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I got a chance to check out the new Bronco Filson this week at the media/industry preview in Washington, D.C.
Then I saw the ventilated seats. That started me down a rabbit hole involving my Bronco Raptor, my old TRX, a Coyote V8 and about $30K I’ve spent modifying the Raptor since I bought it. Apparently I don’t want another special-edition Bronco. I want Ford to let me build my own.
Curious what you guys would build if Ford actually let us keep checking boxes.
I wrote about it here: https://substack.com/@johnkrahulec/...&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Come On, Ford. I Want It All.
Stop building special-edition Broncos. Let your customers build their own.
Ford gives Bronco buyers a lot of choices. Two doors or four. Several engines. Hard top or soft top. Different suspensions, tire sizes, interiors, appearance packages and an ever-growing collection of special editions. You can build a Bronco for commuting, crawling over rocks, running through the desert or just looking good parked outside a brewery.
I own a Bronco Raptor, so obviously I chose the sensible option.
I’ve also used it the way Ford intended. I’ve driven it across the country, jumped it in Baja, run it off-road, towed my 1967 Volkswagen Beetle behind it and put a lot of highway miles on it getting to and from all those places. It’s probably the best all-around vehicle I’ve ever owned. But Ford recently made the mistake of showing me another Bronco.
The new Bronco Filson, seen during Ford and Filson’s invite-only automotive media and industry preview in Washington, D.C
You had me at the interior
I recently had the opportunity to attend an invite-only preview of the new Bronco Filson at the Filson store in Washington, D.C. The Tuesday evening event was for automotive journalists and industry guests, the night before the public event on Wednesday.
I expected to like the Filson. It’s a pretty natural pairing. Filson has spent more than a century building its identity around durable outdoor gear, and the Bronco has spent the last few years cultivating essentially the same image with considerably larger tires.
What I didn’t expect was to sit inside one and immediately start thinking about which parts I wanted for my Raptor.
The Filson interior is well appointed. There’s perforated quilted leather, woven seat material inspired by Filson’s Rugged Twill, leather on the instrument panel and steering wheel, and brass-colored accents. The whole thing feels richer than the interior in my Bronco Raptor without feeling out of place in a Bronco.
This is where Ford got me. The Filson interior manages to feel genuinely upscale without forgetting that it’s still a Bronco.
Quilted leather, Filson-inspired materials and considerably more attention to detail than I’m accustomed to seeing from the driver’s seat of my Raptor.
Then I noticed the ventilated seats. Dammit, Ford.
Apparently ventilated seats and Broncos can coexist. Good to know.
Seriously, can I get the ventilated seats?
I’ve never understood why the Bronco Raptor doesn’t have them.
For a while, I could at least imagine there was some engineering reason. Maybe ventilated seats didn’t particularly enjoy sand and dust. Maybe the open-air Bronco presented some durability issue. Maybe it was packaging, cost, validation or something else buried deep in Ford’s product-planning process.
I don’t know.
What I do know is that Ford has demonstrated that ventilated seats work in an F-150 Raptor. Ford has now demonstrated that ventilated seats work in one of the newest Bronco editions. I’d like Ford to introduce those two to each other.
And yes, I realize we’re talking about ventilated seats, not splitting the atom.
I’ve driven my Raptor through Baja. It gets hot. I don’t need cooled seats because I spend my life cruising from one air-conditioned parking garage to another. I want them because I’ve actually spent long days driving this thing in places where the temperature makes you appreciate every bit of cool air you can get.
Somewhere in Baja, a long way from air conditioning. This may help explain my interest in ventilated seats.
The Filson proves Ford can put them in a Bronco. I’m already trying to figure out how to retrofit the ventilation into my Raptor seats.
And while we’re focused on the seat…
Can I have memory settings?
Every time my Bronco goes in for service, somebody understandably moves the driver’s seat. Then I get it back and spend the next several days nudging the seat around trying to find the position I had before.
This is not a major hardship. I will survive.
But it’s also a strange omission on a vehicle at this price point, particularly when Ford already offers driver-seat memory in the F-150 Raptor.
