GAC’s floor mats were absolutely worth note, enough so I called them out specifically in a Curbside Classic article the other day.  Rather swanky.  

The fact that they can’t make their product consistent enough between plants is absolutely damning. I realize the 4.6 and 5.4 are out of production for a decade now, but still, there’s no excuse for that in the 1990s or 2000s. If the plans are the plans, then any plant worth mentioning should be able to build…

I agree in part. But, 20 months in, that’s at least one-third, more like half, of the way through a product program. Ford should be able to show off the product pipeline for four years at any given time. They were able to do it under Mulally. Hell, they were able to do it when Bill Ford was CEO. Yes, occasionally the…

But there’d be a pipeline they could show to investors. I worked for Ford Communications during the Mulally years, so I saw the presentations. Ford could show the pipeline 4-5 years out, because there was product in the pipeline that far out. We could talk about X number of new or significantly revised products in Y…

In some ways, that’s true. I read an account not too long after Fields got canned that suggested the aluminum F-150, which was a Mulally-era project, blew the budget big time. The consequence was that the mid-cycle refreshes got thinned down.

When Mulally was running the show at Ford, the company was focused on making world-class products people want and value; small, medium, and large; cars, trucks, and utilities. And they were on their way to doing that.

It’s true the clowncil was, is, and shall probably remain worthless, but I’m not sure they’ve had a serious role in the Packard debacle.  

Don’t worry, that stretch of East Grand Blvd. is nearly as deserted as the plant.  

You mean the Fiesta that looks nearly identical to the one that preceded it, aside from different headlights, and rides on the same platform that’s absolutely terrible on space utilization inside?

If that was a refresh, I’d hate to see what genuine neglect looks like!

EcoSport is only new to North America.  This current version’s been kicking around South America and Asia for years now, and it shows when you get inside.  Also look at Focus and Fiesta, now leaving North America but key products in Europe and other places abroad:  Focus hasn’t seen meaningful revision since it’s 2011…

Neutral: Get the product pipeline flowing again! $1.7 Billion in extra overhead isn’t even half a car program, let alone a valid excuse as to why the bulk of Ford’s product line is old as ass at this point. The platforms are fine, but they haven’t done any meaningful mid-cycle updates since they debuted. Explorer will…

Ford’s cars were all old as the hills at this point. Fusion, when it was new in 2013, was selling well over 300k per year. In 2017, in its 5th year basically unchanged, they still sold 210,000 of them.

GM trucks really are appalling inside, aren’t they?  I am perpetually shocked by how bad they are compared to their competition, yet somehow they still sell ‘em.  

Neutral: Jim Hackett is not a good CEO for Ford Motor Company. I believe that something a little more within his wheelhouse, he’d be competent. At a company and manufacturing a product as complex as Ford? He’s way out of his league. I still know a few people inside at Ford, and the scuttlebutt I hear is that things…

Last new car I bought, I told them specifically not to put any badges, frames, stickers, or any other advertising on the car. I went in to finish signing papers, and I came out to a front license plate (not a holder, the actual plate!) with the dealer’s logo, a sticker on the back, and a rear license frame.

The last time GM was going to become an “all _____ company,” it was the 1980s, and the blank was filled in with “front-wheel drive.”

The mistake Ford keeps making is trying to please Wall Street instead of focusing on their core.  Mulally knew it, but I swear every so often the Ford family must just want that stock goosed a bit so they can go on a spending spree.  

Wasn’t that the one that was just a rebadged Volt?

Lol at the notion enthusiasts, and not middle-aged white suburban women, are the ones buying Explorers.