Ford’s CEO Jim Farley said something interesting the other day about how Americans should “start to get back in love with smaller vehicles.” The interesting thing about that is they already have. Ford can’t keep up with demand for its Maverick pick-up, which is the second-smallest four-door vehicle Ford makes. It has been a huge success – as opposed to the huge failure of the smallest five door door device made by Ford, the (cough) “Mustang” Mach-e.
This year – so far – Ford has already sold nearly as many Mavericks (90,375) as it did last year (94,058) which means that, barring a sudden sales collapse, Ford is likely to sell close to twice as many this year – as there is nearly half a year of 2024 still left to go. Even more indicative of the strong demand for the Maverick is the fact that it’s four years old – having made its debut back in 2021. It is usually the case that sales of a vehicle that was “all new” four years ago are beginning to wane because the vehicle isn’t “all new” anymore – and many buyers want something that is “all new.” 
There are exceptions – as when there isn’t enough of a popular vehicle or type of vehicle to meet demand for it. In this vein, expect Mustang sales to go up after this year since by the end of this year, the Mustang will be the only car of its type left on the market – Chevy having decided to stop making the Camaro (and Dodge having already stopped making the Challenger) to focus on making devices.
Ford has no problem selling Mustangs – even though it is even smaller than the five-door device that isn’t a Mustang. Even though it is a two-door sporty car that realistically seats only two people, with a back seat that’s there mainly to make up for the trunk that’s so small you need another place for your gym bag. Yet people love it. And more than 50,000 of them bought one last year. Based on sales data so far (approaching 28,000 as of late July) it looks like Ford will sell more of them this year.
Back to the Mach-e.
This device was also introduced in 2021 – the same year as the Maverick. So far this year, Ford has only sold about half as many of them (22,234) as last year (40,771). That’s more than the number of Lightings – the device that looks like an F-150 pickup – Ford sold last year (about 23,000) but it’s still less than half as many Mavericks as have already been sold so far this year.
That’s pretty interesting, isn’t it?
The logical conclusion is that Americans are already “in love” with smaller vehicles. What they aren’t likely to ever fall in love with are small but expensive devices like the Mach-e.
You can buy a new Maverick for $23,290. It’ll cost you $39,995 to buy a new Mach-e.
The difference is enough ($16,705) to almost buy another Maverick. That’s a pretty big difference, but it’s not the only one. The Maverick is small but useful. It can comfortably carry five people and carry a load of mulch in its bed. It can also go almost 400 miles in “city” driving – and almost 500 miles on the highway – while the Mach-e only goes maybe 250 miles, if you avoid driving it at highway speeds. Especially when it’s hot and you have the AC on.
And there’s all that planning – around all that waiting. It’s standard equipment with every device Ford sells.
With all devices.
Interestingly, Farley knows it’s not size that’s the problem. At around the same time he said Americans should “start to get back in love” with the smaller vehicles they’ve already shown they very much love – by purchasing more than twice as many of them (Maverick) as the smaller devices (Mach-e) Ford can’t get them to love – Ford announced it would not be making more small devices at the Ontario, Canada plant that was supposed to be emitting another another small device like the small device Ford is having so much trouble getting enough people to fall in love with.
Instead, Ford will be using the plant to make huge vehicles – because people are in love with them, too. The plant – scheduled to be open by 2026 – will manufacturer the largest vehicles Ford offers, the F-series Super Duty pick-up. This will increase Ford’s capacity to make this vehicle by another 100,000 by year. Right now, Ford sells close to half-a-million of them (around 400,000 of them) annually.
That’s how many buyers are “in love” with them.
Ford could probably sell another 100,000 Mavericks annually, too – if it stopped emitting devices that are very hard for most people to fall in love with.
Maybe Orange Man will be able to help with that.
. . .
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
If you like items like the Baaaaaa! baseball cap pictured below, you can find that and more at the EPautos store!
if Mazda offered their small pickup again, they wouldn’t be able to keep them on their lot. Toyota Champ anyone?
The heads of most companies have no clue. To isolated and dependent on polls. mark
Amen, Check –
Though I’d add it’s not just the company heads – and many do have a clue. They just don’t care. Instead, they play the game – because it’s profitable (for them). Look at Mary Barra. She is paid almost $30 million annually. Why should she care about us?
We’ll put Eric. So many new gov EPA limitations to be applied as time progresses I sometimes wonder if this won’t cause a new round of bailouts? With all the money being thrown towards the car manufactors if they play the game the bailouts have already started. Being new to the board may I throw this gem into the mix. Check
https://books.google.com/books?id=RkeRDMj1r2kC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=catalytic+converter+sulfuric+acid+car&source=bl&ots=gmrL1k4nCS&sig=OT1qZBCgrcs4EJOvzLUT98xseMs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEuLyi98rOAhVBySYKHV7oAN0Q6AEIHTAB#v=onepage&q=catalytic%20converter%20sulfuric%20acid%20car&f=false
have to check the spell checker from here on out. rookie mistake.
no comments on this link?