My previous Ram TRX spoiled me in this regard. That truck managed to be absurdly powerful and capable while also being luxurious. Beautiful interior, ventilated seats, memory settings and all the other little conveniences you stop noticing right up until you buy another expensive vehicle that doesn’t have them.
I love my Bronco Raptor as much as I loved the TRX. But the TRX taught me that capability and luxury don’t have to be mutually exclusive. That’s really where this whole problem starts. I don’t want to choose.
Since we’re spending my money, let’s talk about the engine
The 3.0-liter EcoBoost in the Bronco Raptor is a very good engine. It makes 418 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque, and I’ve never climbed out of mine after a day off-road thinking the thing was desperately underpowered. But I miss the TRX’s 702-horsepower Hellcat V8.
So now I want a monster V8 in my Bronco Raptor. Specifically, I’d like a Coyote.
Is that necessary? Of course not. Neither are 37-inch tires, a Bronco Raptor or probably three-quarters of the things I’ve spent money on during my adult life.
You’re reading Cars & Other Bad Decisions. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
And a Coyote-powered Bronco isn’t entirely fantasy. Ford built the Bronco DR with a 5.0-liter Coyote V8. Yes, the DR is a purpose-built off-road race vehicle, not a street-legal Bronco you can order from your local dealer, but it does establish one useful fact: apparently the Coyote and the Bronco have already met.
I’d just like them to start dating. And I’d pay for it.
That’s the part Ford seems to be missing.
Why is Ford doling out bits and pieces instead of just being ballers?
The Filson is what finally got me thinking about this beyond just complaining about ventilated seats. Ford already has most of the ingredients I want.
They have the Bronco Raptor chassis and suspension. They have the Filson interior…with ventilated seats. They have memory-seat technology in the F-150 Raptor. They build Coyote V8s. They have Lincoln interiors and technology, if I really want to get carried away.
What Ford doesn’t have is a way for me to walk in and say, “Yes. All of that.”
Instead, Ford decides which features belong together, packages them into a trim or special edition and only then lets me choose from the combinations they’ve created.
I understand why Ford does that. You can’t run a modern assembly plant like a Chipotle. An engine choice affects cooling, wiring, software, emissions and certification. Seats have electronics and safety systems. Suspensions have to be engineered and validated. Suppliers have to deliver the right parts at the right time, and the whole thing has to move down an assembly line efficiently enough to build thousands of vehicles without bringing the place to a halt because John in Virginia wants the seats from this one and the engine from that one.
So don’t do it on the regular assembly line.
Ford needs a skunk works
And not just for the Bronco. I’d love to see Ford create a small, factory-supported operation dedicated to low-volume, highly customized vehicles for customers willing to pay for them.
Keep the regular factories doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. Build the normal trims and packages efficiently for the overwhelming majority of buyers. There’s nothing wrong with that model, and most people don’t want to spend six hours checking boxes on an order form anyway.
But there is another customer at the upper end of the market who doesn’t necessarily want Ford to make the choices for them. Give that customer somewhere to go. Call it Ford Special Projects. Ford Bespoke. Ford Skunk Works. The name doesn’t matter. The idea does.
Let customers commission unusual combinations of Ford hardware, interiors and technology where they’re technically and legally feasible. Some requests won’t work. Some will require additional engineering. Some will cost an absurd amount of money. Just tell me how absurd.
That’s the beauty of this idea: I’m not asking Ford to make any of this cheap. I’m asking Ford to let me buy it.
Because I’m already spending the money
I know there’s a market for this because I’ve apparently been conducting my own experiment.
Since buying my Bronco Raptor, I’ve probably spent close to another $30,000 modifying and personalizing it.
That’s a rough number, but it’s probably pretty close, particularly now that I’ve added the Satin Racing Orange PPF/wrap. And here’s the interesting part: other than having the PPF installed, I’ve done the modifications myself. So most of that money isn’t labor. It’s hardware.
Other than the PPF/wrap, I’ve done the modification work myself. Ford stopped taking my money. I didn’t stop spending it.
If I were somebody who couldn’t install those things—or just didn’t want to spend my weekends taking apart a perfectly good expensive vehicle—the final bill could be substantially higher once professional installation was added.
