Manufacturing Quality

The Japanese have not figured out why we Americans want full size
trucks. They keep nibbling around the edges. We want big and powerful.
If Honda builds a truck that looks like my F250 crew cab and gives me
a motor with 600 pounds of torque I'll look at it. Until then they're
just toys for the girlie man.




Jon Kraus wrote:
You may be correct... I see that it is noticeably smaller than the F-150.

Jon

Newps wrote:



Jon Kraus wrote:
Heck, I see that Honda is now making a

better full-size pickup truck than Ford's F-150.



Please. I like Honda cars but that thing they build is not a full
size truck.

In article ,
Newps wrote:

The Japanese have not figured out why we Americans want full size
trucks. They keep nibbling around the edges. We want big and powerful.
If Honda builds a truck that looks like my F250 crew cab and gives me
a motor with 600 pounds of torque I'll look at it. Until then they're
just toys for the girlie man.


Exactly. I recently witnessed a Toyota Tundra trying to pull a 2-horse
trailer. Not sure if there were any horses in it (I assume there
were... but remember that we're talking about a small trailer), and the
rear bumper was nearly dragging on the ground, with the front end up in
the air. Would be a piece of cake for even an F-150 properly equipped.

The Japanese trucks are appealing (though I think Ford has figured out
how to build a quality truck), they are nothing by very light duty
trucks--even the big ones.



JKG

Jonathan Goodish wrote:
In article ,
Newps wrote:


The Japanese have not figured out why we Americans want full size
trucks. They keep nibbling around the edges. We want big and powerful.
If Honda builds a truck that looks like my F250 crew cab and gives me
a motor with 600 pounds of torque I'll look at it. Until then they're
just toys for the girlie man.



Exactly. I recently witnessed a Toyota Tundra trying to pull a 2-horse
trailer. Not sure if there were any horses in it (I assume there
were... but remember that we're talking about a small trailer), and the
rear bumper was nearly dragging on the ground, with the front end up in
the air. Would be a piece of cake for even an F-150 properly equipped.

Even the standard F-150 is now pretty wimpy. When I called to inquire
about a snowplow for my K1500 a few years ago, the first question they
asked me when I asked for a price was if I had an F-150. The reason is
that the standard 150 doesn't have adequate front springs to handle a
snow plow. I don't know if I have these numbers exactly right, but
Western requires a truck to have something like 3800 lb front springs,
which Chevy and Dodge have standard, but Ford uses something like 3100
lb as standard and they have to be beefed up for plow duty and this
added a fair chunk of change to the price of the plow installation.


Matt

That's because Ford doesn't force everybody to buy a truck that rides
worse because one twentieth of one percent of the trucks will have a
snowplow hung on the front. If you want the snowplow package you order it.

Matt Whiting wrote:

Jonathan Goodish wrote:

In article ,
Newps wrote:


The Japanese have not figured out why we Americans want full size
trucks. They keep nibbling around the edges. We want big and
powerful. If Honda builds a truck that looks like my F250 crew cab
and gives me a motor with 600 pounds of torque I'll look at it.
Until then they're just toys for the girlie man.




Exactly. I recently witnessed a Toyota Tundra trying to pull a
2-horse trailer. Not sure if there were any horses in it (I assume
there were... but remember that we're talking about a small trailer),
and the rear bumper was nearly dragging on the ground, with the front
end up in the air. Would be a piece of cake for even an F-150
properly equipped.


Even the standard F-150 is now pretty wimpy. When I called to inquire
about a snowplow for my K1500 a few years ago, the first question they
asked me when I asked for a price was if I had an F-150. The reason is
that the standard 150 doesn't have adequate front springs to handle a
snow plow. I don't know if I have these numbers exactly right, but
Western requires a truck to have something like 3800 lb front springs,
which Chevy and Dodge have standard, but Ford uses something like 3100
lb as standard and they have to be beefed up for plow duty and this
added a fair chunk of change to the price of the plow installation.


Matt

Newps wrote:
That's because Ford doesn't force everybody to buy a truck that rides
worse because one twentieth of one percent of the trucks will have a
snowplow hung on the front. If you want the snowplow package you order it.

I thought you were the one who didn't like the "girlie man" trucks.
That is what a standard F-150 is. Then again, 95% of truck buyers don't
use then as a truck. Which means that Toyota, Nissan and Honda will
likely do very well longer-term with their car-like trucks.

Matt

Matt Whiting wrote:

Newps wrote:

That's because Ford doesn't force everybody to buy a truck that rides
worse because one twentieth of one percent of the trucks will have a
snowplow hung on the front. If you want the snowplow package you
order it.


I thought you were the one who didn't like the "girlie man" trucks.

I don't. I own an F250, the 150 won't tow my 5th wheel at freeway
speeds plus it is too small.


That
is what a standard F-150 is. Then again, 95% of truck buyers don't use
then as a truck. Which means that Toyota, Nissan and Honda will likely
do very well longer-term with their car-like trucks.

We'll see. They haven't so far these last 30 years.

Newps wrote:



Matt Whiting wrote:

Newps wrote:

That's because Ford doesn't force everybody to buy a truck that rides
worse because one twentieth of one percent of the trucks will have a
snowplow hung on the front. If you want the snowplow package you
order it.



I thought you were the one who didn't like the "girlie man" trucks.


I don't. I own an F250, the 150 won't tow my 5th wheel at freeway
speeds plus it is too small.


That

is what a standard F-150 is. Then again, 95% of truck buyers don't
use then as a truck. Which means that Toyota, Nissan and Honda will
likely do very well longer-term with their car-like trucks.


We'll see. They haven't so far these last 30 years.

They haven't had any thing close to a full-size truck until fairly recently.

Matt

In article ,
Matt Whiting wrote:
I thought you were the one who didn't like the "girlie man" trucks.
That is what a standard F-150 is. Then again, 95% of truck buyers don't
use then as a truck. Which means that Toyota, Nissan and Honda will
likely do very well longer-term with their car-like trucks.

Well, in 2005 Ford sold almost 10 times as many F-series trucks as the
closet Japanese competitor (Toyota). If 95% of truck buyers don't "use
it as a truck," there's still something that those buyers like better
about a Ford truck.



JKG

Jonathan Goodish wrote:

In article ,
Matt Whiting wrote:

I thought you were the one who didn't like the "girlie man" trucks.
That is what a standard F-150 is. Then again, 95% of truck buyers don't
use then as a truck. Which means that Toyota, Nissan and Honda will
likely do very well longer-term with their car-like trucks.


Well, in 2005 Ford sold almost 10 times as many F-series trucks as the
closet Japanese competitor (Toyota). If 95% of truck buyers don't "use
it as a truck," there's still something that those buyers like better
about a Ford truck.

Its called the lemming affect. It took a while to fade in the car
market, but now it is almost gone, other than Toyota seems to be
developing it quite well for its cars. Trucks will follow, unfortunately.

Matt

In article ,
Matt Whiting wrote:
Even the standard F-150 is now pretty wimpy. When I called to inquire
about a snowplow for my K1500 a few years ago, the first question they
asked me when I asked for a price was if I had an F-150. The reason is


The "standard" F150 may be pretty wimpy, but it's roughly equivalent in
capability to the "premium" Japanese offerings. If you want to tow, you
buy the appropriate package, which includes more than a trailer hitch.
If you want a snow plow on the front, you buy the appropriate package.



JKG