WTFord!?
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:45 am
Those here that can read between the lines
(Fords suck)
may have gotten
(I don't like Fords)
a few hints over the years
(Pinto? 4.0 SOHC Cologne timing chains? 5.4 Triton undersized oil-passages & spark-plug blow-out?)
that Fords aren't my favorite auto manufacturer.
So, surprise, I HAVE "Driven a Ford Lately"! And we even bought one. Actually, we have a couple of them, one newer rig purely for function, and now one for the pleasure of driving it.
I make no secret regarding my opinion of Ford's quality-control -IMO they suck at it! (And no, they aren't the only ones either. You couldn't sell me a new car right now, even if the auto-manufacturers hadn't discontinued virtually ever car model recently.) But as I've often said, a good Ford is an exceptionally good car (or truck, van, etc). They just aren't the standard of quality I've seen from the blue-oval group. Maybe one or two in ten is my view. This is really sad to me. My first car was a Ford, and we always used to have Fords in my family when I was a kid. I've had a couple others over the years -and until these two I have now the ones made after ~1970 have all been junk. Literally. A lot of that was in owner maintenance, I am sure. We never had a new car -ever- and mostly we had cars that came with problems. Our family's Toyota was the first vehicle we had that wasn't worn-out and riddled with maintenance deficiencies, it still had a brake failure that sent us careening into the back of a Dodge van at a gas-station less than two years off the assembly-line. But Fords in the last few decades just aren't really built to the quality, either by flawed design engineering or by negligence during manufacture, that they should -and could- be. So, why would we buy a new Ford? Well, we didn't...
This, isn't new. The last year for the (American models) flat-head V-8, this is a very nice-condition classic. And she runs very well. I haven't had the opportunity to go through the car yet, but this was Built -by a retired professional with ~70 other classics under his belt- well. This was his last, he says. And the experience shows in the quality of the work done. Not perfect, but a darn good driver-quality and weekend drive-in-show car. Several built-in anti-theft devices have been installed; A "three-on-the-tree" manual-shift transmission. How many here, even on an enthusiast site, know how to drive one (competently)? With overdrive, so more like a five-speed in function. No power steering. Heavy on the pedals. Manual choke on the carburetor. And several other anti-theft devices have been installed afterwards too. Saved door-handles for one. ..And others..
This isn't my car. It was bought for my significant other. That doesn't mean I haven't had a blast driving it -I have. I was specifically looking at older cars ('30s and early '40s), and I've been wanting a "three-on-the-tree" for a while now (my first Ford had one, I can't recall driving another since, aside from a friend's '41 Chevy sedan, but that was basically just across his lawn to where we could prep the car for body and paint-work), and I was not disappointed with this one. Smooth and easy shifting, and very different than any of my other cars, a really unique driving experience. One of the things that has impressed me the most, and I mean -has made a strong impression on me-, is how many people make comments that they miss these old kinds of cars, how sick they are of the computerized nonsense on the newer vehicles, the plastic-wrap under the hood that takes a computer just to work on. Yet this beauty was far less than most clean 'modern' cars, even in the used market (yes, we got a really good deal!), so why isn't there more interest in antique and vintage cars for daily-drivers? Well, this old bomber is definitely work to drive, but seriously, it would be very DD capable, if we were so inclined. [Shrug] So, at 70+ years, how will these new cars produced now have faired?
(Fords suck)
may have gotten
(I don't like Fords)
a few hints over the years
(Pinto? 4.0 SOHC Cologne timing chains? 5.4 Triton undersized oil-passages & spark-plug blow-out?)
that Fords aren't my favorite auto manufacturer.
So, surprise, I HAVE "Driven a Ford Lately"! And we even bought one. Actually, we have a couple of them, one newer rig purely for function, and now one for the pleasure of driving it.
I make no secret regarding my opinion of Ford's quality-control -IMO they suck at it! (And no, they aren't the only ones either. You couldn't sell me a new car right now, even if the auto-manufacturers hadn't discontinued virtually ever car model recently.) But as I've often said, a good Ford is an exceptionally good car (or truck, van, etc). They just aren't the standard of quality I've seen from the blue-oval group. Maybe one or two in ten is my view. This is really sad to me. My first car was a Ford, and we always used to have Fords in my family when I was a kid. I've had a couple others over the years -and until these two I have now the ones made after ~1970 have all been junk. Literally. A lot of that was in owner maintenance, I am sure. We never had a new car -ever- and mostly we had cars that came with problems. Our family's Toyota was the first vehicle we had that wasn't worn-out and riddled with maintenance deficiencies, it still had a brake failure that sent us careening into the back of a Dodge van at a gas-station less than two years off the assembly-line. But Fords in the last few decades just aren't really built to the quality, either by flawed design engineering or by negligence during manufacture, that they should -and could- be. So, why would we buy a new Ford? Well, we didn't...
This, isn't new. The last year for the (American models) flat-head V-8, this is a very nice-condition classic. And she runs very well. I haven't had the opportunity to go through the car yet, but this was Built -by a retired professional with ~70 other classics under his belt- well. This was his last, he says. And the experience shows in the quality of the work done. Not perfect, but a darn good driver-quality and weekend drive-in-show car. Several built-in anti-theft devices have been installed; A "three-on-the-tree" manual-shift transmission. How many here, even on an enthusiast site, know how to drive one (competently)? With overdrive, so more like a five-speed in function. No power steering. Heavy on the pedals. Manual choke on the carburetor. And several other anti-theft devices have been installed afterwards too. Saved door-handles for one. ..And others..
This isn't my car. It was bought for my significant other. That doesn't mean I haven't had a blast driving it -I have. I was specifically looking at older cars ('30s and early '40s), and I've been wanting a "three-on-the-tree" for a while now (my first Ford had one, I can't recall driving another since, aside from a friend's '41 Chevy sedan, but that was basically just across his lawn to where we could prep the car for body and paint-work), and I was not disappointed with this one. Smooth and easy shifting, and very different than any of my other cars, a really unique driving experience. One of the things that has impressed me the most, and I mean -has made a strong impression on me-, is how many people make comments that they miss these old kinds of cars, how sick they are of the computerized nonsense on the newer vehicles, the plastic-wrap under the hood that takes a computer just to work on. Yet this beauty was far less than most clean 'modern' cars, even in the used market (yes, we got a really good deal!), so why isn't there more interest in antique and vintage cars for daily-drivers? Well, this old bomber is definitely work to drive, but seriously, it would be very DD capable, if we were so inclined. [Shrug] So, at 70+ years, how will these new cars produced now have faired?