akirby

He’s exactly right. What is the cost difference between a v8 drivetrain in a F150 and an ecoboost I4 in a Maverick? $2k? $5k? The difference between a small battery pack and a huge one is more like $20k to get the same range and performance. Thats a $20k premium (or more) on top of the actual vehicle cost. So whereas today there might be a $10k difference between a Ranger and f150, with EVs that might be $25k just for the larger size with no increase in range or performance. The cost will come down over time but the difference remains. It’s an interesting dynamic.

Maybe they’ll do a true EV Mustang coupe first.

Agreed. The pieces that seem different to me now is the change in compensation for management and all the outsiders on the model E side including the skunkworks team. This should lead to new design, engineering and manufacturing processes for model E with higher quality baked in from the start. I think they’ll stick with it as long as costs continue to go down and profits stay up. The question is what happens if profits and/or sales start to fall - will they revert to their old ways? I hope not.

Agreed, but the trade off was they were able to bring them to market much sooner. Sales are pretty decent and buyers seem very satisfied.

Nobody said or implied anything to the contrary. Ford has way too many serious recalls and other issues. But it’s a lower number than what is being reported.

I see much bigger incentives and dealer discounts on Frontiers. $6K on one I looked at compared to $2K on Ranger from the same dealer family. They also like to do more heavily subsidized leases.

Lightning and Mach-E are not mistakes. The alternative was to do nothing and wait 3-4 years. I’m sure they’ve learned a lot from them that will factor into T3 and all the other new EVs.

Can’t disagree that he waited too long to make real changes for quality improvement. I suspect he tried to make incremental changes while still pushing aggressive product schedules and cost cutting before realizing that wasn’t enough. Now it seems on the surface that there is a commitment to quality over sales as evidenced by the extended launch holds. And changing the compensation KPIs is a huge step but we’ll have to see if they keep up that commitment or backslide. I also agree he mismanaged SOME of the EV stuff like the Oakville debacle and Rivian and VW partnerships along with ever changing product plans. But I think T3 and BOC is absolutely the right move and he did create the skunkworks team which might turn out to be a genius move. We’ll have to wait and see. But to say it’s a failure because of the model E startup costs is short sighted.

I agree with that.

Don’t forget Farley came from Toyota. When you reward managers for meeting dates and cutting costs and ignore quality you shouldn’t be surprised when you get poor quality. Managers always make decisions that benefit them. Remember the Focus DCT? Engineer says it won’t hold up to the torque of the 2.0L engine. Middle managers had to decide to keep their mouth shut and make their cost and date targets knowing there would probably be problems down the line or throw the red flag and fix the problem which would have taken months if not a year and driven up costs significantly. They chose the first option, collected their bonuses and raises and were off to some other project by the time the shit hit the fan. No consequences. Had they chosen the latter option at the time they probably would have been dinged quite heavily for missing dates and cost targets. Contrast that to a new policy that says hiding a known problem or potential problem is a firable offense and that your bonus is tied to quality KPIs not dates. Under that policy you don’t ignore or hide problems. Thats the change Farley made and that’s why this has a chance of working.

Changes have already been implemented and appear to be trending positively. Most notably holding new vehicle launches. Farley made quality a top priority for management and tied it to their pay which is absolutely imperative. I would also bet Farley has brought in outside help.

This is why separating Ford pro and model E was so important. It shows the company what’s more important.

Dodge was dead when they switched trucks to Ram.

T3 is important long term because that is Ford’s wheelhouse. But transit, super duty, Maverick, etc are more importanter right now!

Ok I guess you could learn to use the controls without looking but most people like me are going to glance anyway. Plus I’m glancing at the radio screen constantly anyway.

That happens any time technology changes. Experienced employees are more resistant to change, especially when they risk no longer being the subject matter expert. Some would relish the challenge and do quite well. Others would rather keep doing what they know somewhere else or just retire. They don’t want to go back and relearn something new whereas the younger engineers don’t have that baggage and they’re eager to learn.

Frontier sales are almost all bargain shoppers looking for the lowest price.

Saying you can use physical controls without looking is false. To adjust the temp in the Nautilus I still have to glance all the way down to the console rather than just to the bottom of the screen.

I think a lot left under Mulally during the cost cutting and platform consolidations.

Thats possible but Ford has been building vehicles for over 100 years. I think it’s a case of losing engineering talent and experience, putting schedule and cost ahead of quality and squeezing suppliers too hard. The last two they can easily fix by changing priorities and realigning compensation and changing how they deal with suppliers. The first one will just take time.

Make sure they reset the BMS (battery monitor).

Most would prefer physical controls but there is huge cost savings to be had eliminating them. So it comes down to whether people hate them enough to affect sales or ATPs or if it’s just something annoying people complain about but still buy them. I’m probably in the latter camp since I rarely change anything except temp and that’s not very often. Provided the stuff you need on a daily basis is not buried in menus.

Sometimes they extend the warranty as part of the customer Sat program. If not then the normal warranty applies. Unless it turns into a recall.

It’s terrible especially if you extrapolate it to a full year. Thats probably $2B that they could be spending on new vehicles or plants or other Improvements. The only good news is this was for 2021 vehicles so hopefully it will improve steadily as a result of the changes made in the last year. Warranty costs and not having enough production capacity are Ford’s 2 biggest issues.