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Automotive News & Views Ford - Little to no Maintenance, negative fixed-ops impact!
8 messages, Last post on Apr 26, 2007 at 5:27 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Ford has developed a rather backward view of maintenance while moving forward. The latest "talking point" seems to be pushing for an ever lower "cost of ownership" number for their new vehicles. Many of the systems and componants that historicly were serviced as "preventitive maintenance" have either been removed from the manufacturer's recommended service programs or been rendered "non-servicable". Extended service intervals (7,500 miles between oil changes)and the 30K, 60K, and 90K services being reduced to nothing more than an oil change, multi-point inspection, tire rotation and air filter($50-60 bucks), leaves the service department looking more like Swifty-Lube than a team of professionals who truely know what it takes to maintain todays vehicles! All the time, doing their best to provide loyal owners a "touble-free ownership experience". It was noticed when on this site's recomended services, they call for services that are no longer service-able such as fuel filters (now, the filtration is incorporated in a very expensive fuel pump assembly)...Get a tank of swill, and it may be very expensive to correct! This turn-down in the expected income from the vehicles we are selling today, at 30K-60K-90K intervals(dollar per RO) , leaves Ford Dealers best opportunities behind them, rather than in front of them! Can I inflate your tires with Nitrogen,Helium or some other hot air? |
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Replying to: skesler (Apr 24, 2007 9:25 am) As Joe consumer it is nice to know that my car only needs basic maintenance to last 100k miles especially as the price of cars and gas continue to rise. If you really want to complain, complain about the car manufacturers obsession with horsepower instead of fuel efficient engines.
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Replying to: dtownfb (Apr 25, 2007 1:23 pm) The only problem with the extended service intervals - my Toyota used a 5,000 mile interval - is that the mechanic sees the car on a less frequest basis. This REQUIRES the driver to regularly inspect the fluids, belts, etc. I **DON'T** think that most drivers are doing this on a regular basis. |
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Replying to: skesler (Apr 24, 2007 9:25 am) 
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Replying to: explorerx4 (Apr 25, 2007 4:18 pm)
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Replying to: skesler (Apr 26, 2007 4:40 am) |
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have the fuel filter in the gas tank nowadays? I've always wondered how they were able to take a part that traditionally got changed every year or so and suddenly turned it into something that's supposed to last the life of the car? As for extended service intervals, a lot of this is really nothing new. I have a 1979 Chevy Malibu sales brochure, and one of its selling points was the 100,000 mile service interval of the transmission! This was the lightweight THM200C metric transmission, the one that was notorious for early failure. I wonder how much of a factor the 100K mile service interval was on those high failure rates? I've also seen old owners manuals from the 70's that would recommend changing the oil every 7000 miles or so and only changing the filter every OTHER oil change!
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Replying to: andre1969 (Apr 26, 2007 5:24 am) |
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