Ford Escape Hybrid
Ford’s Kansas City assembly plant is celebrating a big milestone: building 100,000 of the Ford Escape Hybrid, the most fuel-efficient hybrid SUV on the planet. The Escape Hybrid, and it’s sibling, the Mercury Mariner Hybrid, are rated at 34 mpg in the city, allowing them to claim the title of most fuel efficient SUV on the planet. This news comes mere weeks after Ford announced the fuel economy of the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. Rated at 41 mpg city, the Fusion Hybrid is the most fuel efficient mid-size sedan in the world as well.
Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Ford. They have been bringing out some really great products and this milestone just goes to show that there is support for hybrid vehicles, and that Ford is obviously capable of building some very high quality ones at that. Head on over to PR Newswire for more details.
What do celebrities drive (aka which ones support America?)
President Barrack Obama
While browsing the web, Alex and I have often wondered, what do celebrities drive? The easy answer is that most drive Toyota Prius’ because well, they’re idiots. They think they’re helping the environment by still burning gas. Sure they’re burning less, but with all the money they have, they’d pay someone to build them a fuel cell car, or better yet, an electric car charged by renewable resources. Well anyway, there are still some celebs left in this country that feel it’s important to support our manufacturing base (imagine how upset they’d all be if we just stopped seeing American movies because foreign ones are better?) The list is as follows:
Barrack Obama – Ford Escape Hybrid (technically now it’s a heavily modified Cadillac)
Hillary Clinton – Mercury Mariner Hybrid
John Kerry – 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
Paris Hilton – 2008 GMC Yukon Hybrid
Jonas Brothers – Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, Jeep Commander and Ford Mustang
Jay Leno – Retrofitted Chrysler Crossfire
Al Gore – 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid
Sure, I don’t like most of those people, but I appreciate their support and hopefully, more people will follow suit, because those vehicles are all top notch, especially the Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner Hybrids, the most fuel efficient SUV’s on the planet. Head on over to Forbes for the full list, including people who prefer to send their money to Japan.
Ford announced in a press release that their quality has continued to improve over the past several years, to the tune of $1.2 billion dollars. Quality has improved so much that warranty repair rates for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles in the United States is almost 50% lower than it was in 2004! This means customers spend less time in the dealer for service, and Ford can invest more money in new technologies for the future. One of the more interesting points here is that Ford managed to cut warranty costs during a time when they increased their warranty coverage from 3 years/36,000 miles to 5 years/60,000 miles!
In the last JD Power survey, Ford was in a statistical dead head with Toyota for the best quality in the industry. If more good news like this continues to turn up, I have a feeling Ford may very well be the best in initial quality in 2009. Only time will tell though…
Read the full story, plus Ford’s press release at Autoblog
I have heard that in parts of the country, people do not seem to know that Ford, for example, builds anything other than the F-150 and Mustang. This, sadly, has happened for good reason. During the truck and SUV boom of the 90′s, the American manufacturers let their car programs fall by the wayside, instead focusing a large portion of their development budget on the newest, latest, greatest, and biggest 4×4′s. Cars were an after-thought, as they did not bring in the same large profits of their truck and SUV bretheren. The Japanese manufacturers produced quality cars, but even they wanted a piece of the truck and SUV profit pie, and eventually built plants in America to build their own versions of the gas-guzzlers.
Even though this was the case as little as 5 years ago, the American 3 have made a very strong comeback in the car arena. As you could see in my earlier post about their fuel efficency, they build small and mid-size cars that are very competitive when compared to their foreign rivals. I also pointed out that their designs are built to high quality standards, putting them in the same league as the foreign brands. To prove that their cars have other very strong selling points are a couple awards that I would like to point out.
Last year the Saturn Aura mid-size sedan was named the 2007 North American Car of the Year at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, MI.
Then in 2008 the Chevrolet Malibu took home the honors winning 2008 North American Car of the Year. Both of these cars were up against some steep competition (both domestic and foreign) and were picked by a large jury made up of various members of the automotive media.
The 2008 Cadillac CTS won Motor Trend magazines coveted 2008 Car of the Year award.
For 2008, 3 GM vehicles made it on Car and Driver’s 10 Best List; the Chevrolet Malibu, Chevrolet Corvette and Cadillac CTS, more than any other manufacturer.
In 2007, Ford won more JD Power awards than any other automaker. Ford, Lincoln and Mercury all had segment winners. Those three nameplates also finished in the Top 10.
The 2008 Ford Focus was named one of Kelly Blue Book’s Top 10 coolest cars under $18,000. With its combination of SYNC in car entertainment technology and 35 mpg on the highway, it was a tough car to beat.
The Ford Mustang ranked as the most problem-free “Midsize sporty car” from JD Power’s survey, while the Mercuy Milan was the highest ranked mid-sized car, and its sibling, the Lincoln MKZ, was the top-ranked “Entry premium car.”
All of these awards are only a small part of the story behind the cars that make up the American 3′s portfolios these days. Their trucks and SUV’s are superbly engineered, besting those offered up by their foreign competition. That same engineering mentality that goes into their trucks and SUV’s, is now applied to their car programs as well. “Good enough is not good enough” any longer. From the Chevrolet Malibu, to the Ford Fusion, the quality shows. They do not build just trucks and SUV’s, they build some damn fine automobiles as well!
Ford's 2008 Quality Improvement
Let me begin my first official post by saying that I own an American SUV. There, now that it’s out in the open, I can’t wait to hear all of the comments from people who say I am biased. Those who do say that are totally correct, I am biased…towards the truth! According to a recent JD Power survey, in overall quality, Mercury scored a “Better than Average” rating…the same rating that Toyota received. Ford, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, GMC and Lincoln received an “Above Average” rating…putting them in a tie with Honda. In 2008, Ford Motor Company improved it’s TGW (Things Gone Wrong) number by 11% over 2007…nearly 6 times the industry average!
Maybe you’ll say now that the survey’s are biased…well how about some awards based on the number of repairs that cars see. JD Power awarded the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu as being the “Highest Ranked Midsize Car in Initial Quality.” The 2008 Chevy Silverado LD was given the “Highest Ranked Large Pickup in Initial Quality” award. What?? Two American vehicles won quality awards? What gives? I guess they must be…as good or better than their foreign competition!
Say you’re still not convinced, and you think that the D3 are still lacking. If that were true, how could GM, Ford or Chrysler afford to offer warranties that offer the same or BETTER coverage for their vehicles than Toyota or Honda? If they were having as many quality issues as everyone believes that they are, they would be bankrupt simply due to repair costs. In fact, GM offers a 5 year, 100,000 mile powertrain warranty, greater than Toyota or Honda’s 5 year, 60,000 mile warranty. Chrysler now offers an un-heard of “unlimited” warranty, where the powertrain is covered no matter how many years the original owner has the vehicle, or how many miles they drive it. If Honda, Toyota, Nissan or Kia have such great quality, then they should be able to offer warranties at levels of the domestic manufacturers without a hit in warranty costs. Or maybe they can talk the talk, but can’t walk the walk?
