Only Ford Vehicles allowed in Dearborn Parking Lot

Now that is an idea that would should people that they care why people don't drive Ford.


Personally, it seems silly to try and force them to drive Ford. The people who don't drive are going to feel even more alienated.

 

I can tell you from experience this goes way back. Not “official†Ford policy but enforced none the less. During my grandfathers and fathers time (my dad only worked summers) and the late 60’s when I worked at a Ford assembly plant. Park a VW or something at a UAW lot at any of the US companies and the first day you loose your tires the second time you come back to a stripped car. Cars from competing US firms were “tolerated†as long as they were built in the US. They have tools in those places and the supervisors would look the other way while a few workers did a little work on your car. Ford has a vacation spot in Northern Michigan for employees and even into the 80’s if you had a import you parked off site and walked in.

 

It's a private company and they are allowed create and enforce whatever stupid rules they want.

I worked at a company once that required you to be a member of the NRA in order to be eligible for your quarterly bonus.

Andy

 

"Park a VW or something at a UAW lot at any of the US companies and the first day you loose your tires the second time you come back to a stripped car."

And this attitude of punishing the innocents instead of cleaning their own house is a principal reason they are in deep shit now. Just as I was working up some sympathy... POOF!

 

Isn't it a bit two-faced for a company to demand loyalty from its employees, yet feel perfectly OK to layoff 30,000 of them when things get tough?

Instead of demanding loyalty, they might do better trying to earn it. If an employee doesn't drive a Ford, Ford would be better off asking them 'why?', learning something from it, and trying to fix it. After all, if there's a reason your own employee doesn't buy your product, you can be sure there are thousands of customers who won't either. Wouldn't Ford benefit from knowing why?

Yes, Ford has "right" to demand that their employees drive Fords. And the free market guarantees every company's right to make poor decisions and go out of business.

 

In related news Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer just announced that no computers on the Microsoft campus should be running Linux or using OpenOffice, Corel Office, or Lotus Smartsuite.

Where's the outrage?!?!

 

Next they'll be asking their dealers that all salespeople have to drive Fords or else they'll be fired.

 

:lol:

 

Heh, the really funny part is that GM and Ford don't make any money on sales to employees. With their employee discounts that they can pass along to friends and family, I wonder if there's anyone in the motor city who the companies actually make any money on the sales.

 

this has been the unwritten policy for YEARS. had one uncle who was a millwright at the vinyl plant in Mt. Clemens, MI for 35+ years, had two cousins who worked at gm. i worked at gm very briefly. you could drive what ever you wanted and sometimes other american cars were tolerated. but drive a foreign car in the lot and you will be towing the car out and it had nothing to do with the management there

 

hmmm, last poll i heard last summer said that 85% of microsoft employees owned an ipod

 

And people have taken to wearing black headphones with them on the Microsoft campus.

There was an article in Wired where a MSFT VP gave his/her staff a dressing down for discussing iPods as christmas gifts, and pointed out that they, of all people, should be buying Microsoft "plays for sure" compatible devices (which the iPod is not).

Also, apparently Larry Ellison doesn't want his people using SQL Server.

And shocker, I heard that at IBM, if you try to order a Dell for regular use, you get a very stern talking to.

 

...if not the packer.

 

Well, in that case I'd buy the cheapest, sorriest looking piece of Ford junk I could find that was still running and use that just for work. And I'd make sure it had a bumper sticker that said "Company-forced car. My other car is a Prius."

They may be able to make you drive a Ford, but they can't make you remove a bumper-sticker. Free speech.

 

actually the Ford employee purchase plan was very very nice. my uncle bought a new car every few years. Ford provided financing, payroll deduction and the ability to drive your car home straight from the factory. in fact he went through so many of them i dont even remember half of them.

only car i remember his having for any length of time was his Plymouth Duster . he had that one for about 5-6 years but my Aunt drove that one so his work never saw it.

 

wow, that's stupid.

and for the record, there were 2 non-toyotas in the employee parking lot DH saw at the SET port facility... and they didn't have flat tires and they weren't missing door handles.

you're only putting your own employees through hardship if you force them you buy your product. say someone just cannot find a good car they can afford. they find something that works, they invest a little in maintenance, then they're told that they have to buy another one and narrow the search to one name brand. and to top that off, most cars of that particular name brand that are used require significant repair. that makes them unhappy. disgruntled workers are bad in any business, especially the car business.

 

I agree that this is exactly the message it sends...So what does Ford want to do? It seems to me that they can either make sure that this message is redereed patently and obviously false by making and selling great cars or they can just try to squash the message by making policies like this that have a very good chance of backfiring on them!!