The Art of Leadership: Insights from Ford's Top Executives

Gabe's experience with Ford's top executives has given him a unique perspective on the company's leadership style and philosophy. He remembers one visit where he met with CEO Jim Farley, who was known for being a very personal man. Farley would often engage in conversations that were both informative and entertaining, making Gabe feel like he was getting to know the person behind the title.

One of Gabe's most memorable interactions was with Tom Ford, another high-ranking executive at Ford. Tom's Midwestern charm belied his strong personality and commitment to performance. He was a man who got things done, and Gabe was impressed by his work ethic and attention to detail. Despite being in a different department, Tom had a keen ear for innovation and was always open to new ideas.

Gabe also had the opportunity to meet with Mary Bara, who shared some valuable insights about Ford's approach to listening and learning from criticism. She reminded Gabe that sometimes, it takes a fresh perspective to identify areas for improvement. In contrast, Mark Fields, another executive he met, seemed more focused on technological advancements and innovation.

Ford's commitment to technology is evident in its recent product launches, such as the F-150 with aluminum body panels and EcoBoost engines. Gabe notes that Ford's CEO, Jim Farley, is a strong proponent of embracing new technologies, even if they don't always work out initially. This willingness to take risks has led to some impressive innovations, including the glass cockpit in the Boeing 767 and the development of the Dreamliner.

However, not all of Ford's decisions have been universally praised. Gabe recalls a discussion about Mazda, which he believes was an underappreciated partner that could have provided valuable insights and technologies. Despite this, Farley has continued to invest in technology, with a focus on electric vehicles and autonomous driving.

As Gabe reflects on his experiences at Ford, he is struck by the company's commitment to innovation and performance. While not all of its decisions have been successful, the organization's willingness to take risks and push boundaries is evident. This approach has made Ford a leader in the automotive industry, with a reputation for building high-quality vehicles that are both fun to drive and technologically advanced.

In contrast, BMW's approach to car design has raised some eyebrows among Gabe's friends and family. Specifically, the question of whether a compact sport sedan is suitable for families with young children has sparked debate. One of his friends, Ryan, asked if the BMW E90 or F30 sedans were better options for this type of use. To answer this, we'll take a closer look at both models.

The E90 was BMW's third-generation 3 Series, produced from 2006 to 2011. In Gabe's opinion, it's one of the best three Series ever built, with a unique blend of driving enjoyment and practicality. While its compact size makes it agile and fun to drive, it may not offer enough space for families with very young children.

On the other hand, the F30 is BMW's fourth-generation 3 Series, introduced in 2012. With its modern design and advanced technology features, it's likely to be a better choice for families with older children. However, Gabe notes that the F30's larger size may make it less appealing to those who prefer a more compact vehicle.

Ultimately, the decision between an E90 or F30 depends on individual needs and preferences. While the E90 offers a unique driving experience, its smaller size may limit its suitability for families with very young children. The F30, on the other hand, provides more space and modern amenities, but its larger size may be overkill for those who prefer a more compact vehicle.

