Webasto investing $213M this year on MIC hard tops. Expects to build ~1 million roofs total for Bronco

[Spidie]

Automotive News article says Webasto is going to invest $213 million this year on MIC tops. Claims they have 8 year deal. Claims they will have 6 different roofs for the bronco sometime in the future.

According to Automotive News Europe via Ford Authorty

“It took a lot of energy, nerves, and money,” Webasto CEO Holger Engelmann said last week during the company’s annual press conference. “We still successfully countered the ongoing pandemic, semiconductor bottlenecks, and exploding material costs last year, and further investments in the future were also factored in. But one single, extremely challenging, technological innovative major project of highly strategic importance for the Americas region meant that we again had to absorb a negative result.”

Indeed, Webasto estimates that it will invest a whopping $200 million euros ($213 million USD) into the Ford Bronco hard top project by the end of this year, which is a staggering sum for one product. However, the molded-in color (MIC) hardtop is also a massive moneymaking project for the company, one that will generate $2 billion in sales for Webasto over its eight-year lifespan, which covers 2018-2026.

The company estimates that the Bronco MIC top will account for a whopping 20 percent of its sales in the Americas region (which includes the U.S., Canada, and Mexico) beginning this year and continuing for the next several years. Ultimately, Webasto plans to build around one million roof systems for the rugged SUV, which will eventually consist of six different types of tops.

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[Spidie]

I get that in current conditions, we won't get communications until the last minute (point of highest possible certainty). I am likely to order a second bronco if MY23 has an available painted fiberglass top. I anticipate an additional interior trim package (including instrument panel) and a new wheel option with the Sasquatch package along with paint color fluctuation.

Does anyone else love Avalanche Grey like I do on Raptor?

I have a hard top that is damaged and ford said they would replace it back in November still have heard nothing Soni bought a besttop trek top and that's what's on mow for the summer... hope the new tops are better quality and the colors match... mine is 2 different gray colors from front panels to the rear top

 

[Antimatter outer banks]

2.3L owners really want to rub salt in the wound for them settling with the smaller, less powerful engine.

Have you driven a 2.3 or just sayin ? Mine has plenty of power would I have gone for the 2.7 prob but I’m perfect happy with the 2.3

 

[JohnnyBronco]

I'm convinced a large chunk of folks who ordered an OBX would have been just as happy ordering a truck with a single-piece top and branded as a Lincoln instead of a Ford.

I was considering a Corsair for a time. Funny thing is it is almost as impossible to get pieces to put a roof rack on one as it is to put a roof rack on a softtop Bronco (that allows roof to open and close)

At least the Corsair-Nautilis-Navigator offer self opening fixed panoramic glass although I would not want to be in the vehicle when the glass roof self Uninstaller (affects Ford branded also and 1 guess as to who might make the faulty moonroofs for Ford)

 

[Big L 65]

Do you know if the original bronco white tops were fiberglass or plastic? I’ve not seen one in person

And you won’t either it’s delayed

 

[stampede1]

Like wise, 47 out of an estimated 50k broncos with the 2.7 dropped valves turned into the 2.7 is a ticking time bomb lol

I agree that 47 does not a crisis make; however, I think you are mixing up two numbers. The 50 k represents all 2.7s produced . While the 47 represents problems of B6G members only. We do not know how many more of the 50k are problematic beyond the 47 from this site. Probably many, many more.

 

[Notmattwong]

Have you driven a 2.3 or just sayin ? Mine has plenty of power would I have gone for the 2.7 prob but I’m perfect happy with the 2.3

You don’t need to have driven a bronco to know that 300hp/325<330hp/415tq…..

 

[Beachin 74]

A corollary to this: there’s Never enough time to do it right the first time, but there’s always enough time to do it again.

Ours at work was "we don't have time to do it right, but we have time to do it twice".

 

[Ramble_Offroad]

Day Late And A Dollar Short comes to mind. This applies to both Webasto and Ford Motor Company.

My thoughts also.

 

[GreenMtnBronco]

Something Ford could do, but probably won’t, is offer the original MIC price to every Bronco owner who originally had a hardtop on their order, but switched to soft top. Ford could verify with each dealer based on DORA. Only catch would be that we, the customer, would be required to eat the freight cost.

given the cost of an aftermarket top right now, that also has equal freight costs, this would be a no brainer. I doubt ford would think of this, even in the depths of a recession that sees bloated inventories.

