New car?

[mustangsallysdad]

My wife has a new Ford Taurus SHO and it is the best of both worlds...stupid fast (I have a '69 Mach 1 SCJ, I know fast) V6, great sporty, but not too firm ride, lots of room, good gas mileage, we are very impressed with it.

By the way, the wife's SHO is also AWD...and let's not forget...Ford DID NOT take any bailout money, DID NOT lay off thousands of workers, DID NOT pull the plug on our local dealers and DID NOT shut down a bunch of assembly plants...THEY DID take the fiscally responsible route and do what was necessary to keep their product line moving, keep the price points reasonable, keep small dealerships open, continue contracts with all of their ancillary vendors and manage to turn a 2+ billion profit this quarter...pretty impressive in this economy and you have to love the fact that they thumbed their noses at the government bailout with all of the caveats that came along with it...as Frankie would say "They did it their way"...my kudos and business goes to Ford. Go BIG BLUE!!!

 

[dodge man]

Lots of good suggestions. Our 300C is RWD. You are correct, the 300 is basically a Mercedes under the skin. The problem is, the desgin is Mercedes, but many of the componets are different materials. Say the Mercedes componet is made of alumuminum, the Chrysler componet may be make of steel. I have replaced tie rod ends already. Rattles can be hard to find, it seems like the component almost has to be ready to fall apart before it becomes obivious. I have gotten on some 300C forums and the rattles are common. People get them fixed, but often have to throw a lot of parts at them before they find the problem, often under warranty. Ours had been out of warranty for a while.

I have looked at Toyota products. Great cars, my boss had an Avalon, but they don't excite me and the wife doesn't like the looks. What we like about the 300C is the size, options, looks and power. What we don't like is all the rattles.

Maybe its just me, but I see the end of this kind of car coming soon. Same thing for a lot of the pickups. I don't see how they can survive with the upcoming CAFE standards.

 

[Diamondpilot]

By the way, the wife's SHO is also AWD...and let's not forget...Ford DID NOT take any bailout money, DID NOT lay off thousands of workers, DID NOT pull the plug on our local dealers and DID NOT shut down a bunch of assembly plants...THEY DID take the fiscally responsible route and do what was necessary to keep their product line moving, keep the price points reasonable, keep small dealerships open, continue contracts with all of their ancillary vendors and manage to turn a 2+ billion profit this quarter...pretty impressive in this economy and you have to love the fact that they thumbed their noses at the government bailout with all of the caveats that came along with it...as Frankie would say "They did it their way"...my kudos and business goes to Ford. Go BIG BLUE!!!

Very well said. They will be the only current US manufacture to get mine or my family's business. I want to reward those who have a clue and do it right.

As for the Dodge/Chrysler product line my experience has been they have the best styling but the product just seems to lack the quality. I loved the looks of my 2500 Hemi but all the little issues drove me nuts. It was always something. I know they have a price point to meet but it seemed to me like they spent all the money on design and not materials.

Chris

 

[Bird]

I have driven a number of 4WD vehicles (even owned one), but I can't recall ever driving an AWD vehicle, except very short distances in Subarus (just moving them in and out of the shop). But everything I've read and heard about them makes me think I would really like that Taurus SHO; just can't afford it. I've never been impressed by the "looks" of any Taurus, but I've driven several, including ones both of our daughters used to drive, and really liked the "feel" (handling and performance), and "looks" is about the last thing I consider when buying a car. I'm too old to care about impressing anyone with what I drive.:laughing:

 

[mustangsallysdad]

I have driven a number of 4WD vehicles (even owned one), but I can't recall ever driving an AWD vehicle, except very short distances in Subarus (just moving them in and out of the shop). But everything I've read and heard about them makes me think I would really like that Taurus SHO; just can't afford it. I've never been impressed by the "looks" of any Taurus, but I've driven several, including ones both of our daughters used to drive, and really liked the "feel" (handling and performance), and "looks" is about the last thing I consider when buying a car. I'm too old to care about impressing anyone with what I drive.:laughing:

365 HP and 350 lbft of torque out of a V6...it's a blast to drive.

 

[CurlyDave]

Same thing for a lot of the pickups. I don't see how they can survive with the upcoming CAFE standards.