As we conclude our discussion on Ford's leadership style and BMW's 3 Series sedans, it's clear that there are valid arguments to be made on both sides. However, by understanding the unique strengths and weaknesses of each model, families can make informed decisions about which vehicle is best suited for their needs. Whether you're in the market for a sporty compact sedan or a more practical family hauler, these insights should provide valuable guidance as you navigate the world of luxury vehicles.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en26 million in counting GM recalls a bunch more cars Ford CEO Alan melli retires and we answer a viewer question about a BMW 3 Series as a family mobile next on talking cars hi and welcome to talking cars with Consumer Reports I'm Tom mutchler I'm John linov I'm Gabe shenhar another day another GM recall Gabe what's up yeah well first of all Let's uh talk about recalls in general recalls aren't necessarily all bad uh recalls are it's a problem it's been revealed after the car is is produced in the hands of consumers and uh the alternative is uh for the problem to be swept under the rug and for consumers to not uh just live with a problem now GM has been accused of sweeping a lot of these problems under the rug for quite a while so now you're they're correcting by recalling everything yeah truth be told GM's been a lowcost manufactur were saving a penny every and cutting Corners uh in all kinds of places uh over you know three decades so um if they're now they're on this campaign of fixing every potential thing and good for them what does that do in terms of public perception I don't know yet yeah that's hard to say John what's the latest latest recall oh so we have if you can I mean can you remember I mean it's like what cars Haven you you know my you know it was it was funny I I was running this morning uh and I ran by a Cadillac catara and I'm like first off oh my God one's running but also that is a car they have not recall in this whole recent it it's it's stagger you're got to you got to prompt me on this one cuz obviously I don't have the numbers I mean you have you have uh on top of the solstices and the Cobalts and the hhrs and the skies um you're going into Cadillacs now you're going into Silverado you're going into sieras you're going into the new tahos and Suburbans I believe yeah well Silverado Silverado and Sierra have been recalled for I believe a transfer case um you know even our SS was recalled for but the ignition Corvette yeah U Corvette's recalled for I think SE airbags I don't know but no it's like everything's been recalled but there's been another six and a half million cars recalled for ignition switch issues uh and now it's um going all the way back to 97 with some Malibus you know it's a lot of w body stuff you know Grand Prix DTS uh cars that like you said were kind of cheaply built Yeahs it kind of reminds me of the Toyota recall four years ago and Toyota took the opportunity to recall just every like potentially every problem and uh I mean all indications are that they've bounced back from that uh uh PR nightmare that they had uh but Toyota we have to remember started out with better reputation than GM ever had you know it's it's almost like one of the things I think about over the weekend and such is like what is the next ticking time off and it's like GM sending the explosive or I do I do Let's either that or let's have a beer at John's diaper changing or thinking about the GM recall that's a ticking time Bob it's your two-year-old it's like they're sending out the EOD group to just blow up everything before it it happens you know and and to just wipe it clean and again yeah recalls in theory a good thing now they're just becoming commonplace and you run into the worries of people becoming immune numb to what's going on ignoring it another recall find they don't pay attention to what's going on about their car just because it's in the news constantly well you're up to almost 26 27 million total cars at GM has recall Y and I'd be yeah I'd be curious to to know how many owners actually bother uh get the notice and bother going to the dealer and get the recall done I mean what is it 30% 20% yeah I think something like that uh GM's website does say how many cars have been updated with the new ignition switch from the earlier Cobalt recall it's small though about no it's about 500,000 yeah which is like you said just a small fraction of the cars that are out there now the recall for these newer cars is is simpler it's just replacing a key with a different hole in the key so it puts less torque on it when you bump it with your knee so it doesn't and if you lose that key then you go and get one may well there's the thing I mean how many people who own 1997 Malibus first of all they're still running second are going to the GM dealer to get the replacement key they're going to go to True Value or Home Depot to get another key in it probably going to have the big old wide slot in it so there goes the whole recall you know it's just it's what's also concerning is that it's getting hijacked back to the government Motors thing it's getting hijacked in a lot of news of like you know should the government Sue GM because they did it under false PR are there's a DA in California who's suing yep you know people are suing for lost resale value how much resale value is there at a you know it's one thing for victims it's another thing for all these add-on uh hijacking of the agenda you know to which which muddies the waters and keeps people's minds off of what you know the safety aspect of it which is first and foremost well it comes to money and uh you know also Johnny Manzel right here well also yesterday um fineberg announced you know what the compensation's going to be you know if if you know if if you have a loved