A kinda long Ford (Car and dealer) review

[Guest TankerHC]

I am not what I would call "A Ford guy" or dedicated to any brand for that matter. Although my last 3 trucks have been Tundra's, that had nothing to do with brand loyalty but more with maintenance and towing capacity as well as build (Which I guess sort of creates a brand loyalty on any of them depending on what your looking for). So we went last month looking for a new car for the wife. Because of warranty, options, appearance she had all but settled on another Optima, instead of the EX-GDI, replacing it with an SXT-GDI, and looked at them and was pretty much sold, both of us were. But I am not someone who just jumps into a major purchase, usually takes about a month of reading reviews, looking at various options and seeing what various dealers have to offer. I am also not one who becomes a saleman's friend, I am there to make a transaction, period, and get the lowest price and best value for my money, again, period. I bought three of my last four trucks from the same dealer, they know this when they see me coming, I have my own financing, so no need to offer me any financing, Im not telling them how much I have in my pocket which will include financing and cash and I am not dealing, I have already done my research, so when I go there, they just show me what I want and tell me the lowest price. (This is going somewhere)..

 

So this time I took about three weeks to do my research, drove all over the state looking at Kia's and some other brands, seeing what best price was here and there and of course it varied widely. one of the things that kept coming up during my research though, especially the writers for J.D. Power, who I believe can be trusted since the manufacturers vie for there awards, they arent "Bought out" and if one car was great 2 months ago, but another car launched that was better this month, then they are going to say "Sorry but ____________ blows away in this and that area".

 

Across the board, including J.D. Power, the two top spots in the midsize sedan market were the Optima and the Fusion, but specifically the Optima SXT and the Fusion Titanium. I blew off the Ford altogether, but I was driving through Hixson the first of last month and passed Marhall Mize and said what the heck, I can at least look, turned around and went on in.

 

Well I would never set foot in a GM dealer again, but I also had read that Ford didnt want the bailout money but under the law were forced to take at least 40 Billion, so they took it, dumped it into R&D, then paid it right back. I wanted to see what the taxpayer loan got Ford.

 

So the first thing I want to say about Marshall Mize Ford, I have been buying new cars and trucks since 86 and have bought more than a few and more than a few brands from many different dealers. Never, in my entire life, have I ever come across an entire building full of employees, not in Gun Shops, Department Stores, Car Dealerships, anywhere....that were that NICE! How in the hell do you have a business full of people, a yard full of people, and everyone is super nice and walking around greeting and having smiles on their faces? NO ONE was having a bad day? Seriously? Well I dont think they were, because I know I can tell when someone being nice in a business is forced, and yes I know that the transaction on a vehicle is a dance between a salesman and a buyer, but it's the salesman who knows how to negotiate with a buyer that sell's cars, its the salesman that obviously hates his customers and has contempt for negotiating any longer than 3 hours that you see working in 8 different dealerships in 3 years. Marhsall Mize Ford must be akin to Happy Land, because that's how it felt dealing with them. Like the employee's were happy "JUST TO BE THERE". This deal took 5 days to complete. 

 

I told the salesman that I probably wasnt going to buy this car anyway, if I were going to buy a Fusion it would have to be like the one sitting in the showroom because for the same price (reduced) as a stock Fusion, I can get a maxed out Optima STX, and I wasnt paying the kind of money they were asking for the Titanium. Told them I was paying no where close to MSRP on any vehicle. So I left it at that, I left, went home and continued researching. I told my wife about the Fusion, and she asked me to check it out more thoroughly, so I called the salesman back and told him I was headed over and wanted to look at the Titanium again. Well I made my first mistake, when I went in I told him I wanted to test drive the Titanium, OK, no problem. had to get it out of the showroom. That was the mistake, just sitting in that car, Kia has improved their bucket seats for 2014, but Ford simply blows them away, period and hands down. These seats are like racing seats, except their like luxury racing seats, you dont sit on them, you sit "in them" if you know what I am talking about, its like your wrapped in the seat. So we start going down the road and I tell him I know nothing about these cars, so he shows me how everything works, at no time am I ever anything but serious about a transaction like that, Im usually dead serious, for the first time EVER, I couldn't help myself, I was grinning driving this car, its that badass. In fact it is so badass, that before I ever turned around to go back to the dealer, I was sold. I didnt tell the salesman that but I'm pretty sure he knew it by all the "Holy craps, this car can do that!?". And his responses of "yes, and it can do this too" followed by more Holy craps. Thing is there is tons of tech built into this car, so when we got back I told him straight out, Im not buying it. Not because of the tech, which I wanted to research more, but because of the price, no way they could sell that car for what I would pay. So I left, again, and went back to the Kia dealer(s). My wife still wanted to see the car so after seeing the reviews on the tech (There were some software problems at initial launch for 2014 but they have been corrected with updates), we went back so she could look at it. I told her to test drive it to compare and took her off to the side "Do not let him sell you a car and do not come back grinning or smiling". They leave, gone for half an hour, they pull in, too late, he showed her what that car could do and I see a smiling face. When she gets out I ask her if she liked it and of course she did but like me she wasnt willing to pay what the price was, not even close. So we told him, nice but too much on the price and of course he asked what we would pay and I pretty much replied with not even close to what that goes for and we left. So back home and more research, The car forums are a good place to speak to salesman in other states as well as several of the car sites that tell you what the minimum you should be able to get any particular car for, real price vs invoice and I have a friend that owned three car dealerships (Retired now) who I ask on sales. We are a volume dealer, we can sell at a loss because we sell so many is like going east to get west (Southern Comfort reference) and spending 7 Trillion Dollar to save 27 Billion (US Government reference). so I averaged them all up, checked out Ford's site to see current promotions and rebates, took that amount and subracted 3000,  ridiculously low and I know it, You have to make a profit to stay in business and if your a salesman you dont eat by selling cars at a loss to the company, it doesnt happen, volume or not. So I went back with my ridiculously low offer that I intended to make, fully aware it would not be accepted and negotiations would begin again, and the salesman would have to go in the back "To talk to his boss" 4 or 5 times, etc etc. Went in and told the salesman I have an offer on a price but I wasnt paying any more than that. Made my ridiculously low offer. he "looks at some numbers" then the old "Can you wait for a second, I need to go talk to someone", at which point I pulled out my cell to start surfing the web because this usually takes 30 minutes to an hour and then that would happen two or three more times.

