I traded my 04 Lariat for an 11 Limited. The difference between the two in over all quality is not "Job 1". Exterior plastics just seem so flimsy. I won't get into the paint anymore.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that Ford was bleeding red ink around the time the 09+ models were being designed and the manufacturing process laid out.

So it may seem that Ford made some cost-cutting decisions that only now we see being manifested in lower quality made components, such as these grilles and perhaps the 6-speed transmission failures we've been reading about.

Just food for thought...

 

Huh?

 

Um, you do realize it takes years of planning and manufacturing design before a new model vehicle is built along the assembly line, right? It's not like you wake up one morning and say, "Hey, I've got a great idea on how to build this new widget!" and a week later it's rolling down the assembly line for hundreds of thousands of vehicles (although that situation may have occurred on the very rare case, it's not the norm).

Let's not look at the overall aesthetic design concept themselves as that could be even decades in the making, but the actual down 'n dirty building blocks of how a company will actually manufacture the vehicle and what materials to use and all the thousands of decisions that must be made to come up with that final product from the hands of workers and machines (the machines will take the longest time to design, build, test and implement).

So for the newly redesigned 2009-current, Ford probably was designing the actual manufacturing process and selecting component materials between 2005-2008, yes? So that by Fall of 2008, everything is built and in place for the first vics to roll down the assembly line.

Well, during the 2005-2008 time frame Ford was losing money in the BILLIONS: 2005 +1.4B, 2006 -12.6B, 2007 -2.7B, 2008 -14B. That's a net loss of $28,000,000,000 (that's Billion). (These numbers are all available via Ford Motor Company's Annual Reports website, http://corporate.ford.com/investors/...annual-reports.)

In the face of such huge losses, it stands to reason that decisions may have been made to reduce costs in every which way possible, to include streamlining how they manufacture and finish the grille, for example (i.e. the "cheap" masking for the black paint add-on). For three years straight Ford was bleeding "red ink." SOMETHING had to change, and simply cutting production and worker's benefits alone wouldn't make up for those lost BILLIONS.

Only now as we are approaching the 2012 model are all these possible cost-cutting decisions potentially being realized in the form of higher incidents of failure, poorer quality manufacturing and materials.

The problem is, once a manufacturing process is determined, financed and built, it's not very easy to make changes to it, especially purpose-built, multi-million dollar machine/robotic processes if the whole implementation concept applied is flawed.

Case in point: Let's take this grille. It's a one-piece design that Ford obviously has selected to be represented on the Harley Davidson, FX and Limited with the differentiation being different finishes applied to denote the model they appear on. This decision to re-use the same piece across different models appears to be cost driven as to design a completely different grille, like was done on the Platinum, would add to the manufacturing costs. In addition, because it's a one piece design and Ford decided to add different finishes to different areas of the component, this has led to the obvious cheap masking when a contrasting color is applied. The better way for such a multiple finish, intricate design item is to manufacture it in separate pieces, just like the Platinum grille is made; a more expensive process. But it appears Ford didn't do that and opted for the "cheaper" route.

Ford is "back in the black" so I can only hope they take notice of the quality concerns and make a better product in the next F150 revision.

 

Yes, I realize that. Common knowledge.

I still say, huh?

 

Ah soo...

 

Went to the dealer today and the service manager came out to look. He said to me that the color paint is sprayed last and it looked like black had been over sprayed on it.

I told him it is what it is and it came from Ford that way. I reminded him I have 2000 miles on it.


So he took photos and said he will see if Ford will pay for painting it.


I got the feeling he was insinuating I had done something to the grille.

Along with that spot I found where they spray the rock guard on the kick panels had a glob of that rubber under the paint and the paint was coming off of it.

 

I showed the service manager my grill and he said, "Looks like they tried to blend the paint to make it look better from far away." Are you F'n kidding me? I have an appointment to get pictures taken and sent to Ford as well. Blended.. What a joke.

 

The excuses some of these jokers come up with.

Good luck with the fight.

 

Wow that's a line there.


What makes a paint job look better is to do it correct the first time.

I wonder if his home painter blended the paint into his ceiling to make it look better if he would be happy.


I'm glad you are also having them look. Maybe if more people complain Ford will correct the issue.