Ford president says 'no more boring cars'
10/03/2024 06:00 PM
The US car giant's global head says every Ford needs a bit of Raptor excitement from the get-go.
Ford President and CEO Jim Farley has said the car maker will no longer make 'boring' cars, promising to tap into the brand's rich stream of 'icons' for its future model line-up.
Speaking to UK publication Car Magazine at the launch of the electric Ford Explorer SUV – which won't be sold in Australia – the boss of the car maker was bold in his promise to deliver inspiring yet profitable Fords going forward.
"We're getting out of the boring-car business and into the iconic-vehicle business,' he told Car Magazine at the event in Nice, France.
Ford has a raft of genuine automotive icon models still on sale – think Mustang, the US-market (United States) Bronco SUV and the return of the 'Capri' badge in Europe (again, on an electric SUV not planned for Australian showrooms).
Yet it will no longer build a single-passenger car – apart from Mustang – when the Focus bows out of showrooms at the end of 2025, having been dropped by Ford Australia in 2022.
That has seen the end of enthusiast models including the Fiesta and Focus ST – as well as the flagship Focus RS – but the Ford boss says the bread-and-butter models meant they didn't stack up economically.
"We'd always competed at the heart of the passenger-car market, which didn't work out too well for Mondeo, Focus and Fiesta," he said.
"They were loved by a lot of customers but they could never justify more capital allocation – unlike commercial vehicles."
"Ford's brand perception was the same around the world: we were a ubiquitous company," Farley said.
"But we had these little areas of brightness: we have heritage centres around the world filled with these [niche] vehicles, but they were never mainstream.
It's arguable more recent names could be added to the list of icons including the Raptor sub-brand used on the Bronco, F-150 and Ranger but sadly ruled out for a rumoured off-road Mustang Raptor by Farley himself in 2023.
"Take Raptor: it came from desert racing in Mexico and we made it global and mainstream … the Raptor story is a great example of where I think our passenger cars should go.'
"Ford never funded enthusiast products – they were always a side business. Now with Mustang, Raptor and Bronco, they're our business."
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