![\"We can advertise the fact that Ford Motor Co. is second to none among the full-line manufacturers,\" Fowler said. (courtesy detnews.com)](https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/tough-talk.jpg "\\"We can advertise the fact that Ford Motor Co. is second to none among the full-line manufacturers,\\" Fowler said. (courtesy detnews.com)")
Henry Ford said "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." Someone forgot to tell Bennie Fowler, Ford's group vice president of global quality. The Detroit News reports that Fowler stepped up to the microphone in front of his peers and started playing the dozens with the quality king. "In a direct challenge to Toyota… Fowler told industry leaders at the Center for Automotive Research's annual Management Briefing Seminars that new European- designed compacts and subcompacts such as the Fiesta and Focus will roll off the line with an average of 800 things gone wrong per 1,000 vehicles." If Fowler can meet that ambitious target, it would place Ford's quality above Toyota's– at least in this metric. Yes, well, apparently The Blue Oval Boyz are headed for one of those fist-pumping moments. "This time, we're playing for all the marbles — and we aim to win." Note to Bennie: must follow Crazy Henry's dictates. Such as, "Quality means doing it right when no one is looking."
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I’ve suffered thru several Six Sigma implementations at various companies over the years – with differing levels of enthusiasm and successes.
And yet, after reading this article, I can’t help but think that incorporating this (or any other type of statistical quality control methodology) might be more of ‘need to do’ thing and less of a ‘fun to do’ activity.
Seriously though, it’s comments like these from Bennie that demonstrate what happenes when you don’t benchmark yourself against known quality milestones and companies.
I can’t bust on Ford too bad for this type of bluster, it’s good bluster. They’re doing what it takes to win back the American consumer, and while you can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do, you can add a level of accountability by speaking publicly about your plans.
Maybe it’ll all flop and Ford will go back to building malaise-era tin boxes, but I believe that of all the Big 2.7 they’re the most likely to recover the course. If they can learn from the huge and unbelievably short-sighted mistakes of the past, they can emerge from this mess a strong company. People at car companies are always saying things and getting quoted, and at least this quote supports a sensible goal and isn’t just nonsense about how the faltering economy is to blame for Ford’s failure or more whining for Federal dollars. I’ll take quality talk any day of the week.
I will NEVER, E-V-E-R buy another F. product, or any product manufactured by a company that is partially owned or in any way affiliated to F. Not for myself, not for family. Neither will I ever recommend F. to friends, as long as I am alive. I will go as far request non-F products at rental car companies. This includes Vulvas, Jaguars (RIP) and [unfortunately], even Mazdas. Too little, too late. May they rot in hell.
TGW is not just a JD Power measurement. Several firms use the term “things gone wrong” when reporting on automotive quality. Ford is probably basing their claim on a general definition of TGW that they use internally (and is consistent with the industry standards) and is used by groups by like RDA to find out quality levels in various automobiles.
So, does this mean that Ford will just change their definition of TGWs, I’m sure you’re asking? No. It means that under their current definition, average vehicle quailty will move from about 1,200 today at Ford, Toyota and Honda (about 1,000 for cars like the Fusion) to 800 in the new Fiesta and Focus. Not a bad effort. We’ll see if it actually happens though. 800 is really ambitious. 900-1000 is far more likely.
Bennie said it. I believe it. That settles it.
For the past 25 years Ford has made Quality claims in press releases and through 1M+ advertisements and commercials about how they consider Quality their most important consideration – only to still live under this “perception gap”. Why does the 1,000,001 time they’ve said they will focus and lead in quality matter?
RobertSD:
TGW is not just a JD Power measurement. Several firms use the term “things gone wrong” when reporting on automotive quality. Ford is probably basing their claim on a general definition of TGW that they use internally (and is consistent with the industry standards) and is used by groups by like RDA to find out quality levels in various automobiles.
Thanks again for keeping us accurate. Text amended.
I think Ford is well on its way to being the leader in quality. The fusion is a wonderous piece of engineering not in performance but in all around quality. If you equip it with leather it is a wonderful wonderful spectacular vehicle, especially with the awd option. Even with its cloth, its verry good.
cRacK hEaD aLLeY : “Too little, too late. May they rot in hell.”
Don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel.
For any quality system to work effectively, senior management MUST be fully onside and willing to pay attention and pay the price. Unfortunately, broad pronouncements from the top get completely lost in the hundreds or thousands of day-to-day quality-affecting decisions that get made throughout the organization. All it takes is one executive to beat up on a subordinate for not meeting productivity quotas or cost targets. Other subordinates learn very quickly that despite pronouncements from the top, getting the product out the door at the expected cost is more important than getting the product right. Very quickly, the quality system breaks down and we are back to business as usual.