Now, I’m not suggesting Ford should try to take over the aftermarket. I don’t want that. The aftermarket is part of what makes owning a Bronco fun. I’ve enjoyed modifying mine, and there are plenty of things I’d rather choose and install myself. But there are also things I’d much rather have Ford engineer, install and warranty from the beginning. An engine is one of them.
Factory-integrated ventilated and memory seats would be another. Major electronics, drivetrain components and interior architecture aren’t things I particularly need to reinvent in my garage if Ford already knows how to build them.
That’s where the economics get interesting.
Ford sold me one of the most expensive Broncos it makes, and I then demonstrated that I was willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars more making it closer to what I wanted.
Ford got the first check. Other companies also got money afterward.
Automakers spend an enormous amount of effort convincing customers to move up the trim ladder. But once you get to the top, the configurator basically says, “Congratulations. You’re done spending.” No I’m not.
Ford stopped taking my money. I didn’t stop spending it.
Same Bronco, just a new Satin Racing Orange PPF.
Build me the baller Bronco
So what would I order if Ford actually created this program? I’d start with a Bronco Raptor. Keep the 37s, the wide track, the Fox suspension and everything else that makes the Raptor capable of doing ridiculous things in the desert. Then put a Coyote in it.
Inside, I’d like the people responsible for the Filson to keep going. Give me the premium leather, the stitching, the nicer materials and the leather-covered dash. Give me heated and ventilated seats, memory settings, a heated steering wheel, the best cameras and driver-assistance technology available, and whatever the best audio system Ford can fit in there happens to be. If Lincoln wants to help, I’m fine with that too.
In fact, there have been reports that Lincoln is considering a Bronco-based vehicle. I’d absolutely look at one, but only if it starts with the capability rather than just borrowing the Bronco’s shape. What I want is something that feels like Lincoln Black Label got hold of a Bronco Raptor and nobody from Ford Performance was brave enough to stop them.
I want to be able to jump it in the desert on Saturday afternoon and valet it at a nice restaurant Saturday night.
Why should those things be mutually exclusive?
Desert runner. Tow vehicle. Cross-country road-trip vehicle. Now make the inside nicer.
And put the powertrains on the menu
My answer is the Coyote. (I’m pretty sure I let on to that a couple times above). Somebody else may want electric.
Jim Farley has already confirmed that a hybrid Bronco is coming, with industry reporting pointing toward 2027. Fine by me. If somebody wants a hybrid Bronco, let them have one. If Ford eventually builds an electric Bronco, somebody will want that too. It probably wouldn’t be me, at least not for the way I use my Raptor.
Yes, an internal-combustion vehicle can run out of fuel. I’ve heard that response before, and it’s absolutely true. But while driving through Baja, I bought gasoline from a guy alongside the road selling it out of Jerry cans and assorted containers. He even had his donkey with him. I did not encounter anyone selling electricity by the bucket.
If Ford really wants to sell me an electric Bronco Raptor, cover the roof in solar panels. Then if I run out of charge somewhere in the Mexican desert, I can sit there for several days harvesting sunlight until I’ve accumulated enough electricity to reach civilization. At least I’d have ventilated seats while I waited. Assuming Ford lets me order them.
I want it all
That’s really the point of this whole exercise. I’m not asking Ford to stop building Raptors, Badlands or special editions like the Filson. Keep doing it. Packages and trims make sense for mass production, and they make buying easier for most customers. I’m talking about what happens after a customer reaches the top of the configurator and still isn’t finished.
Some buyers are willing to spend more for capability, performance and luxury in the same vehicle, wait longer for something unusual, and pay Ford a premium to engineer and warranty combinations they’ll otherwise spend thousands of dollars trying to create after leaving the dealership.
I know at least one of them. (Hint: It’s me!)
Grim One at home at our cabin in West Virginia. I don’t need Ford to build a different Bronco. I want Ford to help build more of this one.
Give me the price. Tell me how long it’ll take. Tell me what’s technically possible and what isn’t. Then let me decide how bad a decision I’m willing to make.
Ford has gotten very good at building special editions. How about letting your customers build theirs?
