Ford Spends "Quality" Time With Consumer Reports Magazine

On a chilly morning in February, the new chief executive of Ford Motor Co., Alan R. Mulally, boarded one of the company's Falcon twin-turbo jets and flew to Consumer Reports magazine's automobile testing facility in East Haddam, Conn. He was joined by two senior engineers. Their mission: to spend half a day with the publication's staff getting detailed evaluations of every model made by Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury.

It wasn't a fun trip, according to a source close to the company. At one point, the Consumer Reports team criticized the new Ford Edge crossover SUV for lacking an electric opener triggered by the key fob — or at least a handle on the rear hatch. Both are standard equipment on many of its rivals. A woman on the magazine's staff demonstrated how she, at five feet tall, struggled to open the rear of the SUV as she carried two bags of groceries. Had it been a rainy day, she would have had to set her purchases down on the wet pavement and then muscle up the hatch. Once she'd done that, she'd face another hurdle: She was too short to shut it.


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PlanB - 5/31/2007 1:18:52 PM

+4 Boost

That was a good read. I can't believe they lose $3000 for every Focus they sell. No wonder they don't wanna bring the better european version over here, they don't have the money. I also can't believe none of their models share parts globally, thats just insane. I hope can turn things around soon. From reading that, they have a long, long way to go.

Bmw8ter - 5/31/2007 1:34:03 PM

0 Boost

This was the article I was talking about under the recent "Ford Focus Hardtop Convertible" post.

Bmw8ter - 5/31/2007 1:35:09 PM

0 Boost

I couldn't remember if it was CNN os MSNBC. Thanks for posting 009.

Caddyman07 - 5/31/2007 2:08:31 PM

+2 Boost

How about Ford spending Quality time revamping their American offerings...

Rupert - 5/31/2007 7:41:14 PM

+2 Boost

How about Ford just spending some quality???

toolatetorace - 6/1/2007 12:57:29 AM

0 Boost

I never saw a 5' tall woman carrying two bags of groceries in my life to a vehicle of any type . That's what they make shopping carts for . That shows how biased these toaster testers are . Now if that was a Toyota they were testing , they would be clamoring all over it and ignoring the fact that Miss Shorty could not reach the rear hatch and bragging up other features like all the other Toyties they test

importshark - 6/1/2007 9:20:26 AM

+1 Boost

Ford and Chevy need to come up with something more appealing, their car designs are boring ..... I guess they should take some design lessons from the other American automaker.

toolatetorace - 6/1/2007 9:55:31 AM

+1 Boost

Talk about boring . There is nothing more boring than the Toytie Kam-ray . This spelling looks better . The other one looks like a mispelled bar of soap