 

[KompressorV12]

I agree that 47 does not a crisis make; however, I think you are mixing up two numbers. The 50 k represents all 2.7s produced . While the 47 represents problems of B6G members only. We do not know how many more of the 50k are problematic beyond the 47 from this site. Probably many, many more.

Multiply that number by 21 and you still only get 1% lol. So pretty safe to say there's a 99% chance your 2.7 won't have a dropped valve issue, and for the 1% that do, you have a 5 year warranty.

 

[mmorgan]

I wonder what's the status of the 2nd Webasto Plant to manufacturer Bronco tops. I have not read any news about this recently. It should be coming on line sometime this year.
Seems like a large part of the $200m expense would be going toward this facility. This plant may be the final solution for all the MIC order holders.

 

[Bdisco]

Based on my experience with the MIC Mach 2 I don’t have great faith in Webasto.
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/mic-top-version-2-installed.41744/

 

[HotdogThud]

B6G over the years has been full of posts like this one. When someone says "...single millimeter of resin over cardboard..." and "shitty design", indicates he doesn't really understand plastics engineering, design, and high-rate industrial manufacturing. Such comments also indicate he is missing the intent of the MIC roof design as well. I'll even go further and perhaps say he misses the point of the Bronco design in the first place.

The Bronco was designed for the most part to be a moderately-priced off-road, reconfigurable recreational vehicle. It has a removable roof and doors, which requires engineering compromises for a $30,000 price target of the Base Bronco trim level.

The MIC design is intended to be lightweight so it can be easily removed and partially stored on-board the vehicle while also being durable to survive off road hazards or sit on a person's lawn or campsite for a day or extended storage in a garage, shed, barn, etc.

The doors are removable. Again engineering compromises are required to make the doors lightweight and less susceptible to damage when stored off the vehicle.

These two vehicle design attributes mean engineering considerations for seals, materials, and construction techniques. The compromises are surface finish and sealing against water intrusion.

If the buyer expects zero water intrusion at all times or perfect paint surfaces at the door jambs then I think he misses the point of the Bronco. Those things are not quality issues but rather design compromises at a $30K vehicle price point. While manufacturing anomalies occur in every mass produced product, it does seem Ford is suffering from some inconsistencies in that area. Considering the industry has been hammered by a pandemic that has kept people isolated from one another for the better part of 2 years, elevated levels of production problems shouldn't be unexpected, especially for a newly launched vehicle.

Understanding how difficult it is to bring an automotive product to market under normal circumstances, to me what Ford achieved since March of 2020 has been admirable.

Heh, hi Mr Levine! You should stick to Twitter.

What you're essentially saying is that the parts of the Bronco that aren't up to snuff is just part of the design, and that if I don't see it that way, than clearly I must be an imbecile of some sort. Noted.

Is it some form of luxury to expect a roof not to leak? Or to have door jambs that aren't painted fully in a manner that will prevent corrosion over time? Those are now luxury items as well? I mean, even a bargain trim Kia Soul has everything painted on it. Even the door jambs.

What is probably the bigger issue with everything is that while there are, admittedly, a ton of one-off problems, so SO many of them should have been caught by any reasonable quality control program. Seats that don't match? How many hundreds of people watched that vehicle on the line and went "this is fine"? The same can be said for paint missing from b pillars, tailgates, rocker panels, etc. Hell, how is paint even missing on them when it's almost a certainty that the robots are the ones painting the bodies?

Nobody's perfect, not Ford, not (my favorite) vw, not bmw. None of them. But so many of these issues are from people simply ignoring things right in front of them.

Also, I quoted your post so you can't remove it like you do with every other one that implies you have some kind of insider Ford knowledge.

 

[AZ_Liberty]

The MIC design is intended to be lightweight so it can be easily removed and partially stored on-board the vehicle while also being durable to survive off road hazards or sit on a person's lawn or campsite for a day or extended storage in a garage, shed, barn, etc.

I think a lot of folks who are jonesing for the Mod/Fiberglass top fail to realize how much heavier it is going to be than the current top.

I have no desire for one since the MIC top is already heavy/awkward enough as it is.

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