The pickups are a tough issue.

An awful lot of very small businesses rely heavily on the sheer handiness of a full size pickup. Contractors, Farms & Ranches, Maintenance, etc.

I just don't see how the government can shut all of these people down.

 

[Bird]

I'm sure it won't shut anyone down; however, I expect pickup trucks to go up in price. The Ford Transit Connect seems a bit odd to me, still, but I'm seeing more and more of them used by businesses in this area as delivery vehicles. I expect the other manufacturers to have something similar in the near future to compete with them.

 

[Dmace]

Ford DID NOT take any bailout money, DID NOT lay off thousands of workers, DID NOT pull the plug on our local dealers and DID NOT shut down a bunch of assembly plants...THEY DID take the fiscally responsible route and do what was necessary to keep their product line moving, keep the price points reasonable, keep small dealerships open, continue contracts with all of their ancillary vendors

Give me a break!
Do you really think that Ford didn't lay-off thousands of people and Ford didn't shut down plants just like the others? It wasn't blasted all over the news but they laid off thousands of workers and shut down hundreds of plants (even the Chicago plant temporarily) just the same.

I am so sick of people trying to play the "Ford didn't take a bailout" card. YES THEY DID! The only difference is Ford took money in the form of small loan subsidies for making fuel efficient vehicles which means not only are they taking a loan but they ARE NOT PAYING INTEREST ON IT! At least GM and Chrysler are paying back the loans with interest so we the tax payers are making money off the bailouts eventually. Plus with the bailout money, the US government got majority ownership in stocks that they can sit on and sell once the two companies are profitable again. Ford will never make us any money! They will just continue to get free interest loans from the US tax payers and spend it.

HERE READ UP!
Ford Takes $5.9 Billion Government Loan

On a side note Dodge Man, take a look at the Hyundai Azera too. It's about the same size wise with a good 263hp V6 base engine and about the same price. Hyundai right now is what Toyota was back in the early 90's where they make great vehicles for a good price until the name is well known.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Give me a break!
Do you really think that Ford didn't lay-off thousands of people and Ford didn't shut down plants just like the others? It wasn't blasted all over the news but they laid off thousands of workers and shut down hundreds of plants (even the Chicago plant temporarily) just the same.

I am so sick of ignorant people trying to play the "Ford didn't take a bailout" card. YES THEY DID! The only difference is Ford took money in the form of small loan subsidies for making fuel efficient vehicles which means not only are they taking a loan but they ARE NOT PAYING INTEREST ON IT! At least GM and Chrysler are paying back the loans with interest so we the tax payers are making money off the bailouts eventually. Plus with the bailout money, the US government got majority ownership in stocks that they can sit on and sell once the two companies are profitable again. Ford will never make us any money! They will just continue to get free interest loans from the US tax payers and spend it.

HERE READ UP!
Ford Takes $5.9 Billion Government Loan

Night and day!:laughing:

Chris

 

[mustangsallysdad]

Give me a break!
Do you really think that Ford didn't lay-off thousands of people and Ford didn't shut down plants just like the others? It wasn't blasted all over the news but they laid off thousands of workers and shut down hundreds of plants (even the Chicago plant temporarily) just the same.

I am so sick of ignorant people trying to play the "Ford didn't take a bailout" card. YES THEY DID! The only difference is Ford took money in the form of small loan subsidies for making fuel efficient vehicles which means not only are they taking a loan but they ARE NOT PAYING INTEREST ON IT! At least GM and Chrysler are paying back the loans with interest so we the tax payers are making money off the bailouts eventually. Plus with the bailout money, the US government got majority ownership in stocks that they can sit on and sell once the two companies are profitable again. Ford will never make us any money! They will just continue to get free interest loans from the US tax payers and spend it.

HERE READ UP!
Ford Takes $5.9 Billion Government Loan

On a side note Dodge Man, take a look at the Hyundai Azera too. It's about the same size wise with a good 263hp V6 base engine and about the same price. Hyundai right now is what Toyota was back in the early 90's where they make great vehicles for a good price until the name is well known.

"shut down hundreds of plants" ??? Do you have a source for that? You lost your credibility with that one!