Why are Ford vehicle design team cannot design any new products that looks attractive?
The new redesigned Ford and Lincoln still looks as the old products from 6 years ago.
Ford is loosing market share because of this and they have no idea how to fix it.
Ford doesn't design to be new or unique.
Ford designs to match what is already selling. Then we try to build it faster and cheaper.
The only unique vehicle we offer is the Mustang. And it is not selling well. I think the only reason Billy hasn't eliminated the Mustang (they nearly did in the ~late 80s) is because Good Old Henry was so in love with racing and performance. I'm not going to jinx it - whatever drives Billy to keep the pony around is fine with me.
@3gut+1sW3sJcO
you are a fool - there are no products! a truck that's looking tired, SUVs that come close to competing with GM, Toyota or even Hyundai/ Kia, a botched Bronco and a disaster with Mach-e and bigger fail with Lincolns
Regardless of what you think, the numbers speak for themselves, customers don't like the styling of Ford/ Lincoln and we continue to lose market share while GM and others gain.
A Lo was another fail as are the Design Directors and the majority of LL5s in Design.
Time to clean house and kick them out before more BILLIONS of $$$$$$ are lost.
Investors are well aware and PR is busy attempting to do damage control - cringworthy interviews by hacks ( KC , EL of Lincoln sound like uneducated id--ts! )
I don't think it's this at all. I happen to like the look of the Ford products. Let's talk trucks or SUVs for instance. Maybe it's a feel about working for a certain company, you know what goes behind the scene, and you're out...
I worked GM forever. I think their style is dogsht, every truck looks like brick every year, and each vehicle is not impressive. Add in a few dozen layoffs spanning my time employed, and fck GM, will never buy.
Stellantis, I happen to think some of the cosmetics look nice, the RAM, nice looking truck. Jeep, hit and miss, but the Wagoner, su-k it big time ugly azz SUV. I also know the design team that works on these vehicles, and when I use to work at GM, one of the pinnacle of dimension and tolerance engineers told me "we're much more lucky than we are accurate". Well, I saw the Stellantis program, and holy eff, it's a nightmare. With the speed of launch, you are lucky your sh*t works that's all I can say. Entire phases scrapped and discarded, want a mule build? Good effing luck that's not happening depending on your commodity.
We all pick and choose based out of our perceptions of best of breed.
Right now, Ford has done it for us. We have a Fusion, and Escape, and Explorer, and an Expedition, and all are running like a champ. Good looking vehicles, and they do their job well, and very comfortably. In-laws, picked up a 2019 and 2022 pickup plat premium, and wow very nice pick ups. I only see positives on the market.
If I worked at Ford, or had a different work experience on Tier one or two Ford design or engineering, it may have been different.
My list is:
Meet the new product. Same as the old product.
I looked at the Ford vehicles at the dealerships and they don't have anything that makes me want to buy a Ford. The quality is still poor, they are still ugly, they all look the same as the models from 6 years ago, fit and finish has gaps everywhere, the technology is already 4 years behind the competitors.
My wife and I left the dealerships and went to Toyota dealership. We bought the Toyota Grand Highlander. This goes to show that Ford does not have what it takes to win the customers.
Ford's Design Studio is the ultimate old boy's club. Promotions are based on brown-nosing, ' being a good ole boy ', nepotism, etc etc NOT on talent and especially not for the ability to translate customer needs/ wants/ emotional attachments into a tangible product. The Directors are mostly rejects from GM, Peugeot, Renault, etc ... one was responsible for the Pontiac Aztek!!!!!! How the he-l did he become a Director?????? The Lincoln team have no understanding of luxury products, IMO a group of wannabees and unsophisticated clowns, look at their resumes and what they were responsible for and ask yourself how the he-l did they get promoted. Regardless of how the vehicles are engineered, they can still have visual and tactile appeal, if the VP of Design doesnt have the backbone to challenge JF and get rid of them. The core of FMC's problems is no accountability! Thanks for allowing the rant.
Just a pure lack of core understanding of customer needs. All decisions are driven by investments and comparing numbers on paper with competitor vehicles and the end result is a confused product that fails to deliver. Been there done that, saw how it gets planned then engineering is left with compressing timing due to late decisions its just a very poor execution. The only way to cure it is to chop everyone from LL6 and above and start over with promoting talent. If the core old-school mentality continues, the products will continue to suffer.
Dont worry about loosing products.
The executives will take care of it.
You worry about your job
If you do it the old way, you are not responsible for the outcome. If you do it the new way, you claim the ownership. I don't know why anyone would want to be responsible for anything. There is no incentive for doing the right things.
Ford designers are a bunch of old people. They don't change, there is no innovation, no new vision or ideas. The new Explorer, Navigator, F150, Escape, Mustang, Mach E, Nautilus are all still look like the older models.
Why in he-l would anyone want to buy a new 2025 model that look like the one from 2020?
Top brass don’t let the designers design.
It is absolutely true JF goes into reviews and makes design changes. Have had to support this nonsense.
It is not the design team. I heard that Farley often goes in and demands the designers change their designs to whatever he wants.
ford is loosing market because it's being run by a lousy marketing clown and bean counters. they think they don't need products to sell. they think they can sell sh-t by marketing it. ford is no tesla, or amazon, or apple. why? because jim farley is no musk, bezzo, or job.
what design team... they all left, J.Mays went to whirlpool to design washing machine. Anthony Lo left.... they clearly got the message that this is not a auto company but a software company ... lol.