What the hell is Ford doing?

[Whiskey Bizness]

The OP hasn't replied in five pages. Maybe we all got lucky and he realized how ridiculous his complaints are.

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[Danielsand]

Maybe he died. It happens you know.

 

[Kini]

this has been a fun thread to follow......

 

[ThunderFlash]

A couplke months later I had some regret that if I had waited a couple more months, I could have gotten an even better dea

Maybe, but you enjoyed the hell out of those months with your new Bronco, right? What's that worth? And you got Cactus Gray to boot.

 

[STuff1]

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

Nice!

 

[ThunderFlash]

Personally, I went used on our first Bronco, a '22 2 Dr WT Lux in Area 51 with 12K miles. Got it for $45K in July of '24. It was in mint condition, maybe the least desirable truck lacking the HOSS 3.0 but with plastic bumpers and no skids. I knew I was going to upgrade all that stuff anyhow and by the time I was done, the stock suspension would be overwhelmed, so the Foxs would be a waste. I do have a severe duty rack that I'm yet to install, though. The Eibachs have worked out very well now that I have the HD springs in both front AND rear versus front only.

We love that rig so much, we added a new leftover '24 4 door WT Lux in Oxford White to the stable this July. Saved $12K off sticker.

Sticker price is a hard pill to swallow on these, so getting it for something less is rewarding. No matter what you end up paying, though, you end up with one of the absolutely most enjoyable vehicles on the market in the world. I've had a lot of good vehicles in my day, but none have struck a chord with my heart strings like our Broncos do.

 

[GoHawks63]

Maybe, but you enjoyed the hell out of those months with your new Bronco, right? What's that worth? And you got Cactus Gray to boot.

Yes I have. I love my rig.

 

[King_Bronco0327]

The OP hasn't replied in five pages. Maybe we all got lucky and he realized how ridiculous his complaints are.

Nah it’s still valid, I just live a normal life outside of this forum.

 

[King_Bronco0327]

Personally, I went used on our first Bronco, a '22 2 Dr WT Lux in Area 51 with 12K miles. Got it for $45K in July of '24. It was in mint condition, maybe the least desirable truck lacking the HOSS 3.0 but with plastic bumpers and no skids. I knew I was going to upgrade all that stuff anyhow and by the time I was done, the stock suspension would be overwhelmed, so the Foxs would be a waste. I do have a severe duty rack that I'm yet to install, though. The Eibachs have worked out very well now that I have the HD springs in both front AND rear versus front only.

We love that rig so much, we added a new leftover '24 4 door WT Lux in Oxford White to the stable this July. Saved $12K off sticker.

Sticker price is a hard pill to swallow on these, so getting it for something less is rewarding. No matter what you end up paying, though, you end up with one of the absolutely most enjoyable vehicles on the market in the world. I've had a lot of good vehicles in my day, but none have struck a chord with my heart strings like our Broncos do.

Ive noticed steep depreciation on WT’s. Found one the other day for 35k

 

[ThunderFlash]

Ive noticed steep depreciation on WT’s. Found one the other day for 35k

They are great rigs, and '22.5-'24 are even better. Snap one up if it's your thing. On our '24, I added RCI slider/steps and want to add some lights, a fuel tank skid and get rid of the cheesy plastic bumper, but other that it's good to go. At this point, I think these may be lifer vehicles if they don't become trouble prone later in life. So hopefully residual value won't be an issue. Maybe I'll save some money on tabs since WA state bases the cost off vehicle value, then adds a bunch of other fees and taxes. The '22 has lots of mods.

 

[King_Bronco0327]

They are great rigs, and '22.5-'24 are even better. Snap one up if it's your thing. On our '24, I added RCI slider/steps and want to add some lights, a fuel tank skid and get rid of the cheesy plastic bumper, but other that it's good to go. At this point, I think these may be lifer vehicles if they don't become trouble prone later in life. So hopefully residual value won't be an issue. Maybe I'll save some money on tabs since WA state bases the cost off vehicle value, then adds a bunch of other fees and taxes. The '22 has lots of mods.

Yea i’ll definitely consider a 22’ wildtrack more. Found one with really high mileage but it doesn’t matter since badass bronco came out with their coyote swap, which is my end goal with my build.

 

[ThunderFlash]

Yea i’ll definitely consider a 22’ wildtrack more.

Keep in mind the HOSS 3.0 Fox suspension came out mid-year '22 and it was an optional upgrade for trucks already on order with a price increase. So some '22 WTs are HOSS 2.0 Bilstein suspension. Mine was built 12/21 and was HOSS 2.0. The 3.0 also typically gets you the severe duty steering rack, modular bumper, front and engine skids along with some other tid bits. I'm not sure if buyers of trucks on order could pick and choose those options ala cart, though. It's worthwhile researching. I know our '24 window sticker makes ZERO mention of the HOSS 3.0 Fox suspension or the HD steering rack, but they are there. It's almost like Ford smothered the WT out intentionally.

 

[King_Bronco0327]

Keep in mind the HOSS 3.0 Fox suspension came out mid-year '22 and it was an optional upgrade for trucks already on order with a price increase. So some '22 WTs are HOSS 2.0 Bilstein suspension. Mine was built 12/21 and was HOSS 2.0. The 3.0 also typically gets you the severe duty steering rack, modular bumper, front and engine skids along with some other tid bits. I'm not sure if buyers of trucks on order could pick and choose those options ala cart, though. It's worthwhile researching. I know our '24 window sticker makes ZERO mention of the HOSS 3.0 Fox suspension or the HD steering rack, but they are there. It's almost like Ford smothered the WT out intentionally.

Dude thanks for that! There’s definitely a balance between what I already want equipped and whats left for me to do over time. So as you replied this I might have boiled it down to a used 21’ or 22’ badlands, nonsasquatch. The sway bar and lockers are super important for me to have.

 

[Beggsie]

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.

Keep it short next time - my god!

 

[65CarryAll]

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

Actually wages have outpaced inflation since Feb '23. March '25 figures are 4.3% wages vs. 2.4% inflation. This is readily available information.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/

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