toyota passes ford to become number 2 in US sales

from my friend who's a ford tech:

although i havnt worked on many due to its age, the industry is crazy over the new fusion. in fact most of the new lineup seems to be reliable. personally i think the ford escape(standard or hybrid) can be put in the same category as the mustang. the focus is showing its age and the crown vic is all but retired.

you would think that after making the explorer for 10 years they could make a decent suv but sadly thats not the case. explorers and expeditions are still plagued with shoddy build quality and terrible design decisions.
 
As long as Ford dosn't do their typical thing of promoting the Fusion for a few months or one year and then just leaving it alone for the next big thing then it can go far. Im kind of gung ho on getting a Japanese car but I admit that I would consider a Fusion if it fit into my price range. Like I said before, I don't have any issues with their mechanical quality as at least my ZX2 has been fine but overall they still make stupid design mistakes that are thought about most of the time on Japanese cars.

A small list of mistakes that are common on American cars but not often on Japanese (or are fixed in short order)

1. dashboard ergonomics. Rarely do you ever see American cars that dont have either a diehard cockpit feel or a straight as a board feel. A curve or two sometimes wont hurt.

2. convenience options in bad places or as an afterthought. for instance. my car has cupholders but right under the radio. If you attempt to put anything big either you will block the radio, or cig lighter, that is if it fits at all. Or what good is a trunk button if its almost under the dashboard? Im not saying you wont see stupid mistakes like this on a Honda but at least most things are at a place you can easily get to without looking.

3. too easy to allow elements in to the car by accident. for instance you often see on American cars that the windshield wipers tend to throw water back behind the car, even when its at a stand still. Thus if you are in a drive thru you'll get soaked if you forget to turn your wipers off. Often on a Japanese car it will either throw water directly to the side to mimimize the amount of water going into the car, or they have a way to channel it away from the window.


Again its nothing but nitpicks but for some people the little annoyances such as that make them feel the entire car is potentially flawed or rushed.
 
It's easy to say that the Fusion is reliable when it's only been out a year or two. And of course people like it, they're basically copying all of the good things that Japanese cars have already been doing for 10 years.
 
shawndavid said:
You read my mind. I've been a Saleen fan since back in the day when they had the mesh, Enkei-looking rims.


Say it with me..."suh-LEEN"


I thought it was say-leen, like my eyedrops and nasal spray.
 
the only reason I'm worried is that I work as a contractor for ford. sure it's just IT but any more cutbacks will mean I have more buildings to cover and less time to do it in.
 
KNYTE said:
It's easy to say that the Fusion is reliable when it's only been out a year or two. And of course people like it, they're basically copying all of the good things that Japanese cars have already been doing for 10 years.
the reason why is that it is the same body design and chassis as the mazda rx just with a diffrent front end.
 
ChikkenNoodul said:
Most Japanese manufacturers have NO idea how to make armrests though
They have such narrow arms...I've seen their porn.

Really, though, the Ridgeline has great armrests. The door side has one that's about 5 inches wide and the center console has a padded platform that slides about 8 inches forward that well accomodates my chubby Sam Adams lifter.

The S2000, however, doesn't even have a proper receptacle for a beverage. One shouldn't be sipping a latte when runnng from the po po though.