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From Automotive News:

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. will delay shipping its new Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers to dealerships for at least a couple of weeks.

Company executives have been saying the Edge and MKX would arrive in dealerships in mid- to late November. But in an interview today, Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s vice president of North American manufacturing, said the crossover duo won’t be available for sale until at least December.

Ford has had “some hiccups in the launch curve,” Hinrichs said.

“The manufacturing process and the supply base aren’t to the level of consistency and stability we’d like to see,” he said. “You need to have the product right -- which we think we do, in this case. But you also have to have the process right.”

Ford told the Ford and Lincoln Mercury national dealer councils of the delays today.

they said the paint job was crap

DD1,Nov 15 2006, 09:04 PM Wrote:they said the paint job was crap
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LOL ... oh wait, is that true?

My father works at the plant and hes been hammering out some crazy OT

ZTWsquared,Nov 15 2006, 08:05 PM Wrote:

DD1,Nov 15 2006, 09:04 PM Wrote:they said the paint job was crap
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LOL ... oh wait, is that true?
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Actually, yes.
We had alot of problems in paint with the switch from the old paint shop to the old truck plant paint shop. When they shut the plant down and idled it for almost 2 years, they did a s*** job.
When we started painting there were a number of factors that kept us painting s*** vehicle after s*** vehicle.
1. Dirt. Lots of it everywhere. They finally started changing filters and cleaned the ovens. Problem solved.
2. Mismanagement. Our paint shop manager was fired for misappropriation of funds. He spent the $$ on BS overtime and thru out everthing. And by everything, there were spare sparts for the machines and equipment everywhere from the truck paint shop. He chucked it all.
Now, we wait for parts to come in. They are slowly getting this issue resolved. And 3 top managers, including the head honcho, were fired.
3. Lack of training. We had a tonne of new painters come into the dept. who were improperly trained and lacked skill, knowledge, and truthfully....talent. It is an art. So they took me aside and had me retriain everyone on our shift. Those who didn't cut the mustard were removed from the classification and placed in other areas. We have a better crew now. 1000% better.
4. This is the first Lincoln product ever to come to Oakville. We have never had to "live" up to the higher standards of a Lincoln. It's a big change.


Ok enough about paint, as we have resolved many of the issues in my dept.. The big issue right now is an oil leak. I don't know specifically what the issue is, but I have heard that it's a tranny issue. we are on a no ship order.

But this is a huge difference from the Windstar. We know there were problems, management knew there were problems, but nobody did anything. And we all know the long list of recalls for that vehicle. I would never suggest anyone to buy the first gen. Windstar.

Any other info will be forthcoming as the rumours are flying at work.

Ford US is pissed.

They may lay us off before Xmas.

They may move the product to the US.

All speculative. All BS if you ask me.

D-Dub,Nov 15 2006, 08: Wrote:My father works at the plant and hes been hammering out some crazy OT
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He must work in final

Hey, better to delay things and get them right than to shove the product out the door and have to fix it later.

Now if I had the spare cash laying around, the Edge does look like an interesting vehicle...

NefCanuck

meford4u,Nov 15 2006, 08:19 PM Wrote:Ford US is pissed.

They may lay us off before Xmas.

They may move the product to the US.

All speculative.  All BS if you ask me.
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There is a much better chance that Ford sends US managers en masse to Oakville and clean house, just like they did in 88.

there must have been 10.000 of them in the holding lots the other day. :blink:

Ya when i drove past last weekend there was a ton of them in the parking lot. Does that mean there's problems with all those ones? Or are those the ones that have had the problems solved?

habmann,Nov 15 2006, 10:04 PM Wrote:Ya when i drove past last weekend there was a ton of them in the parking lot. Does that mean there's problems with all those ones? Or are those the ones that have had the problems solved?
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We haven't built 10,000
And there is a problem with all of them. We are awaiting re-engineering and new parts.

meford4u,Nov 15 2006, 09:19 PM Wrote:We have never had to "live" up to the higher standards of a Lincoln.  It's a big change.

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Why should there be different standards? If all Ford's cars were built with higher standards we'd have better cars. Better cars=more sales. More sales=more profits.

Here is an example of another problem with NA car companies.


BTW My blood runs Ford blue.

meford4u,Nov 15 2006, 11:10 PM Wrote:

habmann,Nov 15 2006, 10:04 PM Wrote:Ya when i drove past last weekend there was a ton of them in the parking lot. Does that mean there's problems with all those ones? Or are those the ones that have had the problems solved?
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We haven't built 10,000
And there is a problem with all of them. We are awaiting re-engineering and new parts.
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OH-MY-GAWD...ARE YOU SERIOUS????

bluetoy,Nov 15 2006, 10:15 PM Wrote:

meford4u,Nov 15 2006, 09:19 PM Wrote:We have never had to "live" up to the higher standards of a Lincoln.  It's a big change.