 

Five minutes later he comes back, sits down and says OK. I ask OK what? "Ok, you can have the car for what you said you would buy it for". WHOA, WAIT, WHAT!? (That was what was going through my mind but what I actually said was " How are you going to do that? Thats the price of a reduced stock Fusion. Oh wait, that doesnt include tax, tag, title, this fee and that fee". His answer "nope, thats what you said you wanted it for out the door and thats the price".

 

Next question, my wife likes white, this one is painted Titanium, how much will it add on to get her a white one?   Answer "Nothing, but it might take a few days to locate one and get it on the lot, not every dealer has one of these in stock and this is the only one we have". How's that? Kia told me a day earlier that it would be $500 to get a car from another lot on their lot and a different Kia dealer said $800. The answer was basically that they arent Kia, and Ford isnt charging customers 800 dollars to get their own car on their own lot.

 

I dont know what experience others have had with Marshall Mize, but mine was nothing but positive in every way. There's no BS there, they tell you what they can do and if its not acceptable you dont end up with 50 phone calls trying to sell you a car, I didnt experience all the sales tactics to try and Buffalo a buyer, fake "This is the price" then later 10 different fee's attempted to be added on, none of it.

 

Of course not everyone's experience is going to be exactly like that, it helps to have a down payment and financing before setting foot in a showroom, to be SOMEWHAT knowledgeable and be willing to wait and not drive off in a car 30 minutes after you walk through the doors. But I would certainly recommend them to anyone in the Chattanooga area looking to buy a Ford. 

 

On the car, Im now of the opinion that engine displacement and horsepower mean little these days. I figured before I drove it that with the 1.4 Liter Turbo Eco that it would be sort of like driving my 86 LeBaron (That I bought when they first came out). Totally not the case, the Fusion Titanium has some added thing, either way, it is fast and has as much power as any of the Sedans we owned, even more actually, definitely more than the 6 cylinder in the Avalon. 

 

It has 16 sensors on the body, (I think 16, of course it was carried over from last year but it parks itself, it also has active driving. Three settings, If your drifting off the road, on one setting it just beeps (Volume adjustable), on the second setting it beeps and the car keeps you from drifting over the center line and centers itself back between the lines, on the third, the car beeps, keeps you from drifting and re-centers itself and the steering wheel shakes. You can adjust it from a mild vibration to pretty much a violent shaking.But it does work, and it also is easily over ridden simply by turning where you want to go.

 

It has blind spot sensors, if anyone is driving in your blind spot they are picked up and you get a continuous warning in your mirrors.

