I almost did buy one two years ago - a Crown Victoria, since I wanted a rear
wheel drive car for towing. I would've preferred that car to my pickup truck
because the gas mileage was about 25% better. But then, I read about the
feature that wasn't in the brochu The thing about the exploding gas tank
and rear-end collisions. I realize other cars may have this problem, but
that fact had no bearing on my decision. I may look again in the future, but
only after finding out if the issue has been dealt with. Police departments
are happy to dispense this information.



"Paul Schilter" paulschilter@comcast dot net wrote in message
...
Doug,
I can understand how you feel. I work as an electrician, for Ford at
the Romeo Engine Plant. I hired in the in 1989. Since we were building the
engine plant we went to a lot of classes. We learned that Ford changed its
way of doing business because of the Japanese. What you say is completely
true and very embarrassing. They're whole focus was on numbers, we've
since learnt different. Today quality is the first priority. Anyone can
stop the line if something is wrong. No we're not perfect but we sure as
hell are trying. The union has a quality rep that you can call if you feel
quality is being ignored. A lot of the members of upper management in the
plant come and go as they move up the ladder. But we as members of an
engine building team will either prosper or fail with this plant are here
for the long term. The product that we deliver to you determines our
future. I assure you that the majority of us are very concerned with
quality. Doug, I appo;igize about the past and hope you check us out in
the future.
Paul

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

snipped

How can you not understand? Millions of people got ****ed up the ass by
the American car makers. Those memories don't fade for many, many years.
Toyota offers cars that are damned close to perfect. Unless you require a
"niche car" like the one you bought, why gamble with an American car?

My brother in law used to bitch at me about how I was costing Americans
jobs by buying Japanese. My response was simple: My second Ford was in
the shop 5 times in the first year (1975). My boss read me the riot act:
Find a way to get to work, or work somewhere else. In other words, the
Ford was about to cost me MY job. When it finally died, I bought a
Toyota. My logic: If American engineers can't build a car correctly, they
deserve to lose their jobs.

It's an interesting phenomenon in America: Pick 10 products, one of them
being a cars. For each product, ask 10,000 people what should happen to
the manufacturers of those products if they're poorly built for years on
end. For 9 of the products, people will say what they should: The
manufacturers should go out of business. For cars, they'll cut the
manufacturers a ridiculous amount of slack. It's as if cars have some
sort of religious status. I makes no sense at all.