like the product. Brand loyal? Yeah. But I'll be in the market for some kinda sporty sedan in the next few years...that about defaults to an import brand.

If I want opinions about a vehicle I'm interested in buying, I'll go out and drive it myself.

 

Buy a Toyota and get back too us. I myself love Ford and there truck line. When it comes too cars....forget it the Japs blow us away. If Ford and GM don't shape up there going too loose the SUV and light truck market also. That's a fact

 

A few years ago I bought the highest rated TV in CR, in a day it was returned
because it was a pos. I took it back for a lower rated one, and still have and use it. As for me, I would not buy any foreign vehicles, I just feel it is important to support our economy, workers etc. Have always been satisfied with Ford products, never any major problems.

 

Japs will never blow the american auto manufactures away. Remember when Chrysler almost went belly up? Americans raised so much hell that even Ford and GM lent money to Chrysler to make certain they did not go under and Lee Iococa <sp> brought Chrysler back to the head of the game! Americans as a whole will never allow themselves to be put in a position where dependence on foriegn autos are permenant. Years ago when I was turning wrenches for a living I remember people saying how good the "new fuel injected" Jap cars were. Hell we had fuel injected cars in the states back in the 1930's. You could get a fuel injected Cord or Auburn with a lycoming flat 8 cylinder. I'd love to see a Nissan 1 ton that could pull my fifthwheel like my old Chevy crewcab dually. I'll stick with my Ford. Hell with the jap or euro cars. I'm not saying their not built good but I'll never own one!

 

I don't agree with this statement at all. With the world having such a global economy now-a-days, it really doesn't matter whether you buy American or not. A lot of foreign companies have factories on our soil. So not buying a foreign car can also hurt the average American who works at these plants.

 

It is hard for me to understand, even after all of these explanations on this forum, how CR can rate the 2004 Ford F-150 (4WD) all red circles(with a white dot in the middle) and one half red circle(body integrity), which is practically the best possible rating for trouble spots for any vehicle. Then their reliability verdict is a black "x" for 2004. The 2005 predicted reliability is a black circle which is "much worse than average".

Sorry, but this should raise a red flag for anyone reading CR. I have been a subscriber and used their ratings for about 20 years, but I have to wonder now. You would think that some black spots would show up in the trouble spot section if the reliability verdict is that bad.

I do realize that the more product that you sell, the greater the chance of having problems. Maybe that is why some of the other manufacturers have good ratings. They simply do not have a lot of product out there.

 

When you spread the palm-grease thick enough CR will say anything

 

Please spare us. That's an opinion that you're entitled to. I have had as good service with the American cars over the years as some of my friends and family have had with foreign cars. Very few foreign cars have the leg room for my liking. And you can find a few abused imports along with the few domestics broke down on the side of the road.
BTW, my pickup has been in the shop twice in a year for warranty work. And one was a recall.(butyl pad)...Kevin

 

As owners of our vehicles, we don't want to hear negative things about them. That being said, too many of you are hiding your heads in sand!

My 00' Scab had the 5-speed replaced, door crack issue, and misc. small things. My 04' Screw had the clutch pack replaced, throttle body issue, and I have the truck bed bounce.

I'm not going to hide this fact, and I hope Ford improves their stuff. But I still love my F150, but don't expect me pretend that issues don't exist and to hate on any car magazine that tells us about it.

 

Good point--but Chrysler ended up in a paper merger with Diamler--there's just a few americans in the executive board room now. They fired nearly everyone and put in their own people. The stockholders tried to do something about it a few years ago, but there was nothing they could do.

A few years back Mitsubishi was upset over a Consumer Reports article on their vehicle. Basically they were claiming the opposite of what many of us are claiming here--a bias toward american vehicles. There's stuff all over google about it.

