Team-BHP
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In a recent interview, Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, announced that the American car giant will stop making boring cars going forward. He stated that Ford will be "getting out of the boring-car business and into the iconic-vehicle business."
Farley stated that though cars like the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and Taurus "were loved by a lot of customers", they were not worth pouring more money into, compared to other segments. Ford will introduce a few future models based on Volkswagen's MEB platform, These include the Explorer and Capri, which are reportedly heavily related to the ID.4 and ID.5, respectively.
In terms of "iconic" vehicles, Ford will focus on vehicles such as the Bronco, Mustang & Raptor. Farley went on to mention how enthusiast vehicles were never truly funded and were a "side business", but now they will become "our business".
Source:
CarMagazine Link to Team-BHP news
There is nothing wrong in making boring cars if they continue to make money. Eg : Toyota. I somehow feel Ford is not making right management decisions. So many flip flops right from exiting India, coming back, electric car strategy, this new boring car strategy etc. Instead they should focus on adding reliability, features to their driving oriented cars.
I just want Ford to do passenger vehicles again, none of this SUV-and-Trucks only nonsense. Their legacy is built on cars. Why abandon it all?
Plus someone needs to tell Jim Farley that Ford needs to have a solid path and plan and to not keep flopping around like a wet slipper for once.
Hello Ford, do remember that there was a time where cars like the Bronco, Mustang and Capri were just normal ordinary "boring" cars. Their legacy was cemented much later.
I am surprised that he mentioned Focus and fiesta as boring, Focus RS and Fiesta ST were some of the most enthusiast loved Fords ever made.
These comments are symptoms of a larger malaise in the industry. Mr. Farley's comments are disrespecting normal people ,on a budget, who used to buy cars like the Figo and the Fiesta for their fun factor.
These new age honchos should be first made to live on a tight budget to understand the importance of commuter cars!
I feel this statement comes in wake of Chinese competition and self realization what Ford is good at to have a sustainable relevance while parallelly working on what market needs in general.
It's an indirect marketing assertion in customer minds.
Why can't everyday hatchbacks be interesting, too? I don't think pouring in money into smaller vehicles to make them super fun is a bad idea.... it is what the world needs right now!
I hate statements like these which are purely meant to obfuscate and confuse. What constitutes as a "boring car"? What'll happen to the millions of people who buy the so called "boring cars"?
If automotive companies can be compared to burgers, then these ordinary commuters are the bread. Yes, the filling is what really excites you, but without the buns, it'll all just fall apart and be a soggy mess.
If Ford has to proceed this way, then make a clear line between the regular and sport models/variants.
Come on Ford!!Please relaunch Focus and Fiesta twins with manual transmission. Would also love to see a Mondeo thrown into the mix. I don't think Ford cars are boring to drive. May be boring to look at, but they are always engaging and fun to drive.
I don't know if it's relevant here, but long back I had heard from someone who was into management:
If you want to keep producing your niche products, you'll need to sell the products that are the bread and butter for your company. Without that you'd not have enough money to produce your top-of-the-line products.
Is it Ford's way of saying, we are going to slowly exit low margin volume sellers and focus on the high margin
iconic models. Something that the old ways of volume selling mass market cars around the world maybe at danger due to changing social preferences, environmental regulations or Chinese BEV onslaughts.
Almost same as what
Toyota wants.
Though I don't buy into the mass market=boring talk. There maybe a desire amongst some to make cars into a hobby thing rather than an essential tool. Rather like horses and private flying amongst uber rich. But the sole reason we have exciting cars is that they are built on to provide excitement among mass market cars and depend on cars being used as an everyday utility. Otherwise, cars will become as relevant and exciting as a Bugatti or Koenigsegg to most people.
Typical Ford trying out some stupid decision or the other, and after it backfires will come back to the original strategy. People tend to lose trust in the brand when they keep shooting themselves in the foot like this all the time.
Short term profit long term foolishness. They need to understand that people actually love Ford for their boring and reliable cars. They are not Rolls or Bentley, rather a mass car maker. In the era where people are actually looking for some reliable cars, even in India they tend to leave them dry.
Does the Ford CEO have some sort of special hindsight that we don't have?
Else let me share this nugget here
The mass car market has been taken over by the Koreans and Chinese, just as in consumer electronics. Ford wants to move their brand upmarket. Makes sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj
(Post 5850097)
In a recent interview, Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, announced that the American car giant will stop making boring cars going forward. He stated that Ford will be "getting out of the boring-car business and into the iconic-vehicle business."
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Signs of a company moving away from the conventional car business. The focus on the iconic vehicles like the Bronco, Raptor, etc. will give them the visibility of being a car manufacturer.
Ford has already put plans to shift towards tech and data driven business with Ford Pro, where they are placing big bets, in addition to building Autonomous stack through Autonomic
I guess for volume vehicles, they will rely on the JV with VW or other ones that we may see in the future.
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