I was raised in a Mopar family. When I was eventually out on my own, the quality of the cars out of Detroit was pretty bad and I tended to buy Toyota or Nissan. But about 10 years ago I rented a Ford Contour for my wife to drive while her car was in for repairs. She loved it, and we eventually bought a Sport version of the Contour, which I had to admit was a great little car. The quality and performance were excellent. Next time we needed a car we took a long look at the Fusion, but wanted something just a bit bigger and decided to get the latest version of the Taurus. I've ridden in the Infinity, Lexus and Acura cars that some friends have, and feel like my Taurus beats them in comfort, features, and overall performance, and at a very affordable price.

I worked for Ford during a "transition period" to the profit sharing program, where I saw a dramatic change from people sleeping in the washrooms on the night shifts (among other things that contributed to the "stereotypical autoworker image") to people having pride in what they were doing. maybe this has something to do with it.

Note: This is my opinion and subject to reprimand.

GA from me Mevel. They deserve a lot of respect for not taking a bailout. And they could have, good for them!

I've always been a GM guy, of course, I won't have any impact on any of the big 3, I buy everything used and prefer older stuff I can still work on, my truck is a 1986 GMC.

The new Mustangs look great. I've driven the Taurus as a rental car and liked it.

As long as they concentrate on quality, they've got my full support.

Yeah, you're right the new mustang do look great, and you get 305 horsepower out of the V6 with 31 mpg! Smart.

I have owned all three NA makes plus two Japanese and I am 66 yrs young, For some reason my Ford's have been great but not super except for the three Focus's. These cars to me are very good. My Dodge Diesel was a crap bucket but worse was the way I was treated by Chrysler. Tried to blame me for everything yet the problem was air getting into the fuel system. There were a host of other items. My 94 F150 had the oil pan rot out one year after warranty expired and they covered 90%, Now that is customer appreciation if you forget about the oil pan rotting out. Back in the late 90's Ford was within 1/10 percent of Toyota perceived quality but dropped the ball until they again cleaned up their act recently. I hope they keep focused. (no Pun) Bottom line is yes you can have a problem it all depends on how you take care of the problem. I think they have found that there is not an eager customer with each new generation to pawn crap off on. You have to make it good and take care of the customer. My associates that are mechanics in offshore brands can tell you abut perceived quality and it is not as pretty a picture as the ad agencies paint it.. Consumer rules is the only rule.

I used to be a chevy fan, trucks,, then I sold my 84 camry for the Mercury Mystique, I am pleased with the 98 technology and can see how the technology is rising, a 4 valve per four cyl at 128 horse drives the car well enough for me and 28mpg is pleasant, I will trade it for a newer taurus eventually, however there is one thing to keep in mind with new cars, gone are the day's of keeping a car for 20 years, computers are going to become obsolete and unavailable 12-15 years after the current models stop being produced all those little sensors and black boxes are going to be hard to find, my merc has a retarding exhaust cam that uses a electric valve to dump pressure to the cam gear mechanism, what a mistake for it is the biggest complaint with the car, I fixed it to get the car smogged and promptly unplugged it until the next smog two years from now. ford did it to get around needed nox emissions as the car has a plastic intake manifold so they could not use standard egr valve. the rest of the car I like, handles well rides well drives well, back seat is for legless people though. I wish peugeot would come back to the US, they have some dreamy new car designs.
Mitch, retired Peugeot mech

Are they making any cars that do 40mpg?

I like to think of it as not doing everything right but rather just not screwing up as much as the competition.

just being less of a greedy arrogant F up than everyone else the new secret to success in today's world.

If the only cars that Ford and Chevy made were the 62 Falcon, and the ChevyII, the mechanics would be out of business today.Tough little buggers,both of them.Ran rural mail delivery route, stop and go hundreds of times per day,hundreds of days per year,loaded to the max,lasted 10 years each, and were still running good when sold.The Falcon was straight drive, and the Chevy was Powerglide.They still use the Powerglide in race cars today.Speaks volumes about the quality of the era, versus today.
And Stellite exhaust valves made valve jobs nearly obsolete.

Saw a 1955 Belair with ORIGINAL paint.Black.Beautiful.

Can't get paint to last like that anymore.

Guess I am living in the past,and I too will be relegated to the scrap heap soon enough,but before I go, I just want the younger generation to know that we once had quality and pride in performance and durability, till the financial wiz-kids took over.

Just how far have we come in the last 50 years in mileage and reliabilty?

What has stymied our progess?

Think about it.

Forget the Japanese, Ford took planned obsolescence to a whole new level and while peoples' loyalties went overseas they made their money on cars likened to disposable phones. Times are changing now and so are they.