First, as I always, do, let me state that I work for Ford and my statements are not representative of Ford or their views.
Now....
That article is a hatchet job. I had to wade through 5 paragraphs of him talking about how much CR and other surveryors just aren't as good as he is just to get to the supposed point of the article. In scanning through that article you will find not a single number and not a single statistic. You'll simply find him conglomerating every quality issue, imagined or otherwise, that Ford has seen over the last several years.
Those are core problems with his writing. Now let's nitpick a bit. He uses a comment about chrome flaking off to suggest there's a product development problem. Clearly, this person does not understand the difference between product development and supplier quality and lot control. This happens regularly to every company in the industry. A supplier will supply a product that is just find for all the testing that the cars go through, but when they mass produce it bad product gets out. That's not something you catch in product development. Not even close.
You're probably not going to pick that up in product testing either, since the batches will vary from lot to lot. Likewise - a grounding problem is an assembly problem. Not a product development problem. And this on an all-new vehicle just introduced to the US, which is pretty expected frankly.
Next, he uses Ford's response to the mytouch issues as a response to all the quality problems. It's disingenous and frankly a bald faced lie.
Then he states that the problems aren't a new developement, and somehow equates an electrical problem to seals on 4 year old vehicles. WTF?
If I every had ANY intention of reading that website and using it to draw conclusions, it's gone. He's a hack writing a tabloid.
Oh, and I love this part. After the hack job in the article, he goes on to post this in the comment section:
The problems Fords are currently having are only noteworthy because:
1. The automaker did very well for a few years in the mid-2000s, and seems to be letting more glitches, usually minor, slip through now. Most of its models remain very reliable by historical standards.
2. The Fiesta seems more troublesome than other current Fords, and might indicate that products primarily engineered by Ford of Europe will be more buggy than those engineered primarily in North America. And Mulally has directed that Ford of Europe supply more models to the North American market.
I certainly did not mean to imply that Fords are junk and should be avoided. They’re not.
Really? That's certainly not what your hatchet job article said.
I'm done hijacking this thread now. Hopefully Ford fixes their mytouch issues, and makes it dead-simple to do things that should be one-touch dead simple like changing the radio and adjusting the climate controls.
Wow. Just... wow. That sounds pretty bad.
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