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      10-14-2009, 01:03 PM   #17
ChrisV
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Drives: 1998 BMW 740iL
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Location: Pikesville, MD

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1998 740iL  [6.00]
If you read the article, there were a "small number of reports" and most of the vehicles involved in the recall had no reports of problmes ever. At least Ford is proactive aboput repairting things, unlike certain Japanese and German manufacturers who, in their climb to the top of the market, would quietly sweep problems under the rug and hope to secretly fix them when people came in for routine maintenance or other issues.

I'm old enough to remember the days when ALL manufacturers had known defects, and if you liked the car, you simply bought the next year's model that had those issues resolved (or if you bought the versions with problems, you worked with other owners on how to resolve the problems on your own. it was what car enthusiasts did. Especially with British and Italian sports cars).

As for Ford bringing over their Euro models, every time GM or Ford has done that the market has responded with a resounding "meh." German Fiestas (not the Korean Festivas), Capris, Sierras, Opels (german ones, not Isuzus), etc. Even the Mondeo in Contour form (due to having to meet American standards) was not the succes it could have been. it was sized not too far from the Escort, but priced like the larger Taurus. And the only enthusiast version, the SVT Contour, was priced way higher than the average Joe would pay for a mid size sedan at the time, regardless of how good it was (and it was very good indeed).

Europeans are willing to pay a premium for nicer small cars, Americans aren't. Which is why even on this BMW board, due to being based in the US, premium priced small cars are regularly derided, from 1 series to Smarts, to anything small and expensive EXCEPT the MINI.
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