fomocona, I don't truly wish to derail the thread either, but I since I have this unexpected connection to a real Ford employee who converses in complete sentences and seems to care, I just thought I would pass along the one thing Ford could do to get me back into a Ford showroom in my lifetime:
Apologize. Apologize for cheaping out on the quality of parts, for letting the accountants have a louder voice than the engineers, and specifically for the Contour and Mystique, and the Windstar. Apologize for dealerships who were so backlogged with recalls that an oil change had to be scheduled further in advance than a trip to the dentist. Apologize for license plate screws that seized within 12 months, for rocker switches that suddenly neither rocked nor switched, and trunk seals that encouraged floods. Apologize for electrical door closing motors that worked overtime, long into the night, long after the doors had been closed, until the battery ran dry.
Basically, apologize for the '90s, and a chunk of the decade after.
Not you, of course. You weren't responsible. Someone like Bill Ford, who was there. Or that new guy, who is there now. I just want to know that Ford understands that they produced some really lousy cars, vans and trucks for a spell, and that they are righting the ship, from the top down.