While I like the styling of the Mazda's and the new RAV4, Ford can't out Toyota, Toyota.  They need to stick with what they do well.  Making another CUV that looks like a RAV4, or even the Crown models, Ford won't beat their reliability.  So you have to make it unique.   New vehicle on C2 platform.  Give it the Explorer look and feel, but updated.  Call it Explorer Sport.  This fits in Fords mantra of "leaning on legacy models" they stated.  Make it Nautilus sized, roughly, 2 row.  Give it same power train options as the Nautilus.   But I also think Ford should drop the CD4 Explorer and bring over the Everest as the new Explorer.  So what do I know...

John Cater. 

Most are including Ford in the past.  Honda used to judo secret recalls - fix things while doing other work without the owner even knowing.   Ford has been more willing to issue voluntary recalls earlier even when the number of vehicles is small, which is good.  But it definitely skews the public perception based on headlines.  Ford is bad but they’re not much worse than Honda, Chrysler or Tesla.

If Ford was discontinuing “commodity vehicles” and not replacing them with other vehicles I might agree with you.  But they’re not.  Escape is being replaced with 2 or 3 low cost EVs.  Edge and Nautilus were cut to make room for new EVs.  Fusion was cut to make room for BS and Maverick.  Focus was cut to make room for Ranger and Bronco.     If Ford had no EVs to develop then they would be focusing more on cars and making a better escape.  Don’t forget T3 which is sucking up gobs of cash but is really important to Ford for the future.     I agree and have said repeatedly that Ford’s costs are too high but you don’t fix that overnight.  So you make the best business decision under those circumstances.

Honda did exactly that with the civic, which would be considered an appliance, but it has a strong connection with buyers.  The way I see it, ford is going in the wrong direction by trying to avoid “commodity” vehicles. Commodity vehicles are not the problem, it’s ford inability to sell them at a profit that is the problem, something several automakers have figured out to do successfully. But ford can’t seem to cut costs without sacrificing quality, and when they sacrifice quality, you get a ton of recalls. And recalls don’t help with making that strong connection with buyers. 

Well, considering Mustang sales are down significantly, so I'd say people aren't happy with the changes vs. pricing equation.......     Well, they gave Bronco Sport a new grille insert and bigger screen and called it a day.  I know they added a Sasquatch package, but visually, not much changed.

Automakers DGAF about keeping cars affordable.   https://www.axios.com/2024/12/19/cars-prices-inflation-suvs   EVs were trending towards price parity as early as next year. Inevitably actions like this will delay but not stop EV price parity from happening within the next 3-5 years.   In the end this hurts the US automakers, making them less competitive, and profitable in the future. As their competition embraces low cost electric vehicles, and they cling on to increasingly expensive ICE platforms.

Maybe Ford needs to hire us BON guys! I'll do the job for $50,000  and no pension or medical plan is required. Send me an application Ford. To paraphrase an old Ford slogan, "Have you seen any intelligence at Ford lately?"  

The default priority code for retail orders is 19. Your Dealer must manually assign a lower priority code. Dealer assigned retail order priority codes can be as low as 03. My advice is that you not wait for or rely on emails from Ford. You should deal directly with the Sales Manager, or individual responsible for managing their orders and let them know that you expect them to update you on status changes for your order. The Dealer has 24/7 access to the most recent order status including commodity issues. In addition, I would not rely on communications from a Sales Representative as they often are not experienced with the retail order process and don't have access to the order status updates. 

Correct, A lot of people can see what Ford is trying to do, wanting buyers to establish a strong connection with those vehicles, something you really can’t do with an appliance/white goods…   Not necessarily performance but more like nice overall package of all the things a buyer expects plus that nice feel.