one who passed away it starts at a million dollars it all builds depending if they had dependence or not and what their income was and if they settled before they're still open to still this settlement as well well I guess if you take the in some ways it's a generous agreement because it totally gets rid of negligence you know there's no um there's no they were drunk driving they were speeding I'll tell you something really pissed me off car and driver in a recent issue did a whole thing on the ignition switch and they made sure in two or three places to say yeah well half of these people were speeding half of them were drunk half of them were you know just why why poke at that the old blame the victim kind of thing yeah that just seems really wrong to me um still the talking of of money you know to to replace someone's life is just really it's kind of depressing but also begs the question the whole thing is where was the government I mean the national highway traffic safety administration is supposed to be on top of these things defect investigations I mean if there were fatalities and injuries or complaints then that should have been uh someone should have woken up a long time ago yeah you know it's it's interesting also also yesterday uh Chrysler has expanded a recall of ignition switches uh in you know the last generation uh Grand Cherokee and Commander uh and the early versions of the minivans before they got the 11 update nit is actually pushing back at them and saying we're not sure this fix is going to solve the problem so hopefully hopefully nits is going to step up to the game some late late in the game better better late than never but let's hope there's you know they're not ignoring something else now because they're being really really really tough finally on Chrysler GM yeah they're they're busy I mean to be fair they're busy they're under staffed again it comes back to money because you don't want to staff you don't want to staff a government agency because the government is bad right the people screaming about the negligence by same people who are you know cutting funding and and tying their hands so right yeah uh um kind of a tough time for GM although to be said uh to be fair there hasn't been a whole lot of proof that they're dropping sales even though they they um stopped trading the stock briefly yesterday when they announced it it it was down 1% it wasn't I mean should does that make sense that the stock price isn't down much people are still buying GM cars it'll comes down to product I mean the new Tahoe and Suburban I mean they're selling like hot cakes mhm yeah yeah I mean as long as you have the product to do it and people are hungry to buy product there's a lot of talk that you know the worry has already been factored in the price you know it's already dropped you know maybe that's interesting you know that that often happens you know people have already factored in the problems and you know now they're moving forward so each little hit isn't going to make a giant Dent into the stock price for example um but again the product the the new product is great I think we're done with old GM new GM we can't keep Mish mashing it's General Motors they have to address it the current product that they pushing out we've been impressed with hopefully it's not being you know we're not finding little things that are cost cutting on these in 10 years well I mean there's the thing you know it's it's easy easy to say old GM new GM but old GM you know it comes on through I mean you've got I mean they design parts that are still being reused of course yeah I mean the all the current products were I mean they were in their Inception yeah they back to old GM so the whole new GM old GM is is kind of force the thing that amazes me is is that one of the cars recalled was a 2014 Cadillac CTS I can't imagine what 2014 CTS is still using an ignition key isn't using push button start you know if if anything GM should not be building any more cars with with an ignition key they should all go to push button yeah they you know it would be a big thing big push forward for safety just like if actually pushes backup camera as a standard earlier even skip push buttons all together I mean do the Tesla thing you know you open the door you put the car in gear guess what yeah I want the engine started and I'm ready to go maybe so uh Mary Bara the uh CEO of GM having a rather tough uh first few months in in her um tenure there she's probably rather envious of uh Alan malali her retires today from Ford Motor Company now he did a lot for Ford sum up some of the things he did yeah he did a lot I mean he came in with a whole different culture I mean he made the uh he instilled uh trans transparency and accountability at Ford no longer you couldn't hide anymore they had big silos big fif right I mean he Consolidated you know Ford of Europe was like a whole different company Ford Australia had a whole different line of products I mean he Consolidated a lot of things and uh he ured uh the uh the loan guarantees uh so there was no need for the government to bail out Ford so that was a big PR advantage over the other two domestics helped a lot and the products are are pretty good good I mean they're I mean ride handling quietness they are really well sorted out products I mean with the exception of my Ford touch and uh and some of the um ex exaggerated MPG claims I mean Ford is is in pretty good shape yeah what do you think I think Ford has taken great pains to streamline the indust their their manufacturing obviously you know finally giving one world well as I say finally giving what people have complained about like well you know there's a US Ford and there's a Euro Ford and the Euro Ford is what we want we get a US Ford prod which you know you know Focus for years was an example of that you