Do you like your Fords?

[jgrobler]

Late April 1 article, or serious business? I like the line about 1911 pay rates.
Read and decide for yourselves.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news...s_model_t_line

[LCHIEN]

Late April 1 article, or serious business? I like the line about 1911 pay rates.
Read and decide for yourselves.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news...s_model_t_line

brings to mind an old anecdote - the Model T design was so frugal that they specified their parts suppliers to send the parts packed in wooden crates using boards of a certain length and width and thickness. This just happened to coincide with the floorboard size in the Model T. So they scrapped the shipping containers and used the parts in the card, basically.

Business Week in a recent issue discusses how car manufacturers are going back to producing super econoboxes - with sales prices in the 2500 to 7000 dollar range. The really low priced ones aimed at the India and China markets but even the $7000 ones (with A/C and P/S) for Europe and the USA. We're talking totally squeezing labor costs and mass reuse of parts (making the right and left mirror assys identical instead of mirror images of each other saves $3 per car, for example). Economy of scale. We're talking 50 HP motors and top speeds of 80 mph in the very cheapest cars. Flat windshields saving the extra cost of curved windshields.
Look for them in late 2008.

[Tequila]

theonion.com is a satire / fake news site, so I don't think they're planning on bringing back the Model T anytime soon.

[ragswl4]

Late April 1 article, or serious business? I like the line about 1911 pay rates.
Read and decide for yourselves.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news...s_model_t_line

Seems to me that Ford is once again on the edge of the slippery slope. While I believe that Ford and GM have increased quality somewhat in the past they still have not caught up with Toyota and Honda.

I purchased an F-250 in 2003 with the much lauded 6.0L diesel. While I have not had major problems with it I have endured 3 recalls where the engine control module has been re-programmed. Each time it looses a little more power and uses more fuel. The last time I registered the truck I couldn't do so without proof that the latest recall had been accomplished. It's a back door way of California pushing Ford to control pollution on a vehicle that requires no Smog Check. My truck now gets the same fuel mileage while not towing as it used to towing a 10,000lb trailer. How could that possibly reduce pollution? More raw fuel out the tail pipe, I think.

While Toyota and Honda don't do diesels in the USA, it still points to a quality issue. If either Toyota or Honda made a truck that would haul my 5th wheel around you can bet I would own one instead of the Ford.

[mpc]

Cali is hyper-sensitive to Nitrous Oxide emissions (NOx) which come from high combustion temps. High combustion temps come from a lean air:fuel ratio... so Ford is changing the computer maps to dump in more and more fuel, making the air:fuel ratio richer to lower NOx emissions. You see less MPG as a result.

Why do combustion temps go DOWN with MORE fuel? Simple: burning air+fuel creates heat, right? Air is oxygen plus nitrogen plus lots of other stuff... only the oxygen gets burned, the rest absorbs heat and expands, pushing on the pistons to make power. If you add extra fuel, those excess great big fuel molecules (compared to dinky air molecules) absorb a lot more heat energy, lowering the max temps in the cylinder. Those lower temps reduce NOx emissions and also reduce the power since the nitrogen+other air stuff doesn't expand as much now. NOx comes from a couple NO2 molecules - a natural product of combustion - that, in the presense of a lot of heat, breaks down into 2NOx + O2 molecules. Gas engines used Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) valves to bleed a little exhaust back into the intake manifold. The already-burned crud won't burn again but it does absorb combustion heat (even though it's exhaust gasses, it's still cooler than the actual combustion max temps) reducing NOx emissions. If Ford wanted to add parts/spend a few bucks, they could add an EGR setup - or make the existing one flow more - to get the same emissions as that computer reprogramming. Of course it'd cost more - and require a lot of labor hours to install.

Another option: adding a chemical that reduces NOx after the fact... urea. That looks like the magic elixer that'll let diesels pass Cali's new restrictive diesel emissions standards for cars. Trucks/pickups over a certain weight rating are considered "work vehicles" and have different (easier) standards... but Cali is tightening those too.

As for the rest of the fuel - the unburned stuff? Let the catalytic converters deal with that... they won't last as long now.

mpc

[Popeye]

YES! And the only way I'll get rid of my 06 Mustang would be for it to get totaled or I hit the Lottery and can afford a Roush Mustang. Even then I think I'd keep the 06. On my budget it made me start to like driving again.... and I drive for a living.
Pat