Should FORD be taking heat for the BRONCO launch disaster

[ex_nyer]

Yes there is some people that don't blame Ford for various reasons. For business relationships they don't want to be slapped in the hand and be told bad boy by the big Daddy.

Totally get it where business relationships maybe at risk. But for the average Joe like myself I just feel like it's time to call BS on FORD. I'd go far as to say that the launch was a disaster starting day 1 when their system crashed. I was in the system - like a lot of others - but couldn't get my order processed. Then they doubled the SOLD OUT First Edition. Come on man, what's that? No first edition, no MY '21 and who knows maybe no bronco at all. Real customer service would already have a 3rd party manufacturer lined up to deliver a soft top and give any 2DR customer who wants one the option to order it. Not for free but at whatever it costs. Options, it's what customers want.

The bronco will not be a daily driver for me so it doesn't matter when of if I get one. But there are a lot of folks counting on their bronco as a daily driver, or maybe its their first new vehicle that they have been waiting and saving for. For them this really sucks!

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[Limecreek]

They are. I wish this kind of discourse would just stop. If you want this truck then hang in there and you will get one.

Looking for who to blame and how you’ve been compromised is just weakness.

Stay and be patient. Add value to the community or move on. It will be healthier for you and the community.

Cheers!

 

[ex_nyer]

Has Ford Stock had any significant change since yesterday's announcement?

Contrary to what another poster said about the billion dollar investment FORD made in the bronco. I think they took their eye off the ball when it comes to bronco because they are blinded by the future EV offerings.

BRONCO seems to be much more our world than FORD's?

 

[rmc523]

Reality is, they probably should've just delayed the launch and gotten the top situation sorted out prior to launch, or had a "soft" launch (pun intended) with soft tops only at launch as they sorted out the top situation. Obviously neither situation would've been ideal, and I'd imagine in hindsight they might've delayed it, but it would've allowed them to get it sorted out and have a smoother, but delayed launch.

The fact that preproduction tops seemingly weren't having issues certainly doesn't help. But as we now know, those were produced elsewhere/not at the new plant set to produce all tops. As I told PD privately a few weeks ago when we got to meet in person, I wonder if they cut corners/stretched "safe zone" parameters to try to push out tops faster. I guess we're finding out now there were more issues than that, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were doing that in addition to design issues.


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There may have been issues with the design, but plenty of fault seems to lie with Webasto too. If they weren't reporting issues to Ford for Ford to get a handle of/take a different approach, that's on them. The pre-production tops didn't have the issues we're seeing on the production tops, so the design can't have been THAT bad......but it could be an issue where it's not easily mass produced with expected quality/durability.

Bottom line is it sounds like both sides certainly have some blame in it.

 

[Lakelife36]

Should POSTERS be unnecessarily capitalizing WORDS?

 

[Bronc-Itus]

 

[Bronco21fan]

new day.......new topic.....

 

[BadBradBronco]

No, I work in manufacturing (Paper Company) and this is par for the course right now. Supply chain issues, material shortages, rising costs, labor shortages, freight constraints and price increases to name a few. However, Ford has been openly transparent and offered a lot of humility in the situation. I think they have done an outstanding job with all things considered. They could have just sent you a crappy MIC top and told us to pound sand when it looked like crap a month later.

 

[RobbyBronco]

When are people going to figure out why vehicles aren’t going electric? It’s comical to watch this level of silly parroting and lack of critical thinking.

 

[rtaylor]

There is a lot that can be blamed, but they also did a lot of things well.

For the MIC top there were probably lots of mistakes and bad calls, but sometimes that happens when developing new things.

But one thing for sure is they must improve their reservation-based ordering process. It makes almost everybody dissatisfied to see the randomness and outright unfairness (priority orders) in what was expected by most to be fulfillment based on queue order. Commodity limitations are seen as an excuse to hide other issues or agendas. Currently there are folks angry that they have a VIN and folks angry that they don't have a VIN. Folks angry that their FE will be delivered at end of model year, while earlier BL/WT reservationists angry that their orders were skipped over to build the later-reserved FEs at the same dealership. Just a no-win situation for Ford and there is currently no sign of improvement in 2022.

 

[ex_nyer]

But look, he stood there acknowledged the problem, even printed T-shirts about it and moved on. I get it that Cyber Truck has been delayed as well but as a first day reservation holder I have no expectation for delivery. What bothers me is that FORD created an expectation for delivery and with little communications failed to deliver.

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