Let’s hope Ford has learned this lesson well and really means it this time.
westhighgoalie :
I think Ford is well on its way to being the leader in quality. The fusion is a wonderous piece of engineering not in performance but in all around quality. If you equip it with leather it is a wonderful wonderful spectacular vehicle, especially with the awd option. Even with its cloth, its verry good.
Gosh, too bad that the Fusion leather seat doesn’t have eight-way power — while everything else in the segment lets you power your way through every move, you’ve got to reach for a manual lever to adjust the Fusion’s seat back.
And Gosh, too bad Fusion doesn’t have a sliding armrest like Accord and Camry XLE, so even shortish people can enjoy a useful armrest.
I think the average buyers are looking more for things like these, rather than MPG-sapping AWD.
And so on. The others are beating Fusion because, well, they BEAT the Fusion in a number of areas. Pretty pure and simple. Beats me why Ford can’t figure stuff like this out, and do something about it.
@thoot…okay, I give. The Fusion isn’t a carbon copy of the Accord/Camry…but given the big 2.8’s last 10-15 years of effort, it is a monumental improvement. So much so that I bought one. Overall, I’m impressed, and the price difference was noticeable. Will I regret it in five years? Maybe, I don’t know. If so, I’ll chalk it up to my misplaced belief that at least one American car manufacturer can screw together a car with reasonable success. It’s quiet and goes down the road well. The stereo (6 CD changer) sounds pretty dang good, and the seats comfortable and supportive. I think it’s at least competitive with the Accord and Camry, and in some cases, a bit more engaging and entertaining to drive. If I were a betting man (and I’m not), I’m willing to out on a limb here to say that of the three, Ford stands the best chance of coming out of this alive and intact. Bring over the hotrod Focus in a few years and after the kid is off to the Air Force Academy, I just might consider it!
I sat in, but didn’t drive a Fusion earlier this week.
I thought the leather looked awful and cheap. Also, my head hit the ceiling. I wanted to like the fusion, but frankly I can’t imagine a reason to buy it over a Civic.
I will NEVER, E-V-E-R buy another F. product, or any product manufactured by a company that is partially owned or in any way affiliated to F. Not for myself, not for family. Neither will I ever recommend F. to friends, as long as I am alive. I will go as far request non-F products at rental car companies. This includes Vulvas, Jaguars (RIP) and [unfortunately], even Mazdas. Too little, too late. May they rot in hell.
Sounds like you’ve owned the same Ford products that I have.
John
I worked at Ford or for their suppliers for 30 years of slogan changes, “Quality is Job One” , Ford Has a Brighter Idea”,only thing that changes is the slogan on the coffee cups.
Judging from my 05 Focus ST I think Ford has made great strides in quality. 80K, regular maintenance only, no rattles, no squeeks, sound as the British pound.
Other subordinates learn very quickly that despite pronouncements from the top, getting the product out the door at the expected cost is more important than getting the product right.
Bingo.
Ford adopted the slogan “Quality is Job #1” back in the late 70s. Anybody here think they lived up to it? Will Lucy hold the football this time so Charlie Brown can kick a field goal?
I wouldn’t give a bucket of warm spit for any of these Detroit mediocre executive tools with their political games and their empty braggadoccio.
“That’s right, I said it”? Ooh, it’s so gutsy to make yet another empty boast about the future. Why don’t you borrow from the Japanese and show some real commitment: “I’ll commit seppuku in front of Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn if we don’t meet this goal in three years”. Then I might believe you. Better still, just shut up and work toward the goal with humility (a foreign word in Detroit, I know), and save your victory lap for when or if you actually achieve it.
Don’t tell me about quality — show me.
I hope Ford survives but won’t be buying from them again. I was a loyal customer for 25 years and put up with cars dissolving at 80K miles or less until I finally figured out they used poor quality components. I switched to Honda and Acura and guess what…no more disintegrating autos! They blew it with me big time.
Thanks for the note, RF. Don’t get me wrong, I would bet the TGW measurement includes things like “rattling” and “wind noise” but I doubt it includes complaints about windows fogging (I nearly died laughing when I read that in the JD Power release).