Maybe he’s talking about Ford’s upcoming take on the Messerschmitt KR200?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_KR200
Comes with an optional Ozemspic prescription so your American ass can fit behind the wheel.
Off topic, but imagine a future vehicle where, for the sake of expediency and cost reduction, it depends on a constant network connection to a back office fleet of services in order to run. Sure, a security and privacy nightmare (although from a practical sense not much worse than the smartphone in your pocket already), but boy look at all the cool stuff it can do. Until the network goes down… or someone fat fingers a line of C++ code in an update and bricks half the cars in the world. Whoopsie! I guess I’m working from home today boss. And as we learned yesterday, it probably won’t be a high level process. Something mundane and outsourced that crashes the whole system. The digital butterfly effect.
The networked world seems to be more brittle than ever, perhaps by design. Will the “smart highway” of the future be riddled with bugs that make potholes look quaint and charming in comparison? Will your car attempt to steer around road damage, or just continue on the same deeply rutted path that every other vehicle is programmed to drive over? Watching car races (real ones, not just oval track) as the race progresses you see clearly that all the drivers are in the optimal line and the track will actually darken with rubber on the line. I would think the same thing will happen to all roads when cars are steering along optimized routes. So a few inches to the side of the rut will be perfectly smooth surface but the cars won’t use it. Because the clockwork brain wasn’t programmed for variances like that.
Bring back the 1957 Fiat 500 as cheap trasnsportation for the poor slaves…
It cost $700…$7000 in 2024 dollars…it weighed 1100 lb and got 50 MPG……it carried 4 people….it had a cool sounding air cooled engine like a 911……
It had a Ferrari designer designed engine…the two cylinder air cooled engine was designed by Aurelio Lampredi who worked for Ferrari designing engines…then later on he worked for Fiat/Lancia designing engines, like the famous Lampredi twin cam hemi….he also ran Abarth….
Today the slaves are being pushed towards highly dangerous, 5000 lb, very unreliable, $50,000 EV’s that they can’t afford….that is the point…stop them driving…no mobility…..
The Italian people’s car, the Fiat 500 was an ingenious design, and has become a design icon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeoebJyTFno
The Italian car industry is nearly defunct. Only Ferrari remains. Lamborghini has been German for a quarter of a century. Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia are merely brand names used to sell what are or will soon be rebodied Peugeots, and God knows what will happen to Maserati.
And today’s Fiat 500 is a dEVice.
Right…..
The 1957 Fiat 500 was cheap transportation for the poor slaves…the new Fiat 500 is a 2400 lb device…the Italian car industry has been ruined…like the U.S. car industry….
Ferrari…ruined…no manual transmission for a long time….also headed in the EV direction…and full of all the surveillance tech….
At this point whats to say Ford won’t discontinue parts on Mavericks 6-10 years down the road? I don’t trust them anymore with what they’ve done in regard to the issue of BCMs on my Lincoln.
The big three are run by DEI schmucks who do little more than check boxes, then pony up to the GovCo slop bucket. Its past time for a change of corporate leadership in this country. Otherwise, a Cuban style future is in the cards. Its sad to watch them piss away such iconic and storied legacies at such ludicrous speed..
What better way to demolish the Western auto industry than to have useful idiots tear it down from the inside…
If there is a slop bucket, there has to be a slop sink, just how it is.
Telling us (the People) what to do and what we need seems to be a bad habit the corporations and government (Corpgov) have gotten into. Mr. Farley needs to concentrate on building the vehicles WE want and keep his trap shut. And Mr. Gov needs to get back to minding its own Ps and Qs rather than running around the planet like mad dogs sticking their nose in where it doesn’t belong. We’re only here 70-80 years. Why make it more miserable than it already is?
For almost a century we did mostly that and became the richest country on the planet. Every freedom loving soul came here for a better life. Today they come in hordes,invited by Corpgov to rape, plunder and pillage. Somehow this government of the People, by the People and for the People seems to believe IT is the sole power that determines who and how many come. Not a good thing when you consider this government is supposed to be the servant of the People. The People and ONLY the People can correct that. Today we have the poorest representatives of the People running for the top leadership spot. Of 350 million, surely their are wiser choices. Maybe someone that would put Americas needs at the top of the list. And believe me,,, that list is long! Saving others from their own evilness is not our responsibility and won’t help us in the spiritual or physical world.
We cannot be saved by helping evil! We will only become evil ourselves. There is still time.
