Comments on: Why Americans Haven’t Driven a Ford Lately

By: Cars in Coachella Valley

Cars in Coachella Valley — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:17:49 +0000

“What Ford marketing has to do is give Americans a strong reason to buy a Ford instead of a Toyota or Honda or Hyundai and that can’t be done with flash and super-hot spokesmodels.”

Agree… but the new Fusion and Escape have taken quite an environmental kick in advertising that I feel can compete with Toyota, Honda and Hyundai.

By: Jeff vanHoy

Jeff vanHoy — Fri, 08 May 2009 01:30:53 +0000

Bought a 2005 focus wagon against the advice of my mechanic, and now I’m embarrassed to have done so! In the 2 years I’ve owned the car (I bought under warranty because I was tired of fixing cars, not knowing how little is covered) two glaringly-obvious items aren’t covered under warranty: the tail light sockets melted around the bulb bases- Ford calls that normal wear and tear (overheating due to stop and go traffic- apparently they’ve never heard of thermal resistant plastic…or testing for that matter!), and the clutch master cylinder just went bad at 38K mi, which has also ruined the clutch- again, Ford just feels that MC just succumbed to normal WAT (and an alarming number of MCs fail at exactly this milage.) Hey Ford, all cars are subjected to “wear and tear”, but the Corollas, Civics, and even Saturns are designed to hold up to it! It’s called better design, better materials, better testing- that’s quality that doesn’t require a slogan!

By: Jeff Sexton

Jeff Sexton — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:08:41 +0000

Green Bay Ford,

Thanks for the comment. Funny how much has changed in since I wrote this post. Actually, I don’t think Ford cars are bad, I just thought their advertising was off the mark given their position within the industry and the then-current perception of their cars. What Ford marketing has to do is give Americans a strong reason to buy a Ford instead of a Toyota or Honda or Hyundai and that can’t be done with flash and super-hot spokesmodels.

What I do think is that Ford is enjoying a resurgence of popularity because of their willingness to walk away from bailout money and their renewed focus on designing world class cars. Personally, I’d like nothing more than to see American Car companies make a comeback.

- Jeff

By: Green Bay Ford

Green Bay Ford — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:59:50 +0000

Well, it is interesting to hear some one else’s ideas. I think Ford will have some things to take care of and improve but that doesn’t mean their cars are bad.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:44:20 +0000

Ive owned 3 Fords and their reliabilty has sucked majorly. I promised myself I would never buy a Ford again….but with their new warranties and the Fusion hybrid on the market…I may change my mind!

By: r

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:33:42 +0000

#1 reason no more FORDS

$100.00 for a spare keys

thats 100 as in 100 bucks

try it , for any yr 2000 up

By: bill

bill — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:03:01 +0000

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/ford_focus.html

By: bill

bill — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:02:36 +0000

This might explain “why people have not driven a Ford lately?”

By: bmw leasing

bmw leasing — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:04:11 +0000

Nice to see someone else who thinks the same way as me.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:50:19 +0000

The website cougarsunroof.com has over 1200 reasons why people have not driven a Ford/Mercury product lately.

By: benry

benry — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:45:23 +0000

I think there are broader issues troubling the big-5 automakers (Ford, GM, etc.).

1) the cars they are building aren’t the cars people want. Take the Ford Mondeo (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mondeo ) as an example — Bond fans wanted it, movie fans loved the styling but couldn’t get this slick, Euro-designed styled Ford product anywhere in North America.

2) less and less consumers are buying ‘big cars’. The reason the others are winning is they are building the cars customers want. Persuasion needs to connect to users/visitors/owners. You could put 20 people in a room that didn’t buy a Ford, ask them why, take that away and build a car that easily many more would buy. Ford needs stop being “inside the bottle”

3) style and design. Ford = box while others = exciting, style, hip