Interesting Article - New "Bronco" model?

[Altitude]

So disappointing to see Ford take what had become an icon and turn it into a 'sub brand'...

From the beginning, their intent was always to make a 'Jeep' like brand with Bronco, ergo the push to build specific Bronco store fronts, separate from the standard Ford dealerships. Who knows if that's still their plan for here in the States.

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[Valhalla]

I'll say what I said last time we did this exact same conversation from a similar article... I can't wait for the bronco superduty!

 

[rmc523]

From the beginning, their intent was always to make a 'Jeep' like brand with Bronco, ergo the push to build specific Bronco store fronts, separate from the standard Ford dealerships. Who knows if that's still their plan for here in the States.

I don't see that happening, and think that was always a questionable idea.

 

[Sherminiator]

This is one piece of a few things going on......the current rumors are as such:

Current Hermosillo production (C2 platform) is Bronco Sport and Maverick.
Louisville (also C2 platform) currently produces Escape and Corsair, but is being converted to CE1 (Ford's new compact electric platform) production, meaning it won't make any more C2 products going forward. Escape is dying, and Corsair will likely be imported from China like Nautilus.

Ford is also adding a Maverick-based CUV (presumably a sort of Escape replacement) and Maverick-based van (Transit Connect replacement).

Hermosillo won't have enough capacity to produce all of Maverick, Bronco Sport, Maverick CUV, and Maverick van, and as mentioned above, Louisville can't be used as an alternate production site for these vehicles since it's switching to EV.

While reporting has indicated the model mentioned in the article above will be a unique/standalone "Bronco" model for Europe, I don't believe this is the case. Reports have indicated it'll be smaller than Kuga (Escape), and larger than Puma (sub-compact), which puts it right around the size of the existing Bronco Sport. Why would Ford put money into another almost identically sized product for two markets?

With the production issues outlined above, I believe this product is actually the next-gen Bronco Sport, which will be produced for the Euro and US market in Spain and exported from there.

Hahaha you beat me to this!

 

[Lcubed]

So disappointing to see Ford take what had become an icon and turn it into a 'sub brand'...

way back in the old days (four years ago), there was a plan for separate bronco dealerships...

 

[mdainsd]

The "dilution" of the formula started with the 4 doors.

 

[GoHawks63]

The "dilution" of the formula started with the 4 doors.

If it wasn't for the 4-doors, you probably wouldn't even have the 2-door Broncos. The 4-doors are the volume seller.

While I appreciate the 2-door preference, they just don't sell at the same volume as 4-doors.

I have a 2nd gen Cadillac CTS-V. That model was produced in 4-door, Coupe and Wagon. The 4-door outsold the Coupe and Wagon by a large margin. the subsequent generations only had a 4-door model.

Similar, but not the same logic with Mustangs. There is always a preference for the V8 models, but if it weren't for the 4-cylinder EcoBoosts (which is the volume seller), you wouldn't have the V8 variants.

 

[mdainsd]

The opposite is possible too. You wouldn't have 4 doors if there hadn't been the 2 doors. I hear you, the 4 doors greatly outsell the two doors. But Ford wanted to ring more out of the name rather than just introducing some new name to put on them. At least Chevy had two names for them, Suburban and Blazer. Im so old that I was around when the first gen 1s hit the street. Still my favorite generation, still have a couple of them.

 

[SeptuagenarianSasquatch]

No surprise. Look at what they did by putting the Mustang badge on a 4-door jellybean shaped EV SUV.

 

[crzyhawk]

The opposite is possible too. You wouldn't have 4 doors if there hadn't been the 2 doors. I hear you, the 4 doors greatly outsell the two doors. But Ford wanted to ring more out of the name rather than just introducing some new name to put on them. At least Chevy had two names for them, Suburban and Blazer. Im so old that I was around when the first gen 1s hit the street. Still my favorite generation, still have a couple of them.

The 2 door was to get buy-in from fans, and build hype. Now that the 6g has arrived, they can quietly retire the 2 door and send it the way of the do-do in favor of the volume seller. the 4 door is not dilution; it's common sense. Ford had to build them and they knew it. My hope is that they can find a way to move forward with a two door vehicle that requires fewer specialty parts that can't be used on a 4 door than the present solution. I think that's the only way to ensure that the un-wanted 2 doors can remain profitable enough to remain in production.

 

[Valhalla]

We've devolved to the 3 door 5 door discussion. Both have there place. Most auto doesn't mind a 20 percent seller they can use 80 percent of the same parts on. Especially at the profit margin these things almost definitely turn.

I'd guess factory makes about 13k on a 5 Dr and about 17k on the 3 Dr. So probably takes less time to build so on the line it can be a "catchup" car.
That means you can use above 90% of run time for say 3 units, then have 1 70% runtime (takt time) on 1 unit to catch up. Meaning you do the whole process faster without line stop.

 

[userdude]

If it wasn't for the 4-doors, you probably wouldn't even have the 2-door Broncos. The 4-doors are the volume seller.

While I appreciate the 2-door preference, they just don't sell at the same volume as 4-doors.

I have a 2nd gen Cadillac CTS-V. That model was produced in 4-door, Coupe and Wagon. The 4-door outsold the Coupe and Wagon by a large margin. the subsequent generations only had a 4-door model.

Similar, but not the same logic with Mustangs. There is always a preference for the V8 models, but if it weren't for the 4-cylinder EcoBoosts (which is the volume seller), you wouldn't have the V8 variants.

"We wouldn't have the 2drs if not for the 4drs" is backwards. We wouldn't have the 4drs without the long history of the 2drs. Now, if we're talking about this generation, if Ford had looked at only producing 2drs (which I doubt), they probably would have sold more 2drs standalone than they do when there are 4drs as an option. Maybe twice as much.

The thing is, they probably wouldn't have brought it back for that small of a market. Meaning, no 2dr only market, even one twice the size of the current sales. So, yes, without the 4dr filling out sales, we would probably not have a 6g, but looking at the sales of 2drs and saying "not enough" in comparison to 4drs is, IMO, not exactly correct.

Let's be real, they don't sell a whole lot of both either, so let's feel lucky we got what we got and it is good (for the most part).

 

[GoHawks63]

"We wouldn't have the 2drs if not for the 4drs" is backwards. We wouldn't have the 4drs without the long history of the 2drs. Now, if we're talking about this generation, if Ford had looked at only producing 2drs (which I doubt), they probably would have sold more 2drs standalone than they do when there are 4drs as an option. …

Yes. I was speaking specifically about this generation.

 

[userdude]

Yes. I was speaking specifically about this generation.

Right. If the 6g had been a 2dr only generation, they no doubt would have sold more 2drs than having the 4dr option because some of the 4dr people would have bought a 2dr instead of nothing. However, probably not enough to make Ford decide to bring it back on it's own. So they sell less 2drs and a lot of 4drs because, as George Carlin observed many moons ago, people need somewhere to cram all their stuff. lol

 

[CarmeloS]

They need a turbo diesel without the emissions crap and a V8 available for the 2dr and 4dr with stick

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