 

The stereo is the best I have ever heard in any car, aftermarket or not. The seats on the Optima STX bumped up from one position to two memory positions, the Ford has 3, other than the eject buttons there is only a single knob on the dashboard, a volume knob that you do not even have to use, everything else uses Ford Mytouch and is touchscreen and or touch where the buttons normally would be but everything is voice activated. The trip computers have tons more info than a standard trip computer and all that tech isnt even the hi tech tech, the dashboard computers are simply amazing in what they can do, the graphics are pretty awesome (Best word I can come up with) and you can control everything in the car without removing your hands from the steering wheel. Anyway, everything about this car is pretty darn amazing. J.D. Power says that both the Optima and the Fusion Titanium were made to impress, I dont care about that, but the Ford clearly beats the Optima on the Interior but I dont get where they say the new ground effect on the Kia makes it built to impress "inside and Out", Ford doesnt need all that BS, they put the money where it counts, They dont need cowling and ground effects because the car already has that low slung bulk look like the big sedans (The body is slightly different from the standard fusion), the grill is big, classic Ford, if you stand in front of it it looks almost like a Mustang grill only bigger (I know grills these days are for show, but this one just looks good). There are three entry ways, the key, an emegency key that not only lights the lights, but lights the lights, unlocks the door and starts the car before you even get to it. Then there is a lighted code on the drivers door, if you cant get it, touch the drivers door, the lighted numbers come on, touch the numbers and all four doors open. The pre climate control, if your in your house, click the button, summer time, all four windows roll halfway down, the sun roof opens the car starts and the AC comes on. I could go into more detail because there is a LOT more to this car, but needless to say, if thats what Ford did with the taxpayer dollars, borrowed it, put it into R&D then paid it back, and this is the result of the R&D, good. Count me in. 

 

Last year Ford moved into the top spot on made and assembled in the US under the government standard for their trucks, ahead of the Tundra, up until last year Toyota was the only one that could officially make that claim under the law (86% of parts manufactured within the US I believe) and JD Power says that Ford is back and are coming to take back the mid size sedan market from Kia. I also like the fact that Edsel Ford is sitting on the board to help keep watch over the company his great grandfather built.

 

I thought I was stuck buying Japanese from now on, my next truck will be an F-150 4x4. And if Marshall Mize is any indication of the standard for their dealers, then Ford is absolutely doing everything right. Cars, salesmanship, lot organization, everything.  

 

As you can see (read) Im pretty dang impressed with Ford. For me it's like an American Company actually became an American Company again and didnt rip off the taxpayers. (We are about to sell back the remaining taxpayer purchased GM stock, at a loss of 80 billion, and after all the attacks on Romney when that BUSINESSMAN said they HAVE to go bankrupt to rebuild, they went bankrupt anyway, while giving Union bosses bonuses, cutting non union member pay and stabilizing Union members pay), I will never set foot on another GM lot. 

 

 

 

 

 

.. 

[173rdABN]

After owing a 6.0 diesel I'll never buy ford again

[bersaguy]

Well, you sold me on one and I'm not even looking at buying a car............... :up: 

I use to work at a Ford dealer back when I was a mechanic and I do know that there are certain times of each month you can walk into a dealership and not just Ford but any of them and if they are only a few units sold short of making a huge and I mean huge unit sold bonus from the Manufacturer they will almost take any deal they can get to just move the few cars needed for that bonus. They are like huge rebates to the dealers if they can move x amount of cars in a month. I worked for Town & Country Ford back when it was Connally Ford and they won a bonus every month for two years before they sold out. If folks knew when that bonus time was close they could get good deals every time. Thing is only the Car dealership owners know what time of the month it will begin and end and it's not every month in some areas of the country and every month in other areas. It was more like a game the Manufacturers used to pit dealers against dealers to sell more cars I think...................jmho

[dlm37015]

I have a 6.0 with 300.000 miles on it runs great

just bought a new f450 last weekend in Knoxville  from the ford dealer on Clinton hwy

I have had very good service from the superdutys

just wish I could get one with a standard shift

[frankmako]

i been a ford guy since 1973 when i got me a new mustang.  trade in a 69 mustang for a new 73.  now it is a f250 and they are hard to beat.

[MacGyver]

Speaking as an American engineer, I'm really pulling for Ford. They made a lot of poor decisions for a lot of years, and that cost them - especially on the car side of the business.

But, they stepped up and made some tough decisions. Starting with the rebranded and relaunched Taurus, they showed they were serious about design. They're doing some cool stuff.

I hope they pull it off.

[Guest TankerHC]

One error I made on the engine. The 1.4 was in a different car we looked at, her's has the 2.0 I4 Turbo with Ecoboost. 231 HP at 5500. 

[glowdotGlock]

My family has always been Ford people. We even had a dealership in the family (Kenneth Wessner Ford) so I have all sorts of Ford merchandise in my man cave.

[Patton]

After owing a 6.0 diesel I'll never buy ford again

They were terrible.

[dlm37015]

the epa is what hurt the 6.0 and the 6.4

take out the egr cooler change the oil cooler they work great

the new 6.7s I have 3 right now have had a total of 5

are better than the mighty 7.3

the thing I like about it you just take it to the dealer

tell them what you are going do do with it and they program it for you

[Murgatroy]

I bought my first brand new car a year ago, it was a `13 Mustang. To be honest, at that price point, I don't know why anyone drives anything else.

