Relying on subscription only changes the bias problem. To sell subscriptions, you need people to believe the subscription has value. So as reliability has improved, they’ve kept changing their rating system to the point that most of the results are within margins of error, but they aren’t admitting that.

If you see…

Or they tell you Fords are horribly unreliable when the ONLY thing they’re measuring as unreliable was the infotainment system... which granted sucked, but even if it crashed, your car still worked... AND it was an option that you could simply avoid - an option that at the time you couldn’t even get on competitors.

They…

Here’s the thing - Consumer Reports doesn’t take money, but they only get money if they sell you a subscription. If you actually dug into their reliability ratings, you’d find that they’re not even splitting hairs between most vehicles, but actually splitting cilia on a paramecium. Hell, they’ve reported a larger…

Considering that their results actually correlate well with other sources despite your allegations, maybe you should...

“And if you want to support US manufacturing you need to by Toyota over the big 3. “

That should get you locked up today. Ford has 2.5 times as many employees designing and building vehicles in the US as does Toyota, but they sell roughly the same number of vehicles. You’re just buying into slick marketing.

Will the Insight have much of a market to play in? I’d like to see how it lines up against the Clarity plug-in. The Clarity qualifies for a $7,500 tax credit, but the Insight will likely get $0. Given average sale prices in my area, that puts the Clarity about $3k more than the base Insight after credits, more if the…

Much cheaper? Not really...

The Insight starts at $23,725. Who knows what discounts you might get.

The Volt starts at $34,095, but tax credits and discounts push the average price down to $23,526.

I wonder how much longer before we find out Musk has been storing his urine in jars and wearing kleenex boxes for shoes?

Sadly, 5 mph will destroy most bumpers on modern vehicles.

Ooh, and Cheesecake Factory will make you fatten up and wallow, which describes the Camry perfectly, too. :)

Like the stupid slash marks on the rear bumpers? Absolutely no point in those. They’re ugly, and the car would look better and be cheaper without them.

The problem here is that nothing you describe the Camry as capable of couldn’t also be done as well or better by a Fusion, Accord, or Mazda6, none of which is as hideous as the Camry is now.

The Camry isn’t bad.  Its just that its competition is better, which leaves us wondering WHY it still sells so well.

Transit Connect comes from Spain now....

What you’re missing is that those customers you just told to piss off are now customers of your competition. When they buy an Accord instead, Honda may not make a ton of money. But then if they decide they want a compact CUV after that, guess what - they’re most likely going to buy a Honda, not come back for an…

Telling your customers that you don’t want their business anymore is a great way to improve return on your investment, though, right?

The benefit is clear. You’re in an industry with high customer loyalty and where it is much more expensive to gain a new customer than to retain an old one. You’ve just told a large section of the market that you don’t want their business and you’ve encouraged them to try another manufacturer. Odds are good that when…

1) Most of the people Toyota lost were not skilled engineering positions.

2) Texas, while not exactly a desirable location IMO, is really no worse than Georgetown or Erlanger, KY.

3) The Big 3 have NEVER struggled to get students from Michigan, Illinois, Purdue, Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, Wisconsin, Rose-Hulman,…

No, they don’t.

Did you even look at the accusations? Not likely something a line worker would have had access to.

Plenty of people DO buy Ford cars.

Ford sold more Fusions last year than at any time in the first generation. They sold nearly 600,000 cars total. Rationally, they could have killed the Fiesta and the Taurus and would likely have kept most of those sales. Would have given them about 250k Fusion sales from people…