I’ll go first.
Come on, Ford. I want it all.
Then I saw the ventilated seats. That started me down a rabbit hole involving my Bronco Raptor, my old TRX, a Coyote V8 and about $30K I’ve spent modifying the Raptor since I bought it. Apparently I don’t want another special-edition Bronco. I want Ford to let me build my own.
Curious what you guys would build if Ford actually let us keep checking boxes.
I wrote about it here: https://substack.com/@johnkrahulec/...&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Come On, Ford. I Want It All.
Stop building special-edition Broncos. Let your customers build their own.
Ford gives Bronco buyers a lot of choices. Two doors or four. Several engines. Hard top or soft top. Different suspensions, tire sizes, interiors, appearance packages and an ever-growing collection of special editions. You can build a Bronco for commuting, crawling over rocks, running through the desert or just looking good parked outside a brewery.
I own a Bronco Raptor, so obviously I chose the sensible option.
I’ve also used it the way Ford intended. I’ve driven it across the country, jumped it in Baja, run it off-road, towed my 1967 Volkswagen Beetle behind it and put a lot of highway miles on it getting to and from all those places. It’s probably the best all-around vehicle I’ve ever owned. But Ford recently made the mistake of showing me another Bronco.
The new Bronco Filson, seen during Ford and Filson’s invite-only automotive media and industry preview in Washington, D.C
You had me at the interior
I recently had the opportunity to attend an invite-only preview of the new Bronco Filson at the Filson store in Washington, D.C. The Tuesday evening event was for automotive journalists and industry guests, the night before the public event on Wednesday.
I expected to like the Filson. It’s a pretty natural pairing. Filson has spent more than a century building its identity around durable outdoor gear, and the Bronco has spent the last few years cultivating essentially the same image with considerably larger tires.
What I didn’t expect was to sit inside one and immediately start thinking about which parts I wanted for my Raptor.
The Filson interior is well appointed. There’s perforated quilted leather, woven seat material inspired by Filson’s Rugged Twill, leather on the instrument panel and steering wheel, and brass-colored accents. The whole thing feels richer than the interior in my Bronco Raptor without feeling out of place in a Bronco.
This is where Ford got me. The Filson interior manages to feel genuinely upscale without forgetting that it’s still a Bronco.
Quilted leather, Filson-inspired materials and considerably more attention to detail than I’m accustomed to seeing from the driver’s seat of my Raptor.
Then I noticed the ventilated seats. Dammit, Ford.
Apparently ventilated seats and Broncos can coexist. Good to know.
Seriously, can I get the ventilated seats?
I’ve never understood why the Bronco Raptor doesn’t have them.
For a while, I could at least imagine there was some engineering reason. Maybe ventilated seats didn’t particularly enjoy sand and dust. Maybe the open-air Bronco presented some durability issue. Maybe it was packaging, cost, validation or something else buried deep in Ford’s product-planning process.
I don’t know.
What I do know is that Ford has demonstrated that ventilated seats work in an F-150 Raptor. Ford has now demonstrated that ventilated seats work in one of the newest Bronco editions. I’d like Ford to introduce those two to each other.
And yes, I realize we’re talking about ventilated seats, not splitting the atom.
I’ve driven my Raptor through Baja. It gets hot. I don’t need cooled seats because I spend my life cruising from one air-conditioned parking garage to another. I want them because I’ve actually spent long days driving this thing in places where the temperature makes you appreciate every bit of cool air you can get.
Somewhere in Baja, a long way from air conditioning. This may help explain my interest in ventilated seats.
The Filson proves Ford can put them in a Bronco. I’m already trying to figure out how to retrofit the ventilation into my Raptor seats.
And while we’re focused on the seat…
Can I have memory settings?
Every time my Bronco goes in for service, somebody understandably moves the driver’s seat. Then I get it back and spend the next several days nudging the seat around trying to find the position I had before.
This is not a major hardship. I will survive.
But it’s also a strange omission on a vehicle at this price point, particularly when Ford already offers driver-seat memory in the F-150 Raptor.
