Will it be nice enough to interest the kind of buyers that are currently buying Rivian R1 or Land Rover Defender?
Everest itself would be a good 4Runner competitor though.
That's the problem... Ford's production planning is totally disjointed so they cannot shift products around the world easily like Toyota. The Chinese Bronco EREV is similar to what I had in mind for Lincoln but more lux inside. Like it should rival G-Wagen for the material and color selections but obviously at a more reasonable price point (like $60-100K range). Very few brands can pull off the authentic luxury offroader niche... Lincoln being Ford adjacent can do it.
Yep, and here's the thing, I think Ford was right for bringing an end to how they designed passenger cars, in the sense that having all these cars in different platforms was super expensive and I understand why they wanted to bring an end to that.
But they should have just consolidated all of their sedans and hatchbacks onto one platform which would have significantly improved profitability. I also believe there's a way to execute car form factors to make them align with Ford's vision of becoming an enthusiast centric brand.
I mean for crying out loud, with the exception of the bronco and raptor, pretty much all of Ford's iconic enthusiast cars from decades past are some sort of car, be it a muscle car, hot hatch, or supercar. Ford should do more of that instead of assuming everyone wants a truck.
Trucks are great, they're profitable, but ford is getting pretty close to being trucked out yet several of their plants have a lot of capacity on the table they refuse to allocate towards other types of silhouettes.
We all know Ford loves to chop some of their existing product with sometimes no replacement. Absolutely makes no sense to me. In some cases the replacements have worked but not all the time which is quite clear.
The use of the EcoBoost line of engines in larger vehicles is taking an obvious toll, and the customer-base at large aren't happy with it. If FoMoCo were to offer the Coyote V8 engine in large vehicles like the Expedition and Navigator, they'd perform and sell much better than they currently are. Additionally, the naturally aspirated RWD version of the 3.5 V6 is a great example of Ford's capability to engineer a reliable engine, but they're offered in so few vehicles they're almost unobtainable. There's a reason that Ford only offers that engine in the Police Interceptor Explorers, so why not expand that reliable drivetrain to the general public?
Be the example above the other US automakers. Everybody's so focused on short-term profits that reliability and engineering is suffering, and the customer base is getting pretty fed up. Ford's always been a leader in both manufacturing and quality, but ALL of the US automakers have lost that edge. Ford has a great opportunity to step above and steal that market share while the others are hyperfocused on dollar signs.