Ford Quality Further Reduces 2008 Warranty Costs

[68fastback]

Ford Warranty repair costs down again in 2008. Improved product quality is attributed to $1.2B reduction.

[hellfyr]

Would be interesting to see if denied service requests are up.

[VaporDude]

You build a quality product and the warranty issues would go way down. At least Ford seems to be better off and much better quality than the other 2 domestic makers.

[JonW]

Originally Posted by hellfyr

Would be interesting to see if denied service requests are up.

Exactly. They have probably cut back on rental car reimbursement, goodwill claims, etc. So not all of the cost savings would be due to product improvement. But I do have to give them credit, their products are improving in quality. Which says a lot for the Masters of Decontenting.

[68fastback]

I suspect denial rates are also up in these tight times but quality improvements will ultimately make a big diff. Better quality prolly brings dealers less business in general too. Dealers complain that tey don't make money on warranty work but it does cause traffic and they get to check over the vehicle for other needs too. I suspect in the future ECU telemetrics will perform a similar function, but before problems impact customer sat -- that is the goal, I believe. That would be a win-win, I think, and could also further develop an image of quality for the brand ...while maintaining dealer traffic. At least that's the idea, I believe.