I assume the Germans were a PITA because they only wanted the parts to work under a very specific set of conditions.....

It wasn’t here but I remember a parts supplier commneting. About Japan, Germany and the US when they spec’d parts. The germans were a flat out pain in the ass and the big difference between Japan and the US was the intended life of the part. US spec parts were designed to last the warranty period and just a little bit…

Ah, the nostalgic glow of the old movie star driving into the green screen foreground sawing at the wheel just to go straight. I could totally convince myself that I am Cary Grant in such a vehicle.

It’s pretty sad how often this podcast episode is still relevant time and time again

Ooops. Wrong platform. Please disregard.

I own a 2010 Fusion.

220k on it, still going strong on original engine and 6F35 transmission.

Great car - extremely reliable and cheap to maintain.

It’s too bad Ford didn’t use the 6F35 on the Focus.  

“This is the dumbest thing I’ve read in a very long time.” 

Eh... With a Versa you at least get cruise control.

Or banking that by the time the shit hit the fan 2-3 years later, the stock would have jumped from the sales and cost reductions, and they’d be out of there when the warranty claims hit and the stock drops again.

The problem with Wall Street is that having a sustainable business is never enough. You need to grow every…

This is absolutely what happened.

I sell Fords in the PAC NW. The demographic that would buy a big sedan is too old and creaky to comfortably get in and out. Plus people shrink as they age; women especially need to sit up higher.

I got upgraded from a Kia Rio or something to a Camry on my last trip and it was substantially better than any other rental I’ve had.

I don’t think it’s about reducing the number of warranty claims by improving the product, I think it’s about *denying* more warranty claims by downloading your car’s data and blaming you for allowing your revs to rise to 6501 rpm, once, four years ago. Instant cost saving!

The only way Ford is going to get my money again is to invent time travel and fix my 2012 Focus before I bought it. That was an engineering disaster driven by bad financial decisions. Even if Ford rolled out a manual brown wagon with 300hp at a reasonable price, I would not trust Ford to do it right.

Weird. It’s like you can buy old technology for less than new technology.

America’s rental now wears a Nissan badge. And they also suck.

Farley sees an opportunity to wipe away much of the $5 billion it spends annually on warranty repairs by harnessing data coming from newly connected cars to head off problems. 

To be fair a lot of those warranty claims are related to a garbage transmission they put in their mass-market hatchbacks. 

If Ford let me buy this, I would gladly trade in my Mk 7 ST yesterday.

RIP America’s Rental. May you roll off of airport parking lots everywhere and into the sunset.