Like someone else said--don't shoot the messenger. Time after time a company upset with Consumer Reports has tried to sue them claiming their tests were falsified, biased, etc. The scoreboard? Consumer Reports remains undefeated and refuses to settle out of court--period. If you refuse to believe them because you think they're biased, you're just plain stupid.

Ford's record on vehicle problems on an aggregate level are the stuff of engineering legend, and the F-150 is not an exception to the rule.

One more thing. Stop drawing the imaginary 'foreign car' line. That went away sometime in the late 80s/early 90s. Start looking at the quality of a car manufacturer--not the country they're domiciled in.

-Fatz

 

while this is a fair statement, I have had no issues with my 04. Nor have I had any issues with my 98 F150, my 89 Silverado or my 86 Ranger. I beat the ever living snot out of the first 3, put on high mileage and they never let me down. I have never had a "red circle" experience with an American truck. I know of a few people that had issues with some cars, but of all the Ford and GM cars my family has had over the years, none have had issues.

Japanese cars are very tight no doubt, but I just dont see the quality gap.

 

which was in line with their hiding of defects that has recently come to light.

 

But regardless of how you may feel about the labor movement in general, the fact remains that foreign automakers producing in the U.S. predominantly assemble their automobiles in low-wage states like Alabama and Kentucky, where American-owned automakers (Ford and General Motors) predominantly produce in high-wage union states like Michigan.
This author has nothing against any state in our great country. We are all part of America and deserve jobs just like anyone else. The point I am trying to make is that this is one of many relatively unknown facts that give foreign-owned automakers huge cost advantages over American-owned automakers. Consider the following:

In 1997, the state of Alabama granted huge subsidies to Mercedes in exchange for a plant that would employ 1,500 people. What were the details of this huge incentive package? $300 million in tax breaks, $253 million in direct incentives, $60 million in Alabama taxpayer money to send fellow Alabamans to Germany for training, and a promise to buy 2,500 of the new Mercedes SUV’s at $30,000 each. Based on just the initial $300 million grant alone, those 1,500 jobs will cost Alabama taxpayers $200,000 per job. Apparently Alabama, not Mercedes, will be paying those salaries for years to come. With deals like these, it’s no wonder foreign automakers have stepped up production in the U.S. We’ll even pay their workers’ salaries for them!

In 1987, Toyota constructed an auto plant on part of the 1,500 acres of free land given to them in Georgetown, Kentucky. The auto plant was built by a Japanese steel company using Japanese steel. The U.S. government granted a “special trade zone” so that Toyota could import auto parts from Japan duty-free. Financing was handled by Mitsui Bank of Japan. Total federal and state grants and incentives exceeded $100 million. These subsidies, of course, were courtesy of your tax dollars.

Tennessee gave Nissan $11,000 per job for their Smyrna plant built in 1980. South Carolina coughed up $79,000 per job to convince Germany’s BMW to build their plant in Spartanburg in 1992. Were you aware that our government was using your money to create jobs? Or are these merely job announcements where you and I foot the bill? Job announcements do make for great rhetoric for state governors’ re-election campaigns. How many years will it take a factory worker in Alabama to pay back the $200,000+ in tax money that the government gave away? A conservative answer would be “several.”

This is not to say that American companies are not granted incentives to build plants here. The most recent is $100 million in incentives for Cadillac to build their next plant in Michigan. It is my opinion that we should not be imitating the Third World by using public money to bid for jobs. But when given the choice between foreign investment (Toyota, Mercedes, Nissan) and American investment (General Motors and Ford), American investment is much better for America.

The deal Alabama gave Mercedes makes the deal Michigan gave GM seem rather frugal. The point here is that these huge incentives that are offered to foreign companies are rarely offered to our own companies here at home. Such incentives allow foreign companies to save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in costs per automobile. And American companies acquire more of their parts from domestic sources, so more jobs are created in the automotive parts industry in America.

America needs more American investment, not more foreign investment.
-- Roger Simmermaker

http://howtobuyamerican.com/