All of this is still customer, dealer and manufacturer sourced data at the end of the day. And a lot of the dealer data comes from customers who bring their car in complaining about a rattle. Manufacturer data comes from warranty claims that dealers submit from customers complaining about wind noise.
That said, TGW as generally defined in the industry is a proficient if not entirely precise way of measuring a vehicle’s quality, generally observed and respected in some form by everyone from Chrysler to Honda, which can be tied loosely with customer satisfaction of a product.
larryken-
you must not have bought a Honda/Acura prior to the mid-90’s then. If you can keep the rust OFF those cars, I’d be shocked.
Don’t really care, but comparing old Hondas to old Fords on rust…you can’t tell me the Hondas are any better or worse. Guarantee a Ford purchased today won’t rust any more than a new Honda.
tech98: Don’t tell me about quality — show me.
The latest quality survey results by Consumer Reports and JD Power suggest hope. They show solid improvement for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury. Same with the survey being tabulated by this site’s Mr. Karesh.
On an anecdotal level, I will say that the 2005 Focus SE sedan that my wife brought to our marriage has been been quite reliable over 68,000+ miles, especially considering that she hardly babies her cars.
“That’s right, I said it. Ford Motor Co. will be the quality leader”
Seeing the headline, I believed this statement… provided the next few words were “…of the Big 3.”
Sufficiently ambitious (unless Ford is the only survivor), yet attainable! Why don’t you work on “today, the country!” before skipping to “…tomorrow, THE WORLD AHAHAHAHAHA!”
The irony: http://www.fowlertoyota.com/
The reason these pronouncements are just marketing hype, is that for one thing, these days quality has more to do with component designs, reliability testing, selection of materials and supplier development, just to name a few things. These all take a very long time to implement. I read somewhere that they where going to start listening to the assembly workers for quality improvements, but that is supposed to have been a sheet they where singing from starting with the big down turn in 1981. The fact of the matter is that quality is designed in, the guy on the line has very little to do with it. Oh sure you can get the line workers to speak up if they cross thread a bolt but I guarantee they aren`t stopping the line and retapping a hole or throwing out a heater if it isn`t falling out.
Even if you could spend 200 hours with the most precise and dedicated engineers putting all the parts of a Pinto together and at the end of the line, you still have a Pinto.
Hey Benny,
Deconstruct how the AXOD transmission was allowed to fester in the product line for years and net out how many Honda & Toyota converts it created.
Then explain how things will be different and what will be invested to re-acquire those lost customers.
Sounds like you’ve owned the same Ford products that I have.…
But not the various Fords in our family. All have been good, reliable vehicles – and one dates back to ’92. As always, though, there are the inexcusable parts – like the corporate heat/ac controls that feel like dog crap.
Oh Brother…
How many times in the past 30 years has a Detroit mega-corporation claimed to have finally got their $h!t together ??
Can you really make such quality claims while you squeeze every dime out of your near bankrupt suppliers ?
I still see far more black dots in the Ford columns of consumer reports than Toyota and Honda.
You can sprinkle lime on dog crap to make it smell better, but it is still dog crap.
btw, my trany for hte 99′ Ford Windstar Died last week.
I don’t have enough to buy a new car, and I can’t bring myself to spend anything for another transmission.
All i have to say is … what a piece of raging shit.
Btw, it died at about 210K km. Did I mention that my 96 infiniti has 400K and the transmission works like a charm? *knock on wood*
I also have a 06 Fusion … i haven’t been disappointed in the car so far … than again its only had 18K km
I thought about buying a used 2000 Focus at one time, until I went to the NHTSA website and saw they had 14 recalls with that model year. My favorite one of the bunch was that the left rear wheel and hub assembly could fall off the vehicle.
thoots:
Gosh, too bad that the Fusion leather seat doesn’t have eight-way power — while everything else in the segment lets you power your way through every move, you’ve got to reach for a manual lever to adjust the Fusion’s seat back.
And Gosh, too bad Fusion doesn’t have a sliding armrest like Accord and Camry XLE, so even shortish people can enjoy a useful armrest.
I think the average buyers are looking more for things like these, rather than MPG-sapping AWD.
And so on. The others are beating Fusion because, well, they BEAT the Fusion in a number of areas. Pretty pure and simple. Beats me why Ford can’t figure stuff like this out, and do something about it.
But the Fusion does have Sync, which is more useful than a power reclining seat to most people, as well as very high quality interior materials (at least in SEL trim), arguably better styling than the pregnant Camry or the bloated Accord, and comes in with MSRP/Invoice/and real world prices thousands less than any of them, so, yes, some cost cutting, but also some very solid features on its own, and the cost cutting is passed on to the customer in a (gasp) lower price.
