first recalls

[19Walt93]

Air cooled VW's don't belong in a conversation about quality either. I owned 9 of them in my youth and have build 80+ of their engines. I worked at a service station for 3 years before I went to the dealer and we did so many VW engines that I bought the valve guide driver. When you hear guys my age say they wish they had their old beetle it means they want to be 16 with a new license again, not that they want that underpowered, noisy POS back.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Air cooled VW's don't belong in a conversation about quality either. I owned 9 of them in my youth and have build 80+ of their engines. I worked at a service station for 3 years before I went to the dealer and we did so many VW engines that I bought the valve guide driver. When you hear guys my age say they wish they had their old beetle it means they want to be 16 with a new license again, not that they want that underpowered, noisy POS back.

My brother had a '68, for a 40yo car it seemed pretty well put together aside from the crappy defroster.

It had a '73 superbeetle 1600 in it and seemed to get around fairly decent.

 

[toddiscdn]

This like many recalls is obviously hit and miss. Mine was defiantly built in the date range as I bought it Jan.9th, but the shifter is fine and will not move under anything other than the conditions that its supposed to.

 

[19Walt93]

If your truck has the recall please get it done: it might make the truck better/safer, it certainly won't hurt anything, and it's free.

 

[felgar_1]

ford is like any of them, some thing doesn't work like the engineers expect it and they have to fix it. safety and emissions have to be fixed by mandate but some company's hide the complaints so they can put off the repairs. the good thing is ford is sending you the recall and the truck has not been out two or three years before they do something about it. I have not drove a new ranger yet and they are not being made like what I want in a small truck.

 

[sgtsandman]

A buddy of mine says he working at the factory where the affected part is made. Apparently a bunch of them were made out of spec. and new ones with stricter and more checks had to be made. He said the Ranger assembly line actually had to shut down for a bit until they could get the problem sorted out and do whatever they decided to do with the bad parts.

 

[Rangerx2]

Ford does seem to get an undeserved bad rap for their recalls but at least Ford announces their recalls early and they take care of things promptly unlike some other auto makers I know of. Like someone said, it took Honda 10 years to announce a recall for the Takata airbags. Everyone sings Toyota's praises for replacing the frames under a bunch of Tacoma's last year but how long has it been very well documented that rust is the #1 killer of every Toyota vehicle in North America, possibly the world? We've been seeing these trucks rusting for years, and some of them weren't that old either! I realize that cost Toyota billions of dollars but that could have been mitigated if they had started using a better quality steel 15-20 years ago. Closer to home, it only took GM 10 years to get around to recalling the Cavalier and Cobalt twins for their ignition switch failures. How much money did that cost Government Motors/ us taxpayers?

 

[sgtsandman]

A lot has to do with brand image and people's mentality. Which truck brand gets bashed more than the others? So, it makes sense when there is a recall of any kind, people will jump all over it. And yet, like Rangerx2 pointed out, other makes will have some really serious issues that people will turn a blind eye to. The Ranger transmission issue, from what I've been told, was not Ford's fault but the part manufacturer's fault. Ford, to their credit, found the issue quick and jumped on it. It shut down the production line for a bit and is ticking people off but better now with a few vehicles than with thousands out on the road and the potential deaths that could have resulted from it. Also, the PR hit will be a lot less because of it.

How many remember the Firestone/Ford debacle and all the bad press that came from it for both brands? If memory serves, Ford chose poorly on the tire for the size of the vehicle and the psi they wanted to run them at (not enough of a safety margin to protect the ignorant/lazy). People, being lazy or ignorant, never checked their tire pressures and tires started blowing out. Since there wasn't enough of a margin to protect the stupid, lawsuits happened. I think Ford took the majority of the hit but Firestone wasn't a happy camper either. Firestone is still a good tire manufacturer and Ford still tends to make good vehicles. But Explorers are now called Exploders by some and some people refuse to buy Firestone.