Ford CEO warns America is ‘in trouble.’ Car giant has 5,000 open mechanic jobs

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lbdqAMh3PNc

 

No doubt Ford engineers love their 10mm bolts. I had a 1983 Ford Ranger and it needed a new water pump. Two of the 10mm bolt heads broke off while attempting to remove said water pump resulting in the front plate having to be removed.

After drilling out the broken bolts, I enlarged the holes and put in half inch grade 8 bolts like what the factory should have done.

Of course removing the front plate meant also removing the harmonic balancer which requires replacement of its oil seal. And not perfectly aligning the oil seal, the woodruff key, and harmonic balancer perfectly allows oil to flow out onto the ground rather quickly.

 

Ford may be the most lacking in ability to hire mechanics, but it has to be all of them to some extent. It's the most stupid engineering everywhere anymore. Guy that's been working on my cars for decades is a Dodge tech, been at the same dealership for probably 20 plus years now. Does his side work there before and after his regular shift.

Last month had him do some work on my vehicles, walked into the shop to get my keys and square up, he's got the entire dashboard ripped out of something (a Durango I think? Can't remember for sure).

Asked him, what the hell is this open heart surgery? He says Heater core replacement.

 

I'll tell ya'll exactly why there's a shortage.

Piss poor engineering/designs on these new vehicles coupled with flat rate times that are very difficult to meet. The mechanics get the #### end of the stick because the dealer only pays the mechanics for that time. If it's hard to hit that target while doing the job properly then the mechanic takes the hit. Any rework gets done by the mechanic for free as well.

Can't say I blame people for walking away from that BS.

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/WrkF-Qsf1Bs?si=rYSxqJ1voTzL8ABV

A possible solution.

 

When I read last month that China floods the world with gasoline cars it can't sell at home.

I never even realized that China had so much Gasonline cars and figured they jumped in more on the EV veichles as of late. Ford makes reasonable veichles and need to start concentrating not just on the North American market but more on the Global market in order of staying competitive.

https://www.reuters.com/investigati...h-gasoline-cars-it-cant-sell-home-2025-12-02/

 

Ford's the same for a heater core in the 97-02 F150's

 

The last truck my grandfather bought was a '72 ford pickup... He drove that truck until he passed away in 2006... The problem with modern vehicles is that they are built to fail within 10 years or so... You can no longer buy a truck for life... You have to buy the same truck over and over again... Corporate greed...

 

If it doesn't have a real key to start it and a gear shift lever for the transmission, i won't buy it.