know you have yeah we we you know they launched the focus in 2000 uh Europe got a new one around 04055 and we kept on trucking along with uh rehashes and Rees and deed and Recon up to like 2012 yep and you have Fusion you know Pro maybe not world class but Stellar rying handling well you know there there's the thing um you know you think back he joined the company in 06 uh they had just come out with Fusion which was a Mazda 6 with Che you know cheap interior okay riding handling uh they came out with the edge then which was just cheap um he put money back in the cars you know in 2010 when the fusion got updated it was a much better car the 11 Edge is a little better uh but what he did was he really took he he didn't think that Ford could just sell trucks you know Ford makes probably 75% of the profit from F-150s probably you know it's a huge part of the business no he put money in in cars and he uh he divested from uh Land Rover and Volvo and jaguar and Aston Martin right and he uh he killed the killed the Mercury brand which nobody really understood ever and uh he really made good U good progress there and um you know on a personal level I mean he seems like this nice guy nice grandfather but he's really and he's a listener but he really is he's real and he doesn't take any BS from anyone you know one of the things that stands out for me is when he visited us a number of years ago and we're telling him about products and we we had a display of here's a good product and here's your product and here's the deficiencies or whatever and when someone started talking about handle on the edge you know lifting the the hatch and an engineer all of a sudden started telling us why they were right and he said no stop and and listen not paraphrasing but it that changed instead of justifying why they were right and they're going to school it's learning about different opinions you know and he talked about how he only drove Ford cars and didn't drive another vehicle and he always had a gas up cleaned up brand new Ford car sitting in the spot for him to drive well you don't learn anything about other manufacturers if you don't drive their other products when he first joined the company he had a Lexus LS I believe and he said that he said that was the best car ever and it pissed a bunch of people off but it showed something no I remember that visit to it it got written up in business week and Fortune and all that he he's a very personal man you know he would hey Tom how you do it he' remember your name but you get the feeling that underneath that Midwestern charm is the you really better perform and get this this done oh absolutely a better place for it definitely and he he was really quite a good listener something to be fair Mary Bara also when we met with her she's a good listener she's a good listener uh she's getting an earful right now no doubt but one thing about malali u a couple things that maybe I don't think they should have divested in Mazda I think they could have really used Mazda also he he tends to he's a very technology Ford thinking guy he thanks to Wikipedia I found out he he helped push forward the glass cockpit in the Boeing 767 he was instrumental in developing 777 he started the Dreamliner which has had all sorts of technical issues you had EcoBoost engines you have my for touch Transmissions you're going to have aluminum F-150s you know it seems like he's willing to bet the farm on technology and maybe it doesn't work out in the beginning but it works out he's uh he's certainly he's charismatic has he he's a real leader you I uh I hope uh for other great things about him I mean i' vot him for president you heard it here first folks Gabe's campaigning for him that's right let's see we'll see what Mark Fields does enough industry talk I want to get to a viewer question from Ryan not our Ryan and another rhyme can you guys compare the BMW E90 to the f30 sedans first of all I guess we should explain what an E90 and an f30 is E90 is the previous gener I mean only so much car geekness that I can get into but you can come on you can do it you can do it okay E90 is the previous generation BMW 06 to11 in my opinion it's uh it's the best three Series in terms of uh driving I mean I I logged a lot of hours on that uh three series and interestingly enough uh there was uh um I brought my wife's X3 for service at some point and I got a laner and after I already drove the new three series I went back to the previous generation the E90 after the f30 and the difference is so star I mean it's it's like a night and day I mean the previous generation is so edgy compact uh agile it's spectacular to drive but his question is is it is it a good family car cuz that's where he's going with this we have a a couple young kindergarteners but already have a family hauler as a primary VI Highland I've always been a fan of a BMW but wonder if a compact sport sedan is the ultimate choice for short jaws with the family I mean could could he do an E90 or should he do an f30 which has a much bigger back couple kindergarteners is fine you know he already has the Highlanders so yeah I mean go with the E90 yeah it's got a big enough back seat you know it was funny I was driving our our absolutely wonderful m235i last night and I drove past you know new f30 you know a new you know newer uh three series I'm like wow that's big look how big it is yeah it's bigger it's more modern I mean the electronics the infotainment system it's probably going to crash better right but if if driving enjoyment is your thing that that's going to be D90 is is it yeah if they're 10 11 12 13 years old that's when you worry about the rear seat at this point they're probably just out they're in boosters you know maybe they're sitting in seats if they're out of boosters then it's an over- room yeah you they they'll have enough