My previous Ram TRX spoiled me in this regard. That truck managed to be absurdly powerful and capable while also being luxurious. Beautiful interior, ventilated seats, memory settings and all the other little conveniences you stop noticing right up until you buy another expensive vehicle that doesn’t have them.
I love my Bronco Raptor as much as I loved the TRX. But the TRX taught me that capability and luxury don’t have to be mutually exclusive. That’s really where this whole problem starts. I don’t want to choose.
Since we’re spending my money, let’s talk about the engine
The 3.0-liter EcoBoost in the Bronco Raptor is a very good engine. It makes 418 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque, and I’ve never climbed out of mine after a day off-road thinking the thing was desperately underpowered. But I miss the TRX’s 702-horsepower Hellcat V8.
So now I want a monster V8 in my Bronco Raptor. Specifically, I’d like a Coyote.
Is that necessary? Of course not. Neither are 37-inch tires, a Bronco Raptor or probably three-quarters of the things I’ve spent money on during my adult life.
You’re reading Cars & Other Bad Decisions. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
And a Coyote-powered Bronco isn’t entirely fantasy. Ford built the Bronco DR with a 5.0-liter Coyote V8. Yes, the DR is a purpose-built off-road race vehicle, not a street-legal Bronco you can order from your local dealer, but it does establish one useful fact: apparently the Coyote and the Bronco have already met.
I’d just like them to start dating. And I’d pay for it.
That’s the part Ford seems to be missing.
Why is Ford doling out bits and pieces instead of just being ballers?
The Filson is what finally got me thinking about this beyond just complaining about ventilated seats. Ford already has most of the ingredients I want.
They have the Bronco Raptor chassis and suspension. They have the Filson interior…with ventilated seats. They have memory-seat technology in the F-150 Raptor. They build Coyote V8s. They have Lincoln interiors and technology, if I really want to get carried away.
What Ford doesn’t have is a way for me to walk in and say, “Yes. All of that.”
Instead, Ford decides which features belong together, packages them into a trim or special edition and only then lets me choose from the combinations they’ve created.
I understand why Ford does that. You can’t run a modern assembly plant like a Chipotle. An engine choice affects cooling, wiring, software, emissions and certification. Seats have electronics and safety systems. Suspensions have to be engineered and validated. Suppliers have to deliver the right parts at the right time, and the whole thing has to move down an assembly line efficiently enough to build thousands of vehicles without bringing the place to a halt because John in Virginia wants the seats from this one and the engine from that one.
So don’t do it on the regular assembly line.
Ford needs a skunk works
And not just for the Bronco. I’d love to see Ford create a small, factory-supported operation dedicated to low-volume, highly customized vehicles for customers willing to pay for them.
Keep the regular factories doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. Build the normal trims and packages efficiently for the overwhelming majority of buyers. There’s nothing wrong with that model, and most people don’t want to spend six hours checking boxes on an order form anyway.
But there is another customer at the upper end of the market who doesn’t necessarily want Ford to make the choices for them. Give that customer somewhere to go. Call it Ford Special Projects. Ford Bespoke. Ford Skunk Works. The name doesn’t matter. The idea does.
Let customers commission unusual combinations of Ford hardware, interiors and technology where they’re technically and legally feasible. Some requests won’t work. Some will require additional engineering. Some will cost an absurd amount of money. Just tell me how absurd.
That’s the beauty of this idea: I’m not asking Ford to make any of this cheap. I’m asking Ford to let me buy it.
Because I’m already spending the money
I know there’s a market for this because I’ve apparently been conducting my own experiment.
Since buying my Bronco Raptor, I’ve probably spent close to another $30,000 modifying and personalizing it.
That’s a rough number, but it’s probably pretty close, particularly now that I’ve added the Satin Racing Orange PPF/wrap. And here’s the interesting part: other than having the PPF installed, I’ve done the modifications myself. So most of that money isn’t labor. It’s hardware.
Other than the PPF/wrap, I’ve done the modification work myself. Ford stopped taking my money. I didn’t stop spending it.
If I were somebody who couldn’t install those things—or just didn’t want to spend my weekends taking apart a perfectly good expensive vehicle—the final bill could be substantially higher once professional installation was added.
