Nope Al, actually I have been disappointed with ford for a long time. Keep in mind that every car I have owned has been a ford with the exception of the last being the magna.
I believe the difficulties ford currently face with falling sales has more to do with the decisions made by ford to walk away from their older small block engines. Holden are enjoying increased sales of their commodore. The GM organization decided wisely that their small block engines were well liked, indeed loved by many, and decided to develop a whole family of updated engines around that basic design.
Ford elected to develop a whole new ( read more expensive to manufacture) engine which had no lineage at all. Huge great big hulking things that were expensive to modify and much more difficult to fit into tight platforms. If you want to put a cam in one you had to buy at least two cams, in many cases four .
We are also in a time when being green and alternate fuels are an area of concern to consumers. Ford has done little by comparison to other manufacturers in this area. Other manufacturers (ok, read chev in this instance, but also others) not being faced with the expense of a whole new engine design, could concentrate outgoings on these "other" areas of concern to address consumer concerns.
Engine manufacturing plants, in these days, need a much larger market than their home market. They need an international market which demand a smaller more efficient engine which can run on a variety of fuels, and fit smaller, less flexible platforms.
Sadly ford misread market forces some years ago.
Sheezzz.....that'll teach ya to get me going on a friday.