room they plenty of room so that's going to wrap it up for this episode on our next episode we'll talk about the new Hyundai Sonata in Genesis we'll answer some viewer comments about fuel economy and we'll help parents buy sedans for their sons until then we'll see you next time26 million in counting GM recalls a bunch more cars Ford CEO Alan melli retires and we answer a viewer question about a BMW 3 Series as a family mobile next on talking cars hi and welcome to talking cars with Consumer Reports I'm Tom mutchler I'm John linov I'm Gabe shenhar another day another GM recall Gabe what's up yeah well first of all Let's uh talk about recalls in general recalls aren't necessarily all bad uh recalls are it's a problem it's been revealed after the car is is produced in the hands of consumers and uh the alternative is uh for the problem to be swept under the rug and for consumers to not uh just live with a problem now GM has been accused of sweeping a lot of these problems under the rug for quite a while so now you're they're correcting by recalling everything yeah truth be told GM's been a lowcost manufactur were saving a penny every and cutting Corners uh in all kinds of places uh over you know three decades so um if they're now they're on this campaign of fixing every potential thing and good for them what does that do in terms of public perception I don't know yet yeah that's hard to say John what's the latest latest recall oh so we have if you can I mean can you remember I mean it's like what cars Haven you you know my you know it was it was funny I I was running this morning uh and I ran by a Cadillac catara and I'm like first off oh my God one's running but also that is a car they have not recall in this whole recent it it's it's stagger you're got to you got to prompt me on this one cuz obviously I don't have the numbers I mean you have you have uh on top of the solstices and the Cobalts and the hhrs and the skies um you're going into Cadillacs now you're going into Silverado you're going into sieras you're going into the new tahos and Suburbans I believe yeah well Silverado Silverado and Sierra have been recalled for I believe a transfer case um you know even our SS was recalled for but the ignition Corvette yeah U Corvette's recalled for I think SE airbags I don't know but no it's like everything's been recalled but there's been another six and a half million cars recalled for ignition switch issues uh and now it's um going all the way back to 97 with some Malibus you know it's a lot of w body stuff you know Grand Prix DTS uh cars that like you said were kind of cheaply built Yeahs it kind of reminds me of the Toyota recall four years ago and Toyota took the opportunity to recall just every like potentially every problem and uh I mean all indications are that they've bounced back from that uh uh PR nightmare that they had uh but Toyota we have to remember started out with better reputation than GM ever had you know it's it's almost like one of the things I think about over the weekend and such is like what is the next ticking time off and it's like GM sending the explosive or I do I do Let's either that or let's have a beer at John's diaper changing or thinking about the GM recall that's a ticking time Bob it's your two-year-old it's like they're sending out the EOD group to just blow up everything before it it happens you know and and to just wipe it clean and again yeah recalls in theory a good thing now they're just becoming commonplace and you run into the worries of people becoming immune numb to what's going on ignoring it another recall find they don't pay attention to what's going on about their car just because it's in the news constantly well you're up to almost 26 27 million total cars at GM has recall Y and I'd be yeah I'd be curious to to know how many owners actually bother uh get the notice and bother going to the dealer and get the recall done I mean what is it 30% 20% yeah I think something like that uh GM's website does say how many cars have been updated with the new ignition switch from the earlier Cobalt recall it's small though about no it's about 500,000 yeah which is like you said just a small fraction of the cars that are out there now the recall for these newer cars is is simpler it's just replacing a key with a different hole in the key so it puts less torque on it when you bump it with your knee so it doesn't and if you lose that key then you go and get one may well there's the thing I mean how many people who own 1997 Malibus first of all they're still running second are going to the GM dealer to get the replacement key they're going to go to True Value or Home Depot to get another key in it probably going to have the big old wide slot in it so there goes the whole recall you know it's just it's what's also concerning is that it's getting hijacked back to the government Motors thing it's getting hijacked in a lot of news of like you know should the government Sue GM because they did it under false PR are there's a DA in California who's suing yep you know people are suing for lost resale value how much resale value is there at a you know it's one thing for victims it's another thing for all these add-on uh hijacking of the agenda you know to which which muddies the waters and keeps people's minds off of what you know the safety aspect of it which is first and foremost well it comes to money and uh you know also Johnny Manzel right here well also yesterday um fineberg announced you know what the compensation's going to be you know if if you know if if you have a loved one who passed away it starts at a million dollars it all builds depending if they had dependence or not and what their income was and if they settled before they're still open to still this settlement as well well I guess if you take the in some ways it's a generous agreement