News: Ford Trims its Workforce

It is a sign of the times. Normally, this kind of news doesn't register with me very much. However, I do happen to drive a Ford Focus. The other day I was driving to the dealership to do routine 20,000 mile maintenance and it seemed odd ... the dealership was closed. The service section was closed. There were no cars in the showroom.

I called the number for the service department and got a voice mail saying the location was closing after all these years and it has been a pleasure to serve all our loyal customers.

Hopefully, all those folks at that dealership will be able to find jobs at other locations or find new careers in other industries.

In my family's car experience, the quality bench mark is what happens around 50,000 miles. Some of the cars we have had in the past, domestic and imports, started to fall apart at that point. However, we have had some champs that blew through that milestone all the way up to 100,000 with little difficulty.

My purchasing of a Ford Focus was based on the reports that American cars were finally improving in quality. So far so good. But I'm looking ahead to that 50,000+ mark and seeing how the car does then. If it performs like a champ, I'll be giving the good word for the Ford Focus!