Ford lies about fuel economy.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Yeah, my wife did not like her exploder (ahm) and we traded it in on a civic, which she really likes. I couldn't beat the price on the ranger with an import, it fits in my garage, and it is just too damn useful to have a pick-up to not have one.

[The Mad Monk]

I used to drive a Mercury Sable, which later on was dubbed The Disable. My mechanic hated to work on it, because the engine compartment just wasn't built for accessibility. He said that happens a lot with Fords.

[Verto]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
I used to drive a Mercury Sable, which later on was dubbed The Disable. My mechanic hated to work on it, because the engine compartment just wasn't built for accessibility. He said that happens a lot with Fords.

Have you tried working on any car lately? Hyundai's engine is intentionally made inaccessible, with the owner given easy access to the bare essentials, like the windshield wiper fluid.

[The Mad Monk]

Yeah, I work on my Dakota, it's pretty roomy. Everything I would care to reach is easily reachable.

[The Mad Monk]

I should probably mention that the Sable in question was an '86, and last driven in '97.

[Verto]

Well, that IS a truck after all. How old is it by the way?

[Boris Godunov]

My family had a Ford Escort...think it was from 1982. Lasted about 10 years. Damn thing was a tank--no power steering or power breaks. I always felt like I was driving a ship.

The 1992 Honda Accord I had was the best car ever. I was very sorry to give it up when I moved to NY in 1999. Never had a single mechanical problem with it, and it handled beautifully.

[The Mad Monk]

It's a '98 4x2 regular cab. Just passed 101,000 miles with no troubles.

[Asher]

Got 21,100km on my '04 Mazda 3 Sport, no problems yet.

[Harry Tuttle]

64,000 + miles on my Focus and no problems yet. I haven't even had to replace the brakes yet. Ford makes great cars. My family has been buying them for years with no problems.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Spec


Which engine is that?


Spec.

2.5L V6.

BTW Asher, you do know that consumer reports doesn't take a satistical sampling right? That's right consumer reports only gets info on people who bother to write in or from recall information which is available to the public (meaning not much) or other public sources. This results in a big skewing of data since most people who don't experience problems don't bother to write reports to complain.

J D Powers does a much better job of tracking these things by brand and model because they actually do a satistical sampling so their results can be trusted. I know you hate J D Powers because *gasp* they don't agree with your bias but here's the results any way.

Toyota brand has 216 defective vehicles per 100,000 built while Ford brand has 276 defective vehicles per 100,000 built. That means 99.99724% Fords are free of manufacturer's defects while Toyotas are 99.99784% defect free. OMG IT"S SUCH A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!11!!!11!

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oerdin
2.5L V6.

BTW Asher, you do know that consumer reports doesn't take a satistical sampling right? That's right consumer reports only gets info on people who bother to write in or from recall information which is available to the public (meaning not much) or other public sources. This results in a big skewing of data since most people who don't experience problems don't bother to write reports to complain.

This makes no sense as an excuse: this would affect all brands equally. Is it just a coincidence that every single Toyota vehicle gets a great reliability record, while most Ford ones get a poor one?

If the skew is universal across the board, and you're comparing only within that set affected by the same skew, the relative comparisons are still rather accurate.

J D Powers does a much better job of tracking these things by brand and model because they actually do a satistical sampling so their results can be trusted. I know you hate J D Powers because *gasp* they don't agree with your bias but here's the results any way.

Toyota brand has 216 defective vehicles per 100,000 built while Ford brand has 276 defective vehicles per 100,000 built. That means 99.99724% Fords are free of manufacturer's defects while Toyotas are 99.99784% defect free. OMG IT"S SUCH A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!11!!!11!

That's initial quality, silly. That means dick-all in terms of reliability, which is why my numbers (which are from 2004) include only cars from 2001 and older. All cars in their first year are reasonably reliable.

Nice try, though.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
I used to drive a Mercury Sable, which later on was dubbed The Disable. My mechanic hated to work on it, because the engine compartment just wasn't built for accessibility. He said that happens a lot with Fords.

That's every modern car I'm afraid.

[Verto]

PREEMPTIVE STRIKES AGAINST FORD MOTOR CO.

US President George Bush declared today in a televised address that due to the failure on the part of US automaker giant Ford Motor Co. to stop sucking, preemptive strikes would be carried out by a coalition of the willing.

"The lack of quality inherent in all automobiles produced by [Ford Motor Company] threaten our way of life. We cannot allow their citadels of crappiness to terrorize the free world."

Citing unfounded allegations made by an anonymous Canadian source, Bush argued that democracy would stagnate so long as the Detroit automaker was allowed to produce it's ****.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oerdin
That's every modern car I'm afraid.

I've looked through the Mazda 3 Service manual (Mazda provides it as a PDF...650MB too), and it seems remarkably servicable. In fact, it was designed to be so, since it's a "mass market" car.