because it totally gets rid of negligence you know there's no um there's no they were drunk driving they were speeding I'll tell you something really pissed me off car and driver in a recent issue did a whole thing on the ignition switch and they made sure in two or three places to say yeah well half of these people were speeding half of them were drunk half of them were you know just why why poke at that the old blame the victim kind of thing yeah that just seems really wrong to me um still the talking of of money you know to to replace someone's life is just really it's kind of depressing but also begs the question the whole thing is where was the government I mean the national highway traffic safety administration is supposed to be on top of these things defect investigations I mean if there were fatalities and injuries or complaints then that should have been uh someone should have woken up a long time ago yeah you know it's it's interesting also also yesterday uh Chrysler has expanded a recall of ignition switches uh in you know the last generation uh Grand Cherokee and Commander uh and the early versions of the minivans before they got the 11 update nit is actually pushing back at them and saying we're not sure this fix is going to solve the problem so hopefully hopefully nits is going to step up to the game some late late in the game better better late than never but let's hope there's you know they're not ignoring something else now because they're being really really really tough finally on Chrysler GM yeah they're they're busy I mean to be fair they're busy they're under staffed again it comes back to money because you don't want to staff you don't want to staff a government agency because the government is bad right the people screaming about the negligence by same people who are you know cutting funding and and tying their hands so right yeah uh um kind of a tough time for GM although to be said uh to be fair there hasn't been a whole lot of proof that they're dropping sales even though they they um stopped trading the stock briefly yesterday when they announced it it it was down 1% it wasn't I mean should does that make sense that the stock price isn't down much people are still buying GM cars it'll comes down to product I mean the new Tahoe and Suburban I mean they're selling like hot cakes mhm yeah yeah I mean as long as you have the product to do it and people are hungry to buy product there's a lot of talk that you know the worry has already been factored in the price you know it's already dropped you know maybe that's interesting you know that that often happens you know people have already factored in the problems and you know now they're moving forward so each little hit isn't going to make a giant Dent into the stock price for example um but again the product the the new product is great I think we're done with old GM new GM we can't keep Mish mashing it's General Motors they have to address it the current product that they pushing out we've been impressed with hopefully it's not being you know we're not finding little things that are cost cutting on these in 10 years well I mean there's the thing you know it's it's easy easy to say old GM new GM but old GM you know it comes on through I mean you've got I mean they design parts that are still being reused of course yeah I mean the all the current products were I mean they were in their Inception yeah they back to old GM so the whole new GM old GM is is kind of force the thing that amazes me is is that one of the cars recalled was a 2014 Cadillac CTS I can't imagine what 2014 CTS is still using an ignition key isn't using push button start you know if if anything GM should not be building any more cars with with an ignition key they should all go to push button yeah they you know it would be a big thing big push forward for safety just like if actually pushes backup camera as a standard earlier even skip push buttons all together I mean do the Tesla thing you know you open the door you put the car in gear guess what yeah I want the engine started and I'm ready to go maybe so uh Mary Bara the uh CEO of GM having a rather tough uh first few months in in her um tenure there she's probably rather envious of uh Alan malali her retires today from Ford Motor Company now he did a lot for Ford sum up some of the things he did yeah he did a lot I mean he came in with a whole different culture I mean he made the uh he instilled uh trans transparency and accountability at Ford no longer you couldn't hide anymore they had big silos big fif right I mean he Consolidated you know Ford of Europe was like a whole different company Ford Australia had a whole different line of products I mean he Consolidated a lot of things and uh he ured uh the uh the loan guarantees uh so there was no need for the government to bail out Ford so that was a big PR advantage over the other two domestics helped a lot and the products are are pretty good good I mean they're I mean ride handling quietness they are really well sorted out products I mean with the exception of my Ford touch and uh and some of the um ex exaggerated MPG claims I mean Ford is is in pretty good shape yeah what do you think I think Ford has taken great pains to streamline the indust their their manufacturing obviously you know finally giving one world well as I say finally giving what people have complained about like well you know there's a US Ford and there's a Euro Ford and the Euro Ford is what we want we get a US Ford prod which you know you know Focus for years was an example of that you know you have yeah we we you know they launched the focus in 2000 uh Europe got a new one around 04055 and we kept on trucking along with uh rehashes and Rees and deed and Recon up to like 2012 yep and you have Fusion you know Pro maybe not world class but Stellar rying handling