In the past, when you heard some CEO speak, you could take them at face value, or assume there might be a little bit of marketing going on, but the generally spoke directly; I’m thinking of people like Bob Lutz, Sergio Marchione, as examples.
Today, whenever some CEO starts speaking, you have to assume every word is a carefully orchestrated lie. The words may be technically true when confronted in the future, but the actual meaning is obfuscated.
These particular statements sound like Ford will be making little EV’s and giant trucks, but not much else in between. They’ll sell those EV’s at a loss to be allowed to sell the big trucks.
Buy a little EeeVee, get a free giant truck to tote it around in!
We’re your friends …
https://tinyurl.com/2tk3zkj9
Not just the CEO. Everyone in an organization who ever says anything is run through the proper channels. That’s if they say anything at all. That’s one big reason why the media as read is so anti-business. “We reached out to HugeCo for comment but have not had a response as of the time this story is airing.”
Silence is the proper response now. This has carried over into politics too. Just keep your damn mouth shut before it gets you into even more trouble. I wasn’t surprised to read that O’Biden’s press conference a week or so back was the first one of the year. In July. Let that sink in for a minute. Bush the II was great at controlling the press by just banning reporters who didn’t play along from the press pool, a practice that continues today. But at least he’d play along to get his sick, twisted message out through channels. Biden is still in the basement back in Delaware, AFAIK.
The politicians I can understand, even though I’d think the voters would get pretty frustrated with a “representative” who didn’t actually interact with them, even at the 10,000 ft distance of the press. But what about big corporations, many of whom actually own interests in media outlets themselves? You’d think someone would chime in and address the many elephants in the room, but no. Just let it sit there and fester, relying on the short memory of the public and whipsaw news cycle. Good strategy but only if you keep people connected to Vonnegut’s mental handicaps to interrupt thought as they form memories.
If you want a small truck, Mexico offers the Chevrolet Montana, VW the Saveiro and Dodge the Ram 700. Easy enough to get and drive in the States – if you are resourceful.
Cars? What cars? We don’t need no stinking cars!
Joe Biden is the one and only brainless, useless eater that has become the most useful idiot evah, think about that. har
We are being driven to distraction, the very best they can do, whoever they are.
Plenty of Mavericks out there in this neck of the woods.
No person should exercise control to mandate or unmandate (?) production and consumption of a product. It’s unconstitutional and immoral.
What is Farley talking about? Are new cars huge by some measure?
I was a plumber for 25 years, starting in 1972. Drove full size pickups every day, and hated them. Didn’t drive or ride well, got piss poor gas mileage, and were expensive to work on, even if you did most of the work yourself.
Love my 97 Tacoma.
Worth it’s weight in Uranium. Don’t ever sell it.
A good used Pontiac 1969 GTO is 134,900 dollars.
GM could reopen the Pontiac brand and make new GTO’s.
It’s a good idea. Make GM great again.
For the money GM pays worthless Mary and wastes on EEVVs, they could have a 69 ++++ GTO up and running in a year. Forget “innovation” dust off the old dies and plans….the front end would be super easy to update for front impact, LS engine, modern disc brakes limited electronics and the whole connectivity could be turned off with a key. What the current crop of BRAIN DEAD CEOs don’t get and VW Porsche and Toyota understood was that you refine an existing model year after year and stay Profitable. VW bug 60+ years , Ford model T & A 40 years, the Porsche 911 has been in production for 60 years.
Holden used to have that fantastic V-8 rear-wheel drive vehicle that was reminiscent of the Grand Prix, but so much better. Slap a GTO badge on that sucker and watch ’em fly off the lot.
https://www.drive.com.au/news/2016-holden-vf-commodore-series-ii-revealed-vfii-features-new-v8-engine-front-and-rear-design-changes/
‘Ford will be using the [Oakville] plant to make huge vehicles – because people are in love with them, too. The plant – scheduled to be open by 2026 – will manufacturer the largest vehicles Ford offers, the F-series Super Duty pick-up.’ — eric
This is epicly ill-timed. Evidence accumulates that the US economy is poised to slide into recession. However much people ‘love’ them, costly Super Duty pickups are one of the first consumer discretionary purchases that get delayed or cancelled when the business and employment situation becomes shaky.
Remodeled Oakville is going to open in 2026 with massive overcapacity (analogous year: 1932). Maybe it can be used to store unwanted devices — provided they don’t burn it down.
Any idiot can run a company into the ground. But it takes the special reverse Midas touch of Lightning Jim to produce destruction on this scale.
The US and many other Western nations have been in recession for years unless you believe the BS from the BLS.
Kinda funny how People believe everything out of politicians pie holes are lies but government agencies are telling gospel truth!