Now, I’m not suggesting Ford should try to take over the aftermarket. I don’t want that. The aftermarket is part of what makes owning a Bronco fun. I’ve enjoyed modifying mine, and there are plenty of things I’d rather choose and install myself. But there are also things I’d much rather have Ford engineer, install and warranty from the beginning. An engine is one of them.
Factory-integrated ventilated and memory seats would be another. Major electronics, drivetrain components and interior architecture aren’t things I particularly need to reinvent in my garage if Ford already knows how to build them.
That’s where the economics get interesting.
Ford sold me one of the most expensive Broncos it makes, and I then demonstrated that I was willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars more making it closer to what I wanted.
Ford got the first check. Other companies also got money afterward.
Automakers spend an enormous amount of effort convincing customers to move up the trim ladder. But once you get to the top, the configurator basically says, “Congratulations. You’re done spending.” No I’m not.
Ford stopped taking my money. I didn’t stop spending it.
Same Bronco, just a new Satin Racing Orange PPF.
Build me the baller Bronco
So what would I order if Ford actually created this program? I’d start with a Bronco Raptor. Keep the 37s, the wide track, the Fox suspension and everything else that makes the Raptor capable of doing ridiculous things in the desert. Then put a Coyote in it.
Inside, I’d like the people responsible for the Filson to keep going. Give me the premium leather, the stitching, the nicer materials and the leather-covered dash. Give me heated and ventilated seats, memory settings, a heated steering wheel, the best cameras and driver-assistance technology available, and whatever the best audio system Ford can fit in there happens to be. If Lincoln wants to help, I’m fine with that too.
In fact, there have been reports that Lincoln is considering a Bronco-based vehicle. I’d absolutely look at one, but only if it starts with the capability rather than just borrowing the Bronco’s shape. What I want is something that feels like Lincoln Black Label got hold of a Bronco Raptor and nobody from Ford Performance was brave enough to stop them.
I want to be able to jump it in the desert on Saturday afternoon and valet it at a nice restaurant Saturday night.
Why should those things be mutually exclusive?
Desert runner. Tow vehicle. Cross-country road-trip vehicle. Now make the inside nicer.
And put the powertrains on the menu
My answer is the Coyote. (I’m pretty sure I let on to that a couple times above). Somebody else may want electric.
Jim Farley has already confirmed that a hybrid Bronco is coming, with industry reporting pointing toward 2027. Fine by me. If somebody wants a hybrid Bronco, let them have one. If Ford eventually builds an electric Bronco, somebody will want that too. It probably wouldn’t be me, at least not for the way I use my Raptor.
Yes, an internal-combustion vehicle can run out of fuel. I’ve heard that response before, and it’s absolutely true. But while driving through Baja, I bought gasoline from a guy alongside the road selling it out of Jerry cans and assorted containers. He even had his donkey with him. I did not encounter anyone selling electricity by the bucket.
If Ford really wants to sell me an electric Bronco Raptor, cover the roof in solar panels. Then if I run out of charge somewhere in the Mexican desert, I can sit there for several days harvesting sunlight until I’ve accumulated enough electricity to reach civilization. At least I’d have ventilated seats while I waited. Assuming Ford lets me order them.
I want it all
That’s really the point of this whole exercise. I’m not asking Ford to stop building Raptors, Badlands or special editions like the Filson. Keep doing it. Packages and trims make sense for mass production, and they make buying easier for most customers. I’m talking about what happens after a customer reaches the top of the configurator and still isn’t finished.
Some buyers are willing to spend more for capability, performance and luxury in the same vehicle, wait longer for something unusual, and pay Ford a premium to engineer and warranty combinations they’ll otherwise spend thousands of dollars trying to create after leaving the dealership.
I know at least one of them. (Hint: It’s me!)
Grim One at home at our cabin in West Virginia. I don’t need Ford to build a different Bronco. I want Ford to help build more of this one.
Give me the price. Tell me how long it’ll take. Tell me what’s technically possible and what isn’t. Then let me decide how bad a decision I’m willing to make.
Ford has gotten very good at building special editions. How about letting your customers build theirs?
I’ll go first.
Come on, Ford. I want it all.
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