Ford to Reveal New Bronco After 24 Years Off the Market
July 13 2020 - 3:36PM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Colias
Ford dealers have been asking the company for years to make a
rugged off-road vehicle to compete with Jeep's Wrangler. Finally,
they're getting one.
After nearly a decade of plotting its return, Ford on Monday
night will unveil a new Bronco -- the U.S. auto maker's latest
attempt to carve into a share of Jeep's dominant position in the
off-road adventure category. The showing will take place virtually
on YouTube and other media, starting at 8 p.m. ET. Ford will also
start taking $100 reservations for the new model.
The Bronco is coming off the sidelines at a tricky time. U.S.
vehicle sales are expected to contract around 25% this year largely
due to the coronavirus crisis disruption, analysts project, and car
companies are crowding showrooms with new SUV models, putting
pressures on profits.
The Bronco's release illustrates broader challenges companies
face now: products under development long before the pandemic are
rolling out into a changed market, potentially forcing companies to
remake marketing or production plans carefully laid out years in
advance. And convincing Wrangler buyers to make the switch won't be
an easy task, especially with pandemic-related disruptions making
it more difficult for vehicle shoppers to browse showrooms and take
test drives.
The model's long gestation period has allowed Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles NV's Jeep Wrangler to have a lock on the market for
rock-clambering vehicles with removable doors and roof panels.
Wrangler sales have tripled over the past decade, a stretch of good
times for the auto business, and SUVs in particular.
"For the longest time, the other auto makers just kind of gave
up and said 'Well, Jeep owns that'" category, said Brian Moody,
executive editor of research site Autotrader.com. "The Bronco has
the heritage to have a real opportunity."
A Jeep spokesman declined to comment.
Reviving the Bronco is a key piece of Ford Chief Executive Jim
Hackett's turnaround plan. Mr. Hackett, put in the top job three
years ago, put a sharper focus on more-profitable pickup trucks and
SUVs, while purging passenger cars from Ford's U.S. showrooms.
"This is our opportunity," Ford operations chief Jim Farley said
at a conference last month. "Bronco is an iconic and beloved
franchise."
The Bronco also is core to Ford's strategy to transform the
company's most popular nameplates, such as the F-150 pickup truck,
into subbrands with multiple variations. For example, Ford is
expanding its well-known Mustang nameplate for use on an electric
SUV, which goes on sale later this year.
First introduced in 1965 at the behest of famed auto executive
Lee Iacocca, the Bronco garnered a cultlike following among
off-road enthusiasts and were solid sellers for decades. The
company ended Bronco production in 1996.
Two years before it was phased out, the Bronco gained unexpected
notoriety when former football star O.J. Simpson led Los Angeles
police on a low-speed chase in a white Bronco.
Enthusiasm for the Bronco has endured long after Ford killed off
the older model, leading to a hot market for collectibles from the
1960s and '70s. Valuations of the vintage SUVs have soared 75% in
the past three years, and routinely change hands for more than
$100,000, according to Hagerty, an insurer of classic cars.
Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 13, 2020 15:21 ET (19:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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