Ford reduces warranty costs

[DRU842]

A good pointer for the future?

US: Ford reduces warranty costs

3 February 2009 | Source: just-auto.com editorial team

Ford has reduced its worldwide warranty repairs costs by US$1.2bn in the past two years and the repair rate in the US is now almost half the 2004 total.

"Ford Motor Company's steady vehicle quality improvement in recent years is beginning to translate into significant savings for the company and far fewer trips by customers to the repair shop," the automaker said in a statement.

"These savings can be attributed to four straight years of quality improvements on Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles. Ford's initial quality is now in a virtual tie with Honda-Acura and Toyota-Lexus-Scion for the 2008 model year, according to the latest US Global Quality Research System (GQRS) study."

"Ford is following a set of standardised processes around the world in product development, manufacturing and purchasing with a discipline this company has never seen," said Bennie Fowler, who heads global quality.

"The last 24 months have revealed some our best quality results," said Curt Yun, director of global warranty. "Our new models have been achieving continuously declining warranty repair rates and lower warranty costs, as a direct result of our overall quality improvements."

We've reached the point where our initial quality is second to none among the full-line manufacturers," claimed Fowler. "We expect that high quality to be reflected in future high-mileage surveys as our new models age."

http://www.just-auto.com/article.aspx?id=97851&lk=dm

[duaned]

Pfft, I could never see Ford Australia build cars in Australia that have quality at the same levels of Honda-Lexus-Scion, gee they still haven't learnt how to build a car with consistant panel gaps!

[geckoGT]

I wonder if they account for the fact that in the B series, some of the components that attract the largest warranty claims, they do not provide the warranty because that is left to the manufacturer of the component. For example or diff is being replaced, which had to be approved through Dana, the auto on our GT had to be approved by Ion.

[RATT]

Originally Posted by ddarby

Pfft, I could never see Ford Australia build cars in Australia that have quality at the same levels of Honda-Lexus-Scion, gee they still haven't learnt how to build a car with consistant panel gaps!

Inconsistant panel gaps is not uncommon on all makes, without naming brands. Have a good look around without the "Ford" goggles. It still does not reflect "quality".
Good news re the reduced warranty expenses, and that will reflect on Ford Australia with FG Falcon and Focus when it is built here.

[Ohio XB]

About 5 months ago there was an article about the impact of reduced warrantee repairs on dealership service departments. Many dealerships have been impacted so much that they have had to reduce costs and technicians. Because of this Ford is working with the dealerships to help make up for lost revenue from repair work. I don't know what form that help is though. I was under the impression that it is finding other ways of generating revenue, but I am guessing.


All I have to say is that if the dealerships are being significantly impacted by the reduced warrantee work THIS much, that says a lot about just how much better Ford vehicles really are.


Steve

[Gobes32]

Originally Posted by ddarby

Pfft, I could never see Ford Australia build cars in Australia that have quality at the same levels of Honda-Lexus-Scion, gee they still haven't learnt how to build a car with consistant panel gaps!

Are you referring to FG? The FG Falcon is the first Falcon ever to have a complete body side stamping, i.e The bodyside and the rear qtr are all stamped as one piece in Ford's $32 million dollar Wide Body Line in Geelong. The whole idea of a complete bodyside is less flex in the chassis due to less joins in the bodywork. Also, the panel gap tolerances are bought down due to more precise stampings.

It's a running joke that if you were aware of how utterly different the FG is stamped compared to the BF, you would never for a second think they are alike.