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How the New Ford Escape Drew Inspiration from BMW Motorcycles


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https://www.automobilemag.com/news/2020-ford-escape-baby-bronco-design-interview/

Does this model converge with the global Kuga?

We had research in all these different places. We did L.A., I think they did London and Milan, and then in Shanghai, and found that different customers liked the appearance of different faces. So that’s why the European one looks—it’s the ST, so it’s obviously kind of more aggressive. And the Asia-Pacific version has this really large mouth and headlights more integrated into the grille, and it’s just what we’ve found that the customers liked.


Basically, everything forward of the A-pillar? Mostly the face?

Yeah, I think it’s the face and a little bit of the rear. They held the body sides.

How was the process?

It’s my second program at Ford.

What was your first?

The Transit Connect facelift.

The Escape redesign is quite a move up.

I did that facelift and they said, ‘Well, let’s give him something a little bit more.’ The directors were looking for something a little bit different, and we plastered the wall full of different sketches. The director at the time came in and pointed to one of my sketches and he said, ‘That’s the one. Do it.’ The next hour we just went to the full-size clay, taped up the design and then started hacking into it. And then it was born from that.

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1 hour ago, T-dubz said:

I’d like to see what the first designs that were more aggressive looked like, and it sounds like we can thank the people in LA for giving us the most boring design of the 3 versions.

Boring to you equals more sales to others and you have baby bronco for those wanting a more edgy design.

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42 minutes ago, akirby said:

Boring to you equals more sales to others and you have baby bronco for those wanting a more edgy design.

They toned it down, but they didn't even know the