Ford Rant

[N80]

I had it for the blizzard of 78 ! I had a ball with it, when all normal traffic was banned from travel, I volunteered to shuttle hospital staff back and forth from their homes durring the storm, oh the memories !

How about that! It was probably the same year and same blizzard but we had a huge 2 week long snow and ice storm way down here in SC. I remember carrying nurses to work at all hours of the night in that old Cherokee for several nights in a row.

I think AMC Jeep had much better luck with the CJs than they did with the Cherokees and Wagoneers. Although, as I mentioned, our friend's earlier model Cherokee was a good truck and the reason we replaced our IH Scout with the Cherokee. I have no idea about the Cherokee but the Scout is still running. It was a tank! No power steering or brakes. At the end of the day you knew it if you'd been on a trip in that thing!

 

[RoyJackson]

Mossy...who was that TBNer who rebuilt the Unimog?
Now, that...that's a real machine!!!

 

[MossRoad]

That was Von. Extremely nice truck!

 

[MossRoad]

That was Von. Extremely nice truck!

Here's a link to his fine work!

 

[RoyJackson]

Here's a link to his fine work!

THANK YOU!!!

You know...I only buy tractors when my wife is on vacation (done it twice so far). I wonder how much she'd appreciate the versatility of a Unimog...heck, she's in Vermont as I type this! She could do the test drive.

 

[texasjohn]

When I worked in the computer industry pre .com days, there was a concept called Six Sigma regarding quality... it was all the rage... the idea was to reduce defects to exceptionally low levels. This was because in a computer program of millions of lines of code, even one incorrect line could be a disaster.

Obviously, a vehicle has a very large numbr of parts. A fefect in any one part will have an impact on the owner.

Remembering all the many six sigma meetings that I attended, I decided to look it up on the net to determine its current status... and ran across the following comment at this site.

Dated today! I find the concept of zero defects intersting.... Hope, desperately for all of us customers (regardless of brand loyalty), that if it can be maintained as more parts are manufactured in the US.
----
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Six Sigma. Toyota is not using Six Sigma and would do it because they use TPS ( Toyota Production System ) and use lean Manufacturing Techniques. One more point is the Six Sigma accept 3.4 defect per million opportunities and Just in Time (In Toyota ) do not accept any defect. Another point is that Toyota do not using sampling ...this mean they check 100% their products. Now the big question, What new tools could be apply in Six Sigma ? Could Six Sigma be equal to TPS ( Toyota Production System)...this mean accept 0% of defects ?[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]In my research in Japan, I have not found any company that use and will use SIX SIGMA in a near future. Why do you Think ?[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[Toiyabe]

I think AMC Jeep had much better luck with the CJs than they did with the Cherokees and Wagoneers.

I own an '89 Wagoneer, not that I'm proud of it. In my defense it was dirt cheap (about $30K new though!). The big problem with it is the abominations that they had to do to the AMC 360 (never a very well-regarded motor) to get it to pass emmissions. There's probably enough vacuum hose in there to circle the earth twice. There's also a bunch of little problems with the power windows, etc, that I can live with.

The tranny is a Mopar TF 727. The transfer case is considered a little weak by the hardcore guys, but is also an OK unit. The axles are Dana 44's.

I've had to limp home too many times with engine troubles to trust it for anything exciting. So right now it sits in my driveway while I ponder whether to junk it or to do an engine swap (which will be difficult on account of the smog police). If I had it to do over again I would have looked for an SJ Cherokee with the 4.2 L I6 instead, with an eye towards putting a newer 4.0 L in it.

 

[RoyJackson]

When I worked in the computer industry pre .com days, there was a concept called Six Sigma regarding quality... it was all the rage... the idea was to reduce defects to exceptionally low levels. This was because in a computer program of millions of lines of code, even one incorrect line could be a disaster.

Obviously, a vehicle has a very large numbr of parts. A fefect in any one part will have an impact on the owner.

Remembering all the many six sigma meetings that I attended, I decided to look it up on the net to determine its current status... and ran across the following comment at this site.

Dated today! I find the concept of zero defects intersting.... Hope, desperately for all of us customers (regardless of brand loyalty), that if it can be maintained as more parts are manufactured in the US.
----
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Six Sigma. Toyota is not using Six Sigma and would do it because they use TPS ( Toyota Production System ) and use lean Manufacturing Techniques. One more point is the Six Sigma accept 3.4 defect per million opportunities and Just in Time (In Toyota ) do not accept any defect. Another point is that Toyota do not using sampling ...this mean they check 100% their products. Now the big question, What new tools could be apply in Six Sigma ? Could Six Sigma be equal to TPS ( Toyota Production System)...this mean accept 0% of defects ?[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]In my research in Japan, I have not found any company that use and will use SIX SIGMA in a near future. Why do you Think ?[/SIZE][/FONT]

I'm a Quality Engineer by profession.

