CEO Jim Farley says Americans need to fall ‘back in love’ with smaller cars

[Decayed]

Make decent, reliable and affordable small cars and people will buy them. Farley is cleverly shifting blame to buyers when his company has been carefully focused on selling high profit bigger trucks.

Can't blame them for focusing on the most profitable segments. It's actually kind of surprising they decided to dip their toe into the smaller truck market. I don't think they realized how strong demand would be, particularly for the hybrid.

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[Gonzo chris]

Hard to do when the smallest vehicle they make is not “small”.

Chicken or egg? I think they made small cars but Americans didn't buy them. I work at a public utility and when I bought a VW Golf 8 years ago half the guys couldn't believe it. What kind of real man would but a little puddle jumper! Yo need an F350 1 ton that you groan as you climb into it and keep a step ladder in the bed for checking the oil......just to drive 3.5 miles to work.
On another note, the family and I took an Uber into into downtown Lititz for their 4th of July festivities last night and the driver had a new Honda Accord hybrid And I hope the Maverick hybrid is 3/4 as smooth as that. It was quiet, I had a nice ride, really nice interior, etc

 

[Gonzo chris]

He’s not wrong, but he’s also not going to stop producing massive trucks. He’s talking out of both sides of his mouth and one side is his anus.

I give him a little more credit than that. I think. He's going to keep making massive trucks because for some reason there are guys who believe they should pay a full year salary for a vehicle and he makes a lot of money off of them. He's trying to say, at least I think, that American should move to smaller vehicles. Which they should unless they really need that massive truck. But at the end of the day they're in the businesses selling people what they want to buy

 

[Gonzo chris]

Americans won't buy small cars for the most part, even if they're very well made because they don't want to pay any decent money for them. In America small is equated with cheap like you're buying the car price per pound like its lunch meat. I think the junk The Big Three sold in the '70s sealed that. If you can bear to think back to the pinto or the Vega.... Whereas in countries like Europe, they'll pay good money for a smaller car because that's what works for them and they want something decent. I know they haven't had issues with quality, I haven't had any with mine in 8 years though, but my VW Golf was pretty well loaded for $25,000 and the interior fit and finish, quality of materials etc. Is better than a lot of American cars that cost significantly more. Especially back then.
Honda makes decent small cars but still what sells better today the Civic or the Honda CRV?

 

[Gonzo chris]

There are a lot of very nice, affordable, small, non-EV cars on the market. They sell very well. Honda Civic, Subaru Impeza, Hyundai Elantra, Nissan Versa/Sentra, Toyota Corrola, etc... Note that none of these are sold/produced by U.S. companies! Ford/GM are the ones that do not like small cars!

So in the United States what does the Honda Civic sell year and what does the Honda CRV sell? Yeah they still sell them here for now but what were Ford's numbers and profits on the fiesta and focus compared to the F-150? I would prefer smaller cars, I drive a VW golf as my daily but I don't think many Americans would

 

[Gonzo chris]

I think the greatest problem with smaller cars is the EPA, due to its meddling in the form of the CAFE standards. They impose unreasonable MPG requirements on smaller vehicles and are more relaxed on larger ones. Whether or not you buy into the conspiracy theories on corporate lobbying for larger, more profitable vehicles, there is the obvious conclusion on unintended consequences. Gas here in So Cal is approaching $6/gal so IMHO people would still buy smaller cars if they were available.

I think it's mostly unintended consequences. When that started the assumption was that work trucks were used for..... Work. The assumption then was the vast majority of pickup trucks were actually used for work. But that day is gone. The manufacturers realized they can make them easier and make a lot more profit on them. It's time to revisit the regulations

 

[Timothyd]

we have its called the Ford Maverick!
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/jul/02/ford-jim-farley-smaller-cars

less talk, more work

 

[TheShark]

That's rich coming from someone that will push you into a F-150. Horsepower and gas taxes help shape foreign car buyers. There just is more profit in those barges. When I see an old F-150 or Silverado it reminds me of how they were a decent size, now the object is to make them look like a Mack truck. The Maverick just seems so sensible.