well you know there there's the thing um you know you think back he joined the company in 06 uh they had just come out with Fusion which was a Mazda 6 with Che you know cheap interior okay riding handling uh they came out with the edge then which was just cheap um he put money back in the cars you know in 2010 when the fusion got updated it was a much better car the 11 Edge is a little better uh but what he did was he really took he he didn't think that Ford could just sell trucks you know Ford makes probably 75% of the profit from F-150s probably you know it's a huge part of the business no he put money in in cars and he uh he divested from uh Land Rover and Volvo and jaguar and Aston Martin right and he uh he killed the killed the Mercury brand which nobody really understood ever and uh he really made good U good progress there and um you know on a personal level I mean he seems like this nice guy nice grandfather but he's really and he's a listener but he really is he's real and he doesn't take any BS from anyone you know one of the things that stands out for me is when he visited us a number of years ago and we're telling him about products and we we had a display of here's a good product and here's your product and here's the deficiencies or whatever and when someone started talking about handle on the edge you know lifting the the hatch and an engineer all of a sudden started telling us why they were right and he said no stop and and listen not paraphrasing but it that changed instead of justifying why they were right and they're going to school it's learning about different opinions you know and he talked about how he only drove Ford cars and didn't drive another vehicle and he always had a gas up cleaned up brand new Ford car sitting in the spot for him to drive well you don't learn anything about other manufacturers if you don't drive their other products when he first joined the company he had a Lexus LS I believe and he said that he said that was the best car ever and it pissed a bunch of people off but it showed something no I remember that visit to it it got written up in business week and Fortune and all that he he's a very personal man you know he would hey Tom how you do it he' remember your name but you get the feeling that underneath that Midwestern charm is the you really better perform and get this this done oh absolutely a better place for it definitely and he he was really quite a good listener something to be fair Mary Bara also when we met with her she's a good listener she's a good listener uh she's getting an earful right now no doubt but one thing about malali u a couple things that maybe I don't think they should have divested in Mazda I think they could have really used Mazda also he he tends to he's a very technology Ford thinking guy he thanks to Wikipedia I found out he he helped push forward the glass cockpit in the Boeing 767 he was instrumental in developing 777 he started the Dreamliner which has had all sorts of technical issues you had EcoBoost engines you have my for touch Transmissions you're going to have aluminum F-150s you know it seems like he's willing to bet the farm on technology and maybe it doesn't work out in the beginning but it works out he's uh he's certainly he's charismatic has he he's a real leader you I uh I hope uh for other great things about him I mean i' vot him for president you heard it here first folks Gabe's campaigning for him that's right let's see we'll see what Mark Fields does enough industry talk I want to get to a viewer question from Ryan not our Ryan and another rhyme can you guys compare the BMW E90 to the f30 sedans first of all I guess we should explain what an E90 and an f30 is E90 is the previous gener I mean only so much car geekness that I can get into but you can come on you can do it you can do it okay E90 is the previous generation BMW 06 to11 in my opinion it's uh it's the best three Series in terms of uh driving I mean I I logged a lot of hours on that uh three series and interestingly enough uh there was uh um I brought my wife's X3 for service at some point and I got a laner and after I already drove the new three series I went back to the previous generation the E90 after the f30 and the difference is so star I mean it's it's like a night and day I mean the previous generation is so edgy compact uh agile it's spectacular to drive but his question is is it is it a good family car cuz that's where he's going with this we have a a couple young kindergarteners but already have a family hauler as a primary VI Highland I've always been a fan of a BMW but wonder if a compact sport sedan is the ultimate choice for short jaws with the family I mean could could he do an E90 or should he do an f30 which has a much bigger back couple kindergarteners is fine you know he already has the Highlanders so yeah I mean go with the E90 yeah it's got a big enough back seat you know it was funny I was driving our our absolutely wonderful m235i last night and I drove past you know new f30 you know a new you know newer uh three series I'm like wow that's big look how big it is yeah it's bigger it's more modern I mean the electronics the infotainment system it's probably going to crash better right but if if driving enjoyment is your thing that that's going to be D90 is is it yeah if they're 10 11 12 13 years old that's when you worry about the rear seat at this point they're probably just out they're in boosters you know maybe they're sitting in seats if they're out of boosters then it's an over- room yeah you they they'll have enough room they plenty of room so that's going to wrap it up for this episode on our next episode we'll talk about the new Hyundai Sonata in Genesis we'll answer some viewer comments about fuel economy and we'll help parents buy sedans for their sons until then we'll see you next time\n"