Ford Bronco Won't Be Eligible For X-Plan
One of the perks of this job, and any auto blogging job, really, is that you get paid to surf the Internet for car news. I came across something yesterday that suggested the upcoming Ford Bronco won’t be available for pricing on the company’s X-plan, which is the pricing plan for friends and family of the company.
I emailed Ford to fact-check this, and yep, it’s true.
Here’s what spokesperson Jiyan Cadiz wrote back in response to my query: “Due to unprecedented demand and limited supply, Bronco two- and four- door models will NOT be eligible for X-plan in 21MY. This is similar to other limited supply vehicles like F-150 Raptor, Mustang Shelby models. Bronco will offer AZD Plan pricing for all series except limited-run First Edition.”
For the uninitiated, AZD is for employees, retirees, and dealers, respectively.
That may be a bummer for Bronco intenders who have a connection to the Blue Oval that would qualify them for the X-plan. But there is some good news for those who want to buy a Bronco, or people like me who pass time on their lunch building and pricing cars for funsies — the Bronco build and price tool may go live on Ford’s consumer site as soon as this coming Friday.
I might never buy a Bronco. But will I be building a manual-trans model with the best trim possible online as soon as this thing goes live?
You betcha.
[Image: Ford]
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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First year Taurus was near perfect out of the gate. Then first year(s) Explorer(s) took awhile but near perfection was soon attained. I’ll get this ...as an Explorer platform derivative....will havd little trouble kicking ass pretty quickly. 10 bucks says this is going to be one hell of a car...truck... whatever.
PAIN
Typical Ford. Gotta keep those margins up which means: -Cutting quality so far that your vehicles have to be fixed immediately after coming off the assembly line. -Squeezing suppliers so tight that they make pennies on the items they sell then blaming the supplier when something goes wrong. -And now disallowing discount plans. Folks, do yourself a favor, just get a Wrangler. Better in every metric including its ability to only have to go through the factory once to get it built right, better off-road ability, better pricing, far greater aftermarket support, better powertrains, etc.
Nice review, Rob! A few missing topics, IMO: 1. You gave us the EPA fuel economy figures, but ow did YOU fare with gas in various uses? 2. At what various lower price and trim levels is this available? My trailer towing wife is waiting for your answers!