DEARBORN, Michigan — The Ford Motor Company is offering $1,000 trade-in cash on Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles to lure owners of Toyota vehicles in the wake of expanded recalls to fix accelerator pedals that may stick in some Toyota models.
"The offer is eligible to Acura, Honda, Toyota, Lexus and Scion owners," said Robert Parker, a Ford spokesman in an e-mailed response to a query from Inside Line on Thursday.
Ford has not specified when this incentive program will end.
The Dearborn automaker's incentive program is patterned after a similar one announced on Wednesday by GM aimed at bringing Toyota owners "back to the GM family." The GM program offers such incentives as zero-percent financing for 60 months on most Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC models.
Inside Line says: Who's next? — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
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sellaturcica says:
07:20 PM, 02/10/2010
Blame the company that makes the brake parts? That would make sense if they weren't manufacturing it to Toyota specs, which they are. It also doesn't explain why this would be a worldwide recall if the only problem was a crappy American supplier, which its not. Toyota screwed up and tried to cover it up, and they're about to pay the piper in a big way. I imagine the bulk of their growth and revenue comes from the American market, this may be the openign that allows the Koreans and maybe a resurgent FoMoCo through.
croco83 says:
02:13 AM, 02/03/2010
Some of you guys see this as kicking Toyota while they're down. . .I see this as taking advantage of a good business opportunity. No one ever got ahead by being nice when their competitors were on the downswing, especially in the automotive industry. I was seriously considering a Toyota Camry at one point, but I don't know if I should now as it is one of the models affected by this. I'm sure Toyota will get this issue resolved, though it has put me off for the time being. 'Sides, I'm starting to like the idea of the new Fiesta that's coming out...a small car with big heart and capabilities.
And to sassy_j - I picked up a Hyundai Elantra when I was out in California last week as a rental, and I was very impressed with it. The Koreans, especially Hyundai, have really stepped up their game in terms of building good cars that people can really get into.
tbone85 says:
03:26 PM, 02/02/2010
BFO,
Your ignroant and bigoted comments are noted. Maybe Toyota and Honda should ban manufacturing in the U.S. Then maybe the U.S. should ban the sale of their products. That way you'll get your opportunity to see who's hurt more. In a balance of trade situation, the side with the deficit has more leverage.
bfo says:
02:43 PM, 02/01/2010
It is amazing that no one is blaming the company that makes the brake parts. I have followed this news and everyone is blaming Toyota. As a foreign company, Toyota will still strive for the best. The faulty brakes were manufactured by an American company. I have known that American workers have no work ethic and that shows in the product that they manufacture. Toyota wants to do business here in the states and employs Americans for that. I have made up my mind that i may never buy an American manufactured car again if this foolish witch hurts turns out bad for Toyota. May be Toyota and Honda should just pack up and move the manufacture of their product to outside the states and see which country will suffer more.
tbone85 says:
11:17 AM, 01/30/2010
I just received an email from Hyundai toting their high quality. I don't think the timing is a coincidence. All these guys are vultures, it's the nature of the beast when you've reached market saturation.
sassy_j says:
11:52 AM, 01/29/2010
I'm a little disappointed in Toyota, though I've never owned one, and Ford's vulturistic ethics.
I'll definitely be looking into Hyundai, they make great quality cars. Just look at their electronics, Samsung and LG (both Korean) beat Sony (Japanese) by far.
tbone85 says:
11:07 AM, 01/29/2010
It's irrational to allow one recall to control the perception of Toyota, but there's plenty of precedent for consumer irrationality. Each case is a tragedy, but making a tunnel vision judgement on one issue always ignores the competing tragedies that have to be balanced in making good decisions.
I don't recall H or T turning down any sales when domestic quality was a major issue. Perhaps they were more subtle (and you found that more feective) , but they've been hammering on quality for decades. There may be another market segment that prefers the direct pitch. Either way, these guys are all big boys who are intent on taking market share from their competitors--and I'm certainly not mad that our domestic companies are working toward that end.
dg0472 says:
06:12 AM, 01/29/2010
The most distasteful thing yet about this: I heard Mulally on NPR this morning saying how much FoMoCo sympathized with Toyota and would learn from this WITH Toyota. All the while capitalizing on the situation.
isend2c, let me point out once again that some of these cars have a manumatic gate to the left side of the regular gate. So positioned, the N on the indicator is immediately beside not Neutral, but the + gate for the manual mode. So it's quite possible some of these people looked down and put the shifter beside the N thinking they WERE putting the transmission in Neutral. Sure, they SHOULD know how their car works, but even more so, manufacturers shouldn't design things that way. Either make the N to D jump bigger so that + and N don't line up, or move that manual gate to the right. It's THAT simple.
isend2c says:
09:52 PM, 01/28/2010
I'm missing something, I was unaware of any Honda blasting into balls of flame because their idiot drivers didn't know what the N in their transmission was for... It bothers me that nobody thought neutral was a good idea.
I wouldn't trade in my car because of a recall though (even though I don't own a Toyota or any Japanese car).
6sptl says:
08:41 PM, 01/28/2010
Pitiful, I don't recall toyota reveling in ford's exploding pintos and police cruisers or rolling over explorers. Very distasteful. Not to mention stalling issues on a myriad of models that led to hundreds of deadly crashes. If there is a company with a checkered safety history its Ford. Not to mention GM's incorrectly designed proportioning valves in the X cars which led to thousands of crashes but were never even recalled just simply swept under the rug as not a defect. Now that GM and Ford are finally making cars that are at least competitive performancewise (GM's reliability still has a bit to be desired)they show up with stupid campaigns as these. Pathetic