Ford will never build a truck exactly like we want. And you couldn't either. Sure, you could take the new Ranger and modify it or make suggestions, but could you design it from the ground up on a blank piece of paper or CAD screen? It would probably look like Tesla's truck. Actually, you guys could do way better than Tesla.
The problem is that we don't have that many engineers here in the U.S. Some of our greatest minds aren't working for Ford, Jeep, Dodge, or Chevy. They're building off-road desert trucks.
Did you know the engineering of the Jeep Gladiator was overseen by a woman?
Elizabeth Krear oversaw the engineering team behind the new pickup truck.
abcnews.go.com
Nothing against women. There are great female engineers out there.
I think the best race cars are designed by racers, and the best off-road trucks are designed by offroaders.
How do you recruit an engineering graduate to build an offroad truck when they drive a Prius and have no experience offroading? How do you design anything when you don't really understand how it will be used? Not well. When do you think the last time the engineers at Ford went offroading? And I mean true offroading. Not like the offroad course at the Ranger Media Drive in California (2018) that I could have done in 2WD.
The automotive industry, including Jeep, believes that only a small percentage of people actually take their vehicle offroad. And they're right. You know they're right. We've all seen those trucks, Jeeps, and SUV's with tires and lift kits that we know don't actually go offroad.
The new Bronco will be comfortable, ride nice, have electric lockers, terrain management, and stupid breadcrumbs to find your way home, but it's never going to be the old Bronco. It's never going to have the wheel travel potential to keep the tires on the ground. It will instead rely on an electric locker to turn the wheel that is actually touching the ground. When I take the new Ranger offroad, its lack of wheel travel makes it look like a dog taking a piss.
Would I like to have a new Bronco, probably. Do I expect it to be the perfect offroad vehicle off the dealer lot? No. Adventure vehicle maybe, off-roader...no.
I think Built will always outperform Bought.
Built not Bought.
We've been using that term for...what...decades now?