What the hell is Ford doing?

[King_Bronco0327]

Completely baffled by Ford’s lack of flexibility in the customization of a 25’ Bronco. I was one of the first to order a 21’ on reveal night. Got my Bronco, absolutely loved it, but due to the unforeseen circumstances of life, I had to let it go a few years later. Recently, I’ve been looking to get back into one, and damn man…. My exact original build (a base in ruby red with the Sasquatch package, and the added hardtop this time around) nearly touches 55 grand, and I don’t even have the V6 as an option.
I played around with the Big Bend build, and that nearly touched 60 grand; I had to add the goofy-looking $2500 free-wheeling package just to get the gloss black hardtop and if you want the Sasquatch package they force you to tack on the Black Diamond Package.
I always wanted a Badlands, so come to find out Im forced to take on the Sasquatch package if I want the 10 speed auto and the sway bar disconnect isn’t standard? Gtfoh. Ford literally said with no shame, “Let me charge you more for less.” 🫩

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[Woody146]

Gloss black top is an option, at least on badlands model. Sway bar disconnect is part of badlands model not the sasquatch package.

 

[Beach_Bum]

There are plenty of used Broncos for you to consider. Most aren't driven off road and are only relegated to pick-up/drop-off line at school and to fetch groceries to feed their obese kids.

 

[Beach_Bum]

Gloss black top is an option, at least on badlands model. Sway bar disconnect is part of badlands model not the sasquatch package.

Yeah, he is clearly frustrated and must not have stated that last part with the Badlands correctly. A moar door 2.7L/10spAuto Sasquatch Badlands with painted black HT (no other options) will come to about $60k

 

[Muskrat14]

What he just said above. That’s what I did. Got a smoking deal on a used Badlands, loaded w squat. Aside from color, it was exactly how speced it in ‘21 but wasn’t willing to pay the $65K.

 

[Area51BS]

Prices are insane with a lot of short comings. I’ll never buy another. Fun vehicle and love mine, but not worth the price. I have a 22 Badlands 2.3 auto w/mod bumper and aux switches. Can’t be replaced price wise. No gimmicky options prone to fail and cost a ton to fix. I don’t drive except for fun. So it should last. Even the Maverick which was cheap to start is probably worse than the Bronco cost in terms of increase.

 

[Newbie]

and to fetch groceries to feed their obese kids

 

[MayhemMike]

There are still new 24 model years available. In my area there currently is a dealer with a 24 four door Badlands ,Eruption green. Sasquatch,lux with MIC top. They have it listed at $55K with 0% financing. ( Don’t know the length of the zero percent loan).

 

[Wichadicha]

When you want Ruby Red, you want Ruby Red. I can relate. Not many 25, Ruby's on the used market.

 

[Danielsand]

Money, money.........

It's NOT the same money it was in '21. Most people totally dismiss inflation, and some even state there is no inflation to begin with. Money is NEVER worth it's "face value", and the only thing that can reveal its "value" is the buying power. You can look at consumables (food for example) and calculate how much can you buy for a certain monetary unit. Let's look at the "Benjamin".

Five years ago, one could buy certain number of pounds of meat, or lettuce, or peppers (or whatever else). Today, $100 Dollar bill will bring home a lot less. Five years ago, I would bring a single bell pepper home for 69 cents. Today the same bell pepper is 2 bucks. That's just one example.

If one pays 60K for a Bronco today, in five years 60K will be "peanuts". If anyone can get 0% financing (regardless of the length of the term) one should jump on it. Our economy is so "good" (and it's not just us,.... the US) that it sucks if one has to work for money (instead of the other way around........money working for one). As long as it doesn't cost anything to borrow someone else's money, one should borrow as much as possible.

The best scenario.........buy some gold bullion with 0% financing! (wouldn't that be nice?)

 

[Roger123]

When you want Ruby Red, you want Ruby Red. I can relate. Not many 25, Ruby's on the used market.

That's what got us when we had to replace our totaled '22. She was supposed to be Rapid Red but when we got pushed to '22 that went away.

 

[Valhalla]

Money, money.........

It's NOT the same money it was in '21. Most people totally dismiss inflation, and some even state there is no inflation to begin with. Money is NEVER worth it's "face value", and the only thing that can reveal its "value" is the buying power. You can look at consumables (food for example) and calculate how much can you buy for a certain monetary unit. Let's look at the "Benjamin".