I have to assume that the only reason the Fusion isn’t getting the revised 2.5 liter and 3.0 liter engines in the 2009 incarnation is that the redesigned 2010 is going to get the 3.5 ala the new Mazda6, which will also give it class leading power.
And, to get back on point, better quality scores so far than the majority of the competition.
As far as Consumer Reports goes – anyone who knows anything knows it is a joke.
Toyota’s reliability at this point is half real and half self perpetuating myth. Most people expect a domestic product to break, and then when it does, it confirms their belief and they shout it from the rooftops. When a Toyota or a Honda malfunctions people can’t seem to get their heads around it, assume it was a one off fluke, and never speak of it again…
As far as Consumer Reports goes – anyone who knows anything knows it is a joke.
Not exactly. It’s based on consumer self-reporting, so is doubly psychologically important: It reflects how consumers feel about the cars they own, and it influences how potential buyers feel about the cars they are considering. (And at some level, genuine quality improvements or declines move those numbers.)
Ford is still nowhere near Toyota or Honda but it is at the lead of the Big 2.8 pack and improving. Fusion roughly ties Camry in the CR reckoning, which is huge.
So credit where credit is due: If Ford is moving both JD Power ratings and CR’s vox populi ratings upward, the company is making some genuine progress.
I run a small transport company that includes 11 Ford super duty cargo vans. Typically, we buy them with 120,000 – 160,000 miles on them, when they’re dirt cheap. We go through the suspension, do a tuneup on them, and put them into service. Each van runs on average 70,000 miles per year. We have 600,000 miles on some of the vans, and they manage to get there with much fewer repairs than you would think.
So yes, Ford can build a good product. I was biased against Ford before my cargo van experience so this has been a real eye-opener for me.
I can also add that their passenger cars do not feel anywhere near as rugged as these vans, and I still do remember the Taurus 3.8L engines, the tranny problems, a/c issues, power steering, etc.
Give me a real bumper to bumper 300,000 km warranty…..no weasel words attached…. and I will think about buying a domestic vehicle.
The Japanese don’t have to do this. Their past commitment to building quality vehicles using QUALITY parts makes a 300K warranty unnecessary.
The domestics have been engineering planned component failure for years now.
The public caught on years ago that they were being screwed when their domestics had major and repeated failures shortly after the warranty expired.
Add to that the long list of components that are on the consumable (read: NOT COVERED) list right from day one. It makes a domestic not only expensive to own but almost worthless to resell or trade in.
To all the happy owners of the Fusion with the AWD system…..lets wait a couple of years and see what the verdict is when these cars get a few km on them and the warranty is expired.
It’s really not the quality of the workforce that makes a difference…..most of todays assembly systems allow for repeatability.
The real reason your domestic is a money pit is that EVERY component used in its assembly has been cheapened in the name of short term profit.
@chamar
I also have a 06 Fusion … i haven’t been disappointed in the car so far … than again its only had 18K km
It’s also a Mazda….
What happened to the cheerleader pics?
Big Ford boast. Better is performance than smoke.
Cars will be downsized like it or not to become more fuel efficient. Ford Fusion CD is .33. Toyota Camry .28. That is a major engineering difference for Ford and same for the rest of Detroit. Aero bricks are out.
AXOD quality wasn’t addressed timely. Typical Ford/Detroit response. The last in the family is the AX4N in my 05 Sable. Good 4 speed tranny. Typical buyer also doesn’t bother with servicing. Big mistake, then bitch when it fails. My DIY interval is max 20k or when color test white paper towel shows significant discoloration. Same for the 05 Accord V6. Honda did away with the filter. Only a non servicable strainer for diagnostics. Drain plug same as oil pan. No pan to remove, gasket, filter.
Ford owner for many years. Fix Or Repair Daily. Ford has a long way to go to match Honda.
Imports are overrated.
I bought a 335i coupe only after the transmission in my 2002 honda accord coupe died after 101K miles – right outside of the extended warranty. Would Honda sub the costs? NO.
My 1997 Isuzu Rodeo…ERRRRR….Honda Passport’s transmission died at 41K miles – right outside of the 36K mile warranty. Would Honda sub the costs? NO.
My Dad’s 1996 and 1997 Lincoln Mark VIII’s are running like a charm.
I know the sample size is small here, but from these conclusions, I could suggest that Fords quality is better than Honda’s.