Ford F-100 put on hold

[Red Star]

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/07/f...0-put-on-hold/

[Red Star]

I really wanted to see a midsize truck from Ford.

But here is some good news ...

Ford is counting on reduced warranty costs (they have decreased by $1.2 billion in the past 18 months) to help offset development fees.

[Knight]

It sucks that ford always starts and stops projects. It also sucks they don't have enough funds to do both.

[Hollywood_North GT]

Originally Posted by Knight

It sucks that ford always starts and stops projects.

The market is shifting so rapidly right now (literally below their feet) that they have no choice.

At least they're staying flexible.

It's also interesting to note that the company is finally seeing the benefit of building better quality cars: reduced warranty costs - which means more development money for other projects.

Who'd have thunk it?

[jsaylor]

I initially thought, as many rumors indicated, that the F100 was slated to be a mid size addition to Ford's truck line believing that other, seemingly odd rumors that such a new F100 would actually be roughly the size of the previous generation, 97-04 model F150 were, for lack of a better term, nonsensical. The notion of a slightly smaller take on the F150, which would still technically be a full-size, certainly didn't make sense in the face of rising gas prices. Why would you want to take a full size model which has taken a bit of a beating in the sales department and split that market down the middle by creating two, nearly identical vehicles? Certainly didn't sound like something Mulally would do.

In the end Blue II over on BON made one, brief comment which went almost completely without notice......but which for me put all of this into perspective. He said, simply, that the next F150 would in fact be based on the F100 platform Ford was rendering from the current F150........quite a twist to be sure. By that reasoning the F100 wasn't a mid size addendum to the Ford truck lineup at all, it was in fact a program intended to downsize the just refreshed F150 into a slightly smaller and lighter full-size model which would seemingly be sold in two models eventually....F100 and F150.

I suspect recently falling fuel prices combined with some upcoming, and highly promising, engine programs for the F150 made the F100 less of a priority at the moment. Still, I wonder if the next F150 might not get a bit smaller even if it isn't coming at the fevered pace which once seemed likely. And I wonder if a GTDi four cylinder version of the existing F150 might not make for a very good place to hang a F100 badge.

Blue II also let go another little tidbit. Apparently the more serious, off road oriented Bronco revival we were hoping for has met the axe as well. Shame too, if it were positioned and priced correctly I'm not certain high fuel prices would have hurt a vehicle like that as badly as some might think.

[Moosetang]

Originally Posted by jsaylor

Blue II also let go another little tidbit. Apparently the more serious, off road oriented Bronco revival we were hoping for has met the axe as well. Shame too, if it were positioned and priced correctly I'm not certain high fuel prices would have hurt a vehicle like that as badly as some might think.

I didn't see that one, got a link? I'd be very surprised if either of these are gone for good, I suspect its more a schedule realignment to accelerate EB than it is a complete Axing.

[jsaylor]

Originally Posted by Moosetang

I didn't see that one, got a link? I'd be very surprised if either of these are gone for good, I suspect its more a schedule realignment to accelerate EB than it is a complete Axing.

http://www.blueovalforums.com/forums

Do note that this is an old post. But, Blue II was effectively stating that the 'revived' Bronco was dead at about the same time that everybody else was chatting about how it was back on again. Leads me to believe that the info leaking about the Bronco program being back on was likely accurate, but late and out of date.

Hopefully you are correct and this is just a temporary situation.

[Red Star]

Too bad, it would've been a good competitor to Jeep Wrangler, Nissan Xterra and Toyota FJ Cruiser.

[Evil_Capri]

Originally Posted by Red Star

Too bad, it would've been a good competitor to Jeep Wrangler, Nissan Xterra and Toyota FJ Cruiser.

That design still looks fresh after 4 years!

[uofh2005]

I just hope this doesn't mean bringing the new Ranger is dead too.

[Red Star]

I think that new Ranger is being developed in Asia so it has nothing to do with NA Ford.

[watchdevil]

Ford is counting on reduced warranty costs (they have decreased by $1.2 billion in the past 18 months) to help offset development fees

I made myself aware of the simple ideal of reducing warranty costs when I used to work at a VW dealer starting in 1999. This was back when window regulators started breaking on virtually all their cars simply because they cut corners and used a plastic retaining clip that would break instead of a durable metal one. VW had a lot of problems with many other parts as well because they designed them poorly or had them sourced built as cheap as possible which caused repeated failures. Often the replacement parts would be the same as the original without modification. After repeated failures with the same old parts, they finally redesigned some of them. So VW would pay for multiple parts and labor for repeated replacement.

It occured to me one day how much money they could have saved in warranty repairs if they just made the parts right the first time, not to mention the retention of repeat customers. Many customers vowed never to buy another VW again and those that could, dumped the car by whatever means they could to get into something with better quality...

So yeah all that money they could have saved not doing warranty repairs could have gone to much needed vehicle development and improvements....