Six Sigma is alive and well...and much of it has been SOP in the automotive industry for many years...not as long as Motorola (which initiated 6 Sigma), but close.

As far as TPS, this is a combination of lean manufacturing and 6 sigma principles. Toyota has done a heck of a good job with it too! So, there's no real reason for Toyota or the other Japanese auto firms to adapt 6 sigma...they have their own version that is just as effective.

6 Sigma (and the automotive equivalent which is APQP and PPAP (Advanced Product Quality Planning and Production Part Approval Process) work quite well if companies are willing to provide the resources required for success.

One thing about Quality Programs...there's a lot of "chic" program of the year. Anybody remember TQM? I've been in the field for 25 years...seen a bunch of Quality programs come and go.
Even ISO 9000 (which provides some good management practice) has lost a lot of it's luster...some of which is due to "consultants" who basically sold the ISO registrations and some usage of it as a trade barrier (i.e. Protectionism)

Getting back to TPS (Toyota)...that system of management has been around for a long time. There are some good books on it..definitely worth a read.

 

[RobertN]

You mean like this one?

Yep, like that one, but closer to stock. I like that XA/XB body style more than the boxy style of previous Aussie Falcons. It is interesting they started as US Falcons, but could not hold up to the roads down under. It was still the mid 60's when the all-Aussie star came to be, breaking from they style of the US Falcon. It is also interesting, that many Aussie cars are 4-doors. 2-door Falcons were a small portion of those sold.

The early Aussie Falcons were kind of boxy, but the later XA/XB had more smoothed out lines; some lines reminiscent of the US Ford Torino.

They were fast cars in GTHO Phase-1/2/3 form. 351 Clevelands, top loader 4-spds, 9" reaers etc.

There are a couple companies in the States that import Aussie cars, like the Falcon's, Dodge Charger Valiant(6-cylinder inline HEMI with triple side drafts!) and some Holden's. Not nearly as many cars though, as are taken from the US and sold Down Under.

 

[alchemysa]

alchemysa:

No worries.

If you look at the US Mitsubishi site, you'll see that the 2006 Montero is the last model year - everything else is at 2007. Seemed like a nice rig, back in the day it was one of the few available with factory electric lockers.

The US Landcruisers sure as heck don't look much like the late Steve Irwin's Landcruiser. That looked like a solid rig, the ones sold in the US are competing more with the Mercedes M class and the Cadillac Escalade for the suburban grocery-getter and ghetto bling-bling markets. MSRP on a new Landcruiser is $56,215. There's no way a sane person would beat on a rig like that in the rocks.

While in Oztrailia I did notice that Ford and GM seemed to dominate the Ute market, which seemed to me the eqivalent of the US pickup market. I also saw a couple of F150s, one Suburban (Holden badged) and a few Jeep Cherokees. I didn't get into the true Outback, though.

Steve Irwin drove one of these..
Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series Australia: Specifications, Brochure, Test Drive: 4WD LandCruiser 70 Series
Its part of Toyota's commercial range over here. They don't seem to be on Toyota USA's website. Over here these are virtually standard equipment for outback farmers, mining companies etc. The farmers closer to town often prefer the Hi-Lux's. In the suburbs, Ford and Holden (GMH) 6 cylinder utes dominated the tradesmans market til about 20 years ago. Now its just about all cab/chassis stuff with custom steel or aluminium dropside trays. All sorts of brands nowadays, but mainly imported because our domestic auto industry really only builds passenger vehicles now. But Holden and Ford Utes (with a passenger car front end) have made a bit of a comeback in the last 5 years, but its mainly a fashion thing. You'll more likely see them towing speedboats or bikes than doing any hard work. (That rear end body work is too expensive to get dirty). Big pick-ups like you guys have have always been rare over here. For a start they were very expensive because they had to be imported from the US, and they are thirsty. Our gas has always been very expensive although I see your gas prices are getting closer all the time. But the cab/chassis vehicles and Hi-Lux type 4x4's are getting bigger all the time too. They'll be as big as your big pick-ups before long.

P.S. These commercial Toyota 4x4's have been prettied up to much for my liking. I prefered the look of the previous model with the separate flat top front guards. They were 'all business'. That was probably the model you saw Steve Irwin in.