Thank you, Ford, for moving to position yourself to become more competitive, several years ahead of its absolute, critical necessity. Shifting much of your focus back on cars – smaller, more efficient ones at that – away from once far-more-profitable (and thirstier) trucks allows you now to offer Americans more, and better choices in the home-grown domestic car and crossover market.
Thank you, Ford, for standing beside your beleaguered competitors as they seek the government’s help, even though you don’t need it yourself (at least not yet?). Standing up for your competition, recognizing that their failures could easily contribute to your own, not to mention the possibility of dealing a major blow to America’s overall economic recovery is a good conscientious move.
Thank you, Ford, for recognizing the importance of product quality, and working to improve same. While you may not yet have achieved the high levels of “legendary” quality long-enjoyed by some of the manufacturers from Japan, you’re clearly making great strides in that direction.
Thank you, Ford, for embracing a new sense of style and purpose. Moving away from look-alike models from each of your different brands, models that share similar platforms no longer look like carbon copies of one another. Though still suffering a little of the look-alike styling of the past (at least along the sides of these models), your mid-cycle freshening of the new 2010 Ford Fusion, Lincoln MKZ and Mercury Milan shows that you’re moving in the right direction: reworked front and rear ends, and interiors, result in far more distinctive looks for each. Where similar products from your different brands were once all-but-indistinguishable from one another – the Ford Crown Vic and Mercury Marquis, for example – who could possibly recognize that the boxy Ford Flex and the upcoming, very curvaceous Lincoln MKT are essentially the same vehicle? The same goes for the upcoming 2010 Ford Taurus, which looks nothing like its sibling, the new Lincoln MKS.
Thank you, Ford, for embracing – and offering – useful technology in your products. SYNC has proven to be a convenient, practical and safety-conscious system. Your MyKey system will provide parents with the ability to encourage teen drivers to drive more responsibly, more safely. Your upcoming EcoBoost engines are poised to deliver outstanding performance, both in power and in efficiency.
Most of all, Ford, thank you for giving Your Automotive Authority greater hope that we’ll soon have even more models in which we have the confidence to recommend to our clients!
Thank you, Ford. Keep up the good work!
[Note: For more (and more objective) information on the vehicles linked and referenced above, visit our Future & Concept Vehicles and New Cars & Trucks pages.]
Update [04|19|2009] See the AutoBlog article "Ford's Initial Quality Beats Honda, Ties Toyota...According To Ford" for more information on Ford's much-improved quality.
