I think we all agree that the beancounters are the main problem plaguing the American automakers today. I wonder how much more a Taurus, for example, would cost, if Ford would allow their suppliers to provide first class parts, instead of cutting costs to the bone. Much of Ford's quality problems are NOT the guys on the assembly line, but its the parts supplied by outside suppliers that fail. For example, I'm pretty sure Ford didn't actually built the infamous water pump used in the pre'99 Duratec engines. I doubt if Ford spec'd the type of impellar used, but they demanded costs be cut to the point that the supplier had to resort to a cheap plastic.
Like it was said earlier, American automakers expect customers to gravitate towards bigger and more expensive cars, and treat their smaller cars as strictly entry level models. I was looking at my Mystique's window sticker the other day, and the original list price, coupled with the sales tax I paid, came to almost $22,000. I probably could have bought a Taurus or Crown Vic for that kind of money, which is what Ford would have probably prefered I had done.
