Thanks! Maybe I should have done more research. I didn’t think about the other vehicles on this platform or drivetrain.
I hate how personal trucks (pick ups) have grown out of their usefulness. Yes, there are truly folks who need to pull a stump out, pull a huge trailer, or carry pallets of ceramic floor tiles, but I do not need to do that, and I bet most buyers don’t either. I mean, who is going to spend $90K and then drive off road?
So I did some quick research, and while it's not perfect, I found a guy who spent his career overseeing the tooling for car company. It was his job to manage the expenses of manufacturing a new car. I'll include his quote below, but he said to do all the tooling, all the new metal presses and molds for an all new body, is around 600 million dollars. He said a refresh, keeping most of the body panels the same, but changing things like the front and rear bumpers, lights, and wheels, runs about 200 million. Offering an extension of the maverick's body style I would say would cost somewhere between the two, let's say 400 million dollars to do the tooling for a longer bed sides, bed floor, and rear of the cab, while also making adjustments to the assembly plant to produce that body style.No. But luckily, no, it's not hundreds of millions to develop a supercab or even 2 door maverick with a longer bed.
I am not in the industry but if we're all tossing out wild guesses I would say more like 5 to 10 million. Bet there's a way to guess at that from Ford's sec 10k filings.
I googled also. half billion to a billion for a new model or major redesign pretty standard. I don't think there is any way to know Ford's cost for revisions unless you're high-level insider...So I did some quick research, and while it's not perfect, I found a guy who spent his career overseeing the tooling for car company. It was his job to manage the expenses of manufacturing a new car. I'll include his quote below, but he said to do all the tooling, all the new metal presses and molds for an all new body, is around 600 million dollars. He said a refresh, keeping most of the body panels the same, but changing things like the front and rear bumpers, lights, and wheels, runs about 200 million. Offering an extension of the maverick's body style I would say would cost somewhere between the two, let's say 400 million dollars to do the tooling for a longer bed sides, bed floor, and rear of the cab, while also making adjustments to the assembly plant to produce that body style.
So 400 million, factor in another 50 million or so. Every time you offer a new body style, you have to put it through the entire process of government certification for emissions testing and safety all over again, that was around 50 million dollars in the late 90s, I don't know what the cost is now, I'm being generous, and keeping it the same.
Add in a few hundred million for the work Ford's engineers and designers have to put in to get it to work properly, to test the truck for durability, refinement, etc, over the course of several years.
That brings us up to let's make it 650 million dollars. I don't think people realize just how expensive the auto industry is. Basically everything is hundreds of millions, or billions of dollars to do. There is no such thing as "This will only cost a few million" when you're talking about making extensive changes to an automotive product. To put it into perspective, the 1980s original tarus costed 3 billion dollars in the 1980s to develop, about 7 billion by modern standards. Basically all of Ford's vehicle programs are billion dollar investments if not more.
Other realities aside. The XJ and Comanche were really based off of the things AMC learned with the Eagle. Both are very much just a bunch of stamped sheet metal. I have built and modified a few of em. They require bolting as well as welding items to them to make em solid. That front end tube that runs around the engine bay of our Mavericks is tougher than anything structural in the Comanche other than the layered up X braced frame in the rear end. The point is blending the right welded stampings on to the rear portion of the Mavericks chassis could make it a more useful commercial vehicle. They basically already have with the creation of the Maverick, they just need to shift the cutoff. Getting around the CAFE wheelbase standards to make it work with all that mess of a regulatory standard is the only trouble.
If they didn’t need to recrash test the rig it could be done for a couple hundred thousand.No. But luckily, no, it's not hundreds of millions to develop a supercab or even 2 door maverick with a longer bed.
I am not in the industry but if we're all tossing out wild guesses I would say more like 5 to 10 million. Bet there's a way to guess at that from Ford's sec 10k filings.
Of coarse it’s not possible to launch a new body style the old way, lol.So I did some quick research, and while it's not perfect, I found a guy who spent his career overseeing the tooling for car company. It was his job to manage the expenses of manufacturing a new car. I'll include his quote below, but he said to do all the tooling, all the new metal presses and molds for an all new body, is around 600 million dollars. He said a refresh, keeping most of the body panels the same, but changing things like the front and rear bumpers, lights, and wheels, runs about 200 million. Offering an extension of the maverick's body style I would say would cost somewhere between the two, let's say 400 million dollars to do the tooling for a longer bed sides, bed floor, and rear of the cab, while also making adjustments to the assembly plant to produce that body style.
So 400 million, factor in another 50 million or so. Every time you offer a new body style, you have to put it through the entire process of government certification for emissions testing and safety all over again, that was around 50 million dollars in the late 90s, I don't know what the cost is now, I'm being generous, and keeping it the same.
Add in a few hundred million for the work Ford's engineers and designers have to put in to get it to work properly, to test the truck for durability, refinement, etc, over the course of several years.
That brings us up to let's make it 650 million dollars. I don't think people realize just how expensive the auto industry is. Basically everything is hundreds of millions, or billions of dollars to do. There is no such thing as "This will only cost a few million" when you're talking about making extensive changes to an automotive product. To put it into perspective, the 1980s original tarus costed 3 billion dollars in the 1980s to develop, about 7 billion by modern standards. Basically all of Ford's vehicle programs are billion dollar investments if not more.
Or they do produce the hybrid awd because it would improve cafe numbers and provide a more expensive hybrid to fleece us with. I have read tons of comments on here from people who bougt the eco to get awd that said they wanted the hybrid but needed awd
It's also not a weight issue, it's a torque issue. The weight is just basically the average 2 and a half kids. The torque of driving the extra wheels, even if only temporarily, is what would overstrain the hybrids electric motor and related components like engine mountings and so on even if the general consumer will pretty much only activate the awd system occasionally.
They more or less use the same hybrid system in an AWD configuration on the Escape just by bolting on a PTU to the transmission, driveshaft, rear drive unit, and CVs. No "overstraining the electric motor", engine mounts, or generating excessive heat.
