I worked at Ford for many years. There was an ebb and flow - when top mgmt decided we needed to get our warranty down, sent the message and provided the resources, we could see Ford climbing to the top of the list in all of the surveys. When it was all about cost, we sank to the bottom (never mind that cutting cost tends to create warranty cost). As others have said, all mfr's have their problems, none are perfect, but the Japanese in general seem to be better at staying with a long term quality focused strategy. Ford, in my opinion, is struggling a bit now. My F150, Explorer, Expedition (16, 17, 02) all had some pretty significant development / production problems that I don't think would have been acceptable in years past during some of the more quality prioritized years. And most mfr's struggle with perfecting software, and deploying new technologies that kinda work, but not 100%. Dealers aren't computer programmers, so it the company hasn't released a software fix, they just start guessing, often replacing parts that don't need to be replaced.