 

[Tiger Dude]

A 3800 pound "small car."

 

[OneAlienBoi]

What we need is for Ford to bring back some sort of iconic hatchback/coupe.

I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate for this, but I see this upcoming CE1 EV platform, and Ford's C2 platform, which is of course the basis for our trucks, the escape, focus, and BS, as platforms which could bring Ford back to it's glory days. Where Ford always outshined the rest was in affordable, but aspirational products, dream cars you could actually realistically afford, your broncos and mustangs, which despite some complaints, are still quite affordable, particularly lower trims.

For instance, Jim Farley talked about wanting to do multiple mustang body styles beyond the s650 coupe and mach-e. I personally think some sort of smaller, affordable, less powerful but more nimble mustang would make a great addition to the lineup. Take styling cues from the fox body to cash in on 80s nostalgia. If it's c2 based, give it the 2.0 and 2.3 Ecoboost with big turbo graphics on the side for fun.

For CE1, give me an awesome EV, I'd love a modern take on the escort whale tail, or even a new modern RS 200 that would be sold as a less powerful, but significantly cheaper version of the original RS 200. This affordable EV platform is being developed to be profitable at 25-30k, so some sort of RS 200 with 250-300 hp of electric power at a price of around 40 grand would be awesome imo.

The opportunities are endless. I'm not saying don't give us an electric escape or maverick. Give us those, they'll sell very well. But give us some fun, cool enthusiasts products on top of it. There's so much potential here, if they just make an electric maverick, then kill the platform, I'm gonna be so depressed.

 

[AzureBlueBill]

The trouble with small cars is that auto makers still want $50,000 for them.

the affordable part was forgotten and I own all small vehicles

You need to look around. Small cars are not $50K! Taken from random ads, mostly MSRPs, you can usually buy them cheaper, these are not the cheapest prices I found:

2024 Civic LX $26045
Civic Sport $27900
2024 Impreza Base $24525
Impreza Sport $28854
2024 Elan $24625
2024 Versa S $16680
Versa SV $19970
2024 Sentra S $22335
Sentra SR $26325
2024 Corolla LE $23145
Corolla XSE $28245

 

[Master Blaster]

That's really rich, coming the head of one of the 2 companies that have dropped all small cars and pushed the average buyer into a massively oversized truck. The average American today drives a hugely oversized gas guzzler, since fuel is so cheap in many states. Of course the way to fix this is not through mandates, but to stop the political meddling in the market and match the much higher fuel prices that other countries pay. The average American fuel price is ridiculously low, making it much easier for the average consumer to consider a monster pickup instead of the most American-built non-electric vehicle on the road today - a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla that both have almost 3x better fuel economy than an F150 or a GMC Sierra or Ram 1500. Hooray for the Maverick, and competitors-to-come that are as small as "full-sized" trucks used to be.

 

[Gonzo chris]

That's really rich, coming the head of one of the 2 companies that have dropped all small cars and pushed the average buyer into a massively oversized truck. The average American today drives a hugely oversized gas guzzler, since fuel is so cheap in many states. Of course the way to fix this is not through mandates, but to stop the political meddling in the market and match the much higher fuel prices that other countries pay. The average American fuel price is ridiculously low, making it much easier for the average consumer to consider a monster pickup instead of the most American-built non-electric vehicle on the road today - a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla that both have almost 3x better fuel economy than an F150 or a GMC Sierra or Ram 1500. Hooray for the Maverick, and competitors-to-come that are as small as "full-sized" trucks used to be.

Yet half the guys out here complain that gas is waaaau too high . Well depending on certain other things. But I agree with you if gas was higher less people would buy these tanks. Honestly it does annoy when I see some jacked up bro dozer flying down the road now that my 17 yr old son has his license. It makes me want him to drive a tank as well even though it's not my preference

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