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Why should there be different standards? If all Ford's cars were built with higher standards we'd have better cars. Better cars=more sales. More sales=more profits.

Here is an example of another problem with NA car companies.


BTW My blood runs Ford blue.
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Um, you do realize that Honda does the same thing with the Civic and the bottom rung Acura right? (The CSX?) they're structurally the same car, just a different grade of interior materials and some mechanical differences and there's a nasty price gap between them.

All Ford is doing is what any good mainstream car company should do when they have an "upmarket" brand. Make sure that the upmarket version is different enough to warrant the price premium and not just "badge engineer between brands (Hello GM)

NefCAnuck

ANTHONYD,Nov 15 2006, 10:47 PM Wrote:

meford4u,Nov 15 2006, 11:10 PM Wrote:

habmann,Nov 15 2006, 10:04 PM Wrote:Ya when i drove past last weekend there was a ton of them in the parking lot. Does that mean there's problems with all those ones? Or are those the ones that have had the problems solved?
[right][snapback]216189[/snapback][/right]

We haven't built 10,000
And there is a problem with all of them. We are awaiting re-engineering and new parts.
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OH-MY-GAWD...ARE YOU SERIOUS????
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Your freaking out like we built 10,00 of them and they are all bad. You guys have a bad sense of counting numbers in a parking lot.
We've only built 4500 units to date. That's nothing
And to answe Steve, there is a higher quality rating on a Lincoln. More precise door gap measurements, more quality control, more inspection in paint and everywhere else. But because there is a Lincoln product in our plant now, that same quality standard falls over into the Ford product.
The Freestar/Windstar never had these quality assurances.

Hopefully they can get the issues resolved soon. After reading the Car & Driver review of the Edge, I'm thinking it might be a serious replacement for my Sable (instead of a Fusion or Maz3).

Car & Driver likes it, and I like the looks of it. Could this be the next succesful Ford? :unsure:

Ryan

Sounds like the quality is definitely going to go up.. which is great. Hopefully ford can pull it off without breaking the bank.

Thanks for the insight bryan!

meford4u,Nov 16 2006, 05:19 PM Wrote:And to answe Steve, there is a higher quality rating on a Lincoln.  More precise door gap measurements, more quality control, more inspection in paint and everywhere else.  But because there is a Lincoln product in our plant now, that same quality standard falls over into the Ford product.
The Freestar/Windstar never had these quality assurances.
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Maybe they should up the standards at all plants like that. Ever look at the door gaps, fit and finish of a toyota corolla. Usually it's better than a lincoln even though the car is full of less quality trim etc.

This cannot be a bad thing. Better to keep them at the plant then have a whole bunch of bad publicity and yet another disasterous launch (Focus)

NefCanuck,Nov 16 2006, 12:36 AM Wrote:

bluetoy,Nov 15 2006, 10:15 PM Wrote:

meford4u,Nov 15 2006, 09:19 PM Wrote:We have never had to "live" up to the higher standards of a Lincoln.  It's a big change.

[right][snapback]216162[/snapback][/right]

Why should there be different standards? If all Ford's cars were built with higher standards we'd have better cars. Better cars=more sales. More sales=more profits.

Here is an example of another problem with NA car companies.


BTW My blood runs Ford blue.
[right][snapback]216196[/snapback][/right]

Um, you do realize that Honda does the same thing with the Civic and the bottom rung Acura right? (The CSX?) they're structurally the same car, just a different grade of interior materials and some mechanical differences and there's a nasty price gap between them.

All Ford is doing is what any good mainstream car company should do when they have an "upmarket" brand. Make sure that the upmarket version is different enough to warrant the price premium and not just "badge engineer between brands (Hello GM)

NefCAnuck
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The trim and materials has nothing to do with the build quality. I wasn't talking about using leather instead of vinyl. I thought that was clear. The issues with these things have nothing to do with using hard plastic versus soft plastic...

bluetoy,Nov 16 2006, 06:03 PM Wrote:The trim and materials has nothing to do with the build quality. I wasn't talking about using leather instead of vinyl. I thought that was clear. The issues with these things have nothing to do with using hard plastic versus soft plastic...
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Two months into new mustang ownership, I'd say the plastics make a difference.
:(