Five years ago, one could buy certain number of pounds of meat, or lettuce, or peppers (or whatever else). Today, $100 Dollar bill will bring home a lot less. Five years ago, I would bring a single bell pepper home for 69 cents. Today the same bell pepper is 2 bucks. That's just one example.

If one pays 60K for a Bronco today, in five years 60K will be "peanuts". If anyone can get 0% financing (regardless of the length of the term) one should jump on it. Our economy is so "good" (and it's not just us,.... the US) that it sucks if one has to work for money (instead of the other way around........money working for one). As long as it doesn't cost anything to borrow someone else's money, one should borrow as much as possible.

The best scenario.........buy some gold bullion with 0% financing! (wouldn't that be nice?)

And don't forget the OP had "one of the first orders when they opened it up" I can't remember when I put in my order mine was after months because I did t want the first ones off the assembly line. So he was pre covid. That little hiccup changed nothing as far as price. I had to fight my dealer on that one!!

 

[Deputy909]

Completely baffled by Ford’s lack of flexibility in the customization of a 25’ Bronco. I was one of the first to order a 21’ on reveal night. Got my Bronco, absolutely loved it, but due to the unforeseen circumstances of life, I had to let it go a few years later. Recently, I’ve been looking to get back into one, and damn man…. My exact original build (a base in ruby red with the Sasquatch package, and the added hardtop this time around) nearly touches 55 grand, and I don’t even have the V6 as an option.
I played around with the Big Bend build, and that nearly touched 60 grand; I had to add the goofy-looking $2500 free-wheeling package just to get the gloss black hardtop and if you want the Sasquatch package they force you to tack on the Black Diamond Package.
I always wanted a Badlands, so come to find out Im forced to take on the Sasquatch package if I want the 10 speed auto and the sway bar disconnect isn’t standard? Gtfoh. Ford literally said with no shame, “Let me charge you more for less.” 🫩

I picked Ruby red Heritage option with 2.7 and auto came with squatch but no disconnect. Hardtop standard as well got it at 57,655 out the door

 

[Oilbrnr]

The nut of it, wages haven’t kept pace with inflation. Pretty simple folks.

 

[CV428]

You're seeing the beginning phases of industry downsizing itself due to the cost of options and variants. I predicted this about 8-10 years ago, as my line of work started seeing clients reducing options to save money on capital equipment and manufacturing costs. This has always been a cost-savings technique, but companies are having no choice in the matter anymore. I've been doing engineering consulting for a long time (probably why I'm such an anti-technology cynical jerk sometimes, but I promise it's only because I actually care), and many clients hand me catalogs of parts, want some magical fits-all solution, and can't understand why the cost is so high. I ask them for production volumes for variants, find out that a small percentage of geometric outliers are driving the cost, and suggest that they eliminate those or relegate them to "custom" territory. It saves a ridiculous amount of money for everyone involved AND the consumer. By the way, those costs often get distributed across all products, so if a company decides to keep an outlier, those costs don't necessarily stay with that outlier by weighted average.

The escalation in vehicle costs is not attributable to a single factor but to the convergence of several inflationary pressures. Consumer demand for increasingly electronic and feature-heavy vehicles has driven manufacturers to prioritize (poor and rushed) software integration, advanced (glitchy) infotainment systems, and (janky, unreliable, annoying) semi-automated driver aids, often at the expense of mechanical simplicity and long-term durability. Additionally, regulatory requirements, particularly from the EPA, mandate the inclusion of complex emissions-control systems and componentry that add significant cost to both production (including logistics, inventory, etc) and maintenance. Compounding these factors, general monetary inflation raises input costs across the supply chain, from raw materials to semiconductors. The net result is a market where vehicles are over-engineered in electronic systems, under-engineered in material quality, and consistently priced higher than their predecessors.

People don't understand the cost impact of small features- especially when you factor in margin stack, fees, and now tariffs, across all hands that touch the components. If everyone gets their 25% along the way, it adds up to 316% across just 4 tiers of manufacturing, plus logistics, plus fees/tariffs (often rolled into margin). It's scalping. And we just accept it as normal.

tl;dr: If consumers could curb their lifestyle inflation, industry wouldn't be chasing and contributing to that issue. "Base options" of today far exceed the "luxury" options of just 15 years ago, but it's never good enough for the US consumer. Average daily-driver cars could be $15k new, even in today's market, if they were simplified and product lifecycles extended to 10-15 year rotations instead of 1.5-2yr.

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