Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Recall or Lawsuit for Oil Starvation?

Just wondering:

Has anyone ever totaled up the number of people on this site who have had this problem that resulted in blown engines?

and

if there is any possibility of organizing a push for a recall or class action lawsuit?


I know, this is far fetched and suing seems so ridiculous but hey, Im putting it out there because Im bored tonight and Im curious what kind of response I'll get...

I'm not trying to bum you out by being negative, but let's be realistic.

QUESTIONS:

1) Do you actually think Ford would ever issue a recall on a car that they don't produce anymore for something that the federal government wouldn't force them to because it's not a safety defect?

2) Do you think the Ford Motor Company cares if they piss off owners of a car they never considered a sales success?

3) Do you think Ford wouldn't crush any class action lawsuit for a non-safety concern with their massive legal team?

ANSWERS:

1) Ford will not issue a recall on the Contour for Oil starvation, because while it ruins the engine, it's still not a safety defect. This means the federal government won't force them to take corrective action. There have been cases where Ford recalled the car without government intervention. In cases like the wire harness recall, and the 3.8L engine headgasket recall, Ford only issued the recall because they were still making Contours and cars with 3.8L eninges. They wanted to appease the customers so they would buy another Contour, Mustang or Windstar.

2) No, they only care to keep people who buy things that make them money happy. (Lincolns, SUVs and F-Series Truck)

3) Ford would crush the class action suit you propose with their legal team. If you look at lawsuits against Ford that were successful, you'll find they're few and far between. In the cases where Ford was successfully sued, people were killed or severly injured.

This isn't true of only Ford, To my knowledge these three things are true of most car companies. Lets face it companies are out to make money. They won't do anything they aren't forced to that will lower their profit. They don't care about pleasing people who don't make them money. Thirdly, they hate losing lawsuits.

How long before you take the "Bar"?

Paul

You can be scarcastic, but what I said is true. No one will never get Ford on that class action suit on the Contour.

Remember who you are dealing with when you want fixes. (Bean Counters) I know engineers, buyers, and bean counters at GM, Ford, and Chrysler. The engineers would design something good, or specify a high quality part. The bean counters would look at the engineers decisions, and unless they were decisions on Trucks or Luxury cars, they tell them what they wanted was too expensive. They would order the buyers to order parts that were inferior. Once my neighbor who was a buyer for GM asked her superior why they bought parts that they knew were not what the engineers wanted. He basically told her that the engineers didn't run the company, and that the bean counters didn't care if they pissed off cavalier buyers with cheap ignition switches. The funny thing is that everyone damns the engineers.

The bean counters are the ones to blame. But, they run the company, so they just blame someone else. The people who made a decision to make money and not build a quality car in the first place are sure as hell not going to give up any of that money they made on recalls that benefit them in no way.

Should also consider the 'vast' production run of 2.5L Duratecs too.

If there's not going to be a recall for current vehicles with sandy blocks then that should give some kind of insight into this.

+1

Merging 99 South to I5 North in Sacramento, CA is the turn that did it.

Car has been donated.

I fully agree that the 'bean counters' are the ones that are driving down quality control. But I wonder what the average car would cost if every part in it was first class quality? Would we be looking at Mercedes prices?

I don't know what happened to Ford's "quality is job 1" but that company philosophy disappeared years ago. Most insiders blame Jac Nasser for putting the bean counters ahead of the engineers. Even though Jac is gone (with a nice golden parachute), you can be assured the bean counters are still there in force. You'd think when you paid $30,000-$50,000 for a Ford product, you'd get better quality components than you did in the 60's, but I don't think that's the case.