 

We looked at the Fusion, but eventually emotion overruled logic and I bought the Mustang. With what Ford is offering standard, and the performance options available, I don't think there is much of a choice.

 

 

 

 

 

As for the Bailout, you have the facts a little skewed, but not much. They weren't 'forced' to take the money, it was more of a 'if they get it, we should too, even though we don't need it.' The idea was to keep a level playing field. There was also the Electric Car initiative that came not long after, Toyota, BMW and Ford all three took grant money on that, and the C-Max was the result of that.

 

There are a handful of articles out there about it, pretty interesting read.

 

And the only reason I was willing to buy a Ford. 

[Guest TankerHC]

I bought my first brand new car a year ago, it was a `13 Mustang. To be honest, at that price point, I don't know why anyone drives anything else.

 

We looked at the Fusion, but eventually emotion overruled logic and I bought the Mustang. With what Ford is offering standard, and the performance options available, I don't think there is much of a choice.

 

 

 

 

 

As for the Bailout, you have the facts a little skewed, but not much. They weren't 'forced' to take the money, it was more of a 'if they get it, we should too, even though we don't need it.' The idea was to keep a level playing field. There was also the Electric Car initiative that came not long after, Toyota, BMW and Ford all three took grant money on that, and the C-Max was the result of that.

 

There are a handful of articles out there about it, pretty interesting read.

 

And the only reason I was willing to buy a Ford. 

 

 

Actually according to Ford's interview with Motor Trend last year, they did not want nor ask for the money, however, if they would have not taken the money, they would have been penalized on tax exemptions. So they took what was considered the minimum, and dumped it all into R&D, when the bill came due, they paid it. The electric car initiative is an abject failure in every respect. This administration keeps throwing good money after bad, the Chinese just purchased one of GM's failed electric motor plants and are moving it lock stock and barrel to China, to build motors, for GM cars. All but one of the US Taxpayer backed electric car companies have failed. The Volt is a failure, the only reason the Volt hasnt completely failed is because the Government is buying them for the GSA fleet. GM took the biggest bailout, they went bankrupt and into reorganization anyway, another lie that helped get Obama elected, they are headed for bankruptcy again, the taxpayer has had the stock sold back by the Fed at an 85 billion dollar loss.

Edited December 20, 2013 by TankerHC

[reed1285]

I bought my truck from Marshall Mize in 2008. I agree with everything you said. My salesman was great. Not high pressure at all. I will be going back there for sure when I go to buy again. 

[173rdABN]

David you got lucky with your 6.0.

I was an unlucky guy with one. Injectors all went out, HPOP blew, ICP went out, everything within 6 months of owning it. Made it to 154k miles and that was it. Only thing I didn't do was blow my head gaskets. Put over 5k in parts in it within those 6 months. And first thing I did when I bought it was do an egr delete and put in the oil cooler. I have OCD about taking care of my stuff. But some of those 6.0 were just horrible. The later models did ok. But mine was a July 03 made. One of the first year crappy ones. And your right, the EPA totally screwed the life of the 6.0. It had potential. But what can ya do.... I heard the new 6.7 is just a tank though. I have a new 5.3l Chevy silverado ltz now and when it's a couple more years old and hits 100k I might change back over to a diesel. I really miss having one when I two my toys.

[dlm37015]

the first 6.7 I had blew a piston apart at 22k but ford felt so bad they gave me a new truck for it

I do drive chevy cars though just got my 14zo6 teusday morning

cant wait to see how it is going to run

[Dane]

I've dealt with Mize and they are a pretty good group of folks. If Ford offered the truck I'm looking for I would be back there to get it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[kieefer]

OK, if I read this right you took all the rebates and then deducted $3K off the sticker, correct?

 

I'm curious of what the mpg's you are getting with this engine.

 

My wife is about due for a new car and the Fusion is one I'd like for her to look at. 

[Guest TankerHC]

OK, if I read this right you took all the rebates and then deducted $3K off the sticker, correct?

 

I'm curious of what the mpg's you are getting with this engine.

 

My wife is about due for a new car and the Fusion is one I'd like for her to look at. 

 

 

They claim 22/34. Looking at the computer were averaging around 30.x  About 2 MPG better than the 13 Optima. 

Edited December 21, 2013 by TankerHC

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Congrats Tanker on a good deal and pleasant experience.

We only dealt with Mize one time a long time ago and maybe they were great folk then as well, except they sold us a first-year taurus that spent more time in the shop than on the road. All covered by warranty, but after awhile it got tiresome driving the dang thing back to the service dept all the time. :) Honestly couldn't blame Mize for that, though, and supposedly that kind of problem is ancient history.