DETROIT (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. says it plans to have a fully electric car in showrooms by 2011 that will get up to 100 miles on a single charge. It also plans to offer a gas-electric hybrid vehicle that can be recharged from a standard wall outlet by 2012. Ford announced its strategy for electric vehicles Sunday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, offering a broad description of plans for both hybrid and purely electric-powered vehicles. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. says the company is working on four high-mileage battery-electric vehicles Derrick Kuzak, Ford's group vice president of global product development, says the automaker expects to start out selling 5,000 to 10,000 of the electric vehicles annually. Ford plans to sell electric car by 2011 - Yahoo! Finance
I own my Prius because of the lousy service my Ford dealer provided. They kept my Ford F-150, ten days to replace a transmission that was under warranty and would not give me a loaner car that was guaranteed under my extended warranty. It took Ford Corp. 2 days to have a customer service rep call me and another 3 days before a customer Service Supervisor could call me back. This was in 2006 and it has to be a lot worse today. After being a new Ford owner since 1989, buying 2 new fords and leasing one, I will never buy another Ford again. They can build the best car in the world but they will continue to lose customers because of their poor service department. BTW, I would love to own another American product but GM and Chrysler will really have to impress me for me to buy American again.
Sorry to hear that. Look at the positive ... you have a Prius now. Hopefully, Ford's electric cars will be better. .
I see this in the same light as Toyota's looking to move strongly forward... it is good news indeed. I'll voluntarily suspend disbelief while holding my breath until... Ford Offers the Real Deal
Will there still be a Ford in 2012? I sure hope the Quality Fairy whacked them with the wand. Vehicles that burn down your garage and a customer service attitude worse than GM's doesn't bode well but at least they have a plan.
JD Power rates Ford (Ford, Mercury, Lincoln) higher in dependability (3 years) than Toyota (Scion, Toyota, Lexus). I have no doubt that both GM and Ford will be around in 2012. I doubt Chrysler will be.
I think the sales numbers reflect something different with real consumers. How to convince consumers that their idea of 'quality' is not Toyota-based? My experience with Ford is limited but why would I sell my Toyota and get a Ford? No, really, why would I? My Toyota has been the best car I've owned. And many others are in the same situation. Cheaper? Higher MPG? Better features? Resale? Marketing is a strange thing sometimes...
You are talking about perception of quality. I'm talking about actual measured quality. Yes, marketing is a strange thing.
First new car I ever bought was a Ford. Car was great, dealer was indescribably awful. I spent exactly $0 at the dealer after buying the car, that's how much I hated the dealership. But I did not hold that against Ford. +1 to Jhinton's comments above -- objective measures give Ford good quality scores. Regarding being around in 2012, Ford's management was smart enough to anticipate the downturn, and they loaded up their balance sheet with cash a year before the current "crisis". I'm happy enough with my Prius, but a 100 mile EV would be interesting. Too bad they're looking at an EV Fusion. They'd be far better served to bring in an EV microvan like the Mazda 5/Ford Europe S-Max.
I sure hope that Ford is around, and I really hope they can manfacture a vehicle that is relatively cutting edge and as green as anthing that is coming out of the Asian manufacturers. The US automotive industry needs something to grab onto, and hopefully the green movement is part of what helps to get them back to viability. That, and $15B.
One would hope GM would be around, with all that tax payer money the mint just printed up ... and virtually minimal accountability, to boot. Not bad. The thing with jdpowers, you open their web page & the first thing you see (unlike consumer reports) are car ads splashed all over. I'm sure they know what side of the bread their butter is on. The GM & Ford ratings don't fare quite so well on CR, as they do on JD's. Coincidence? But at least they're getting rated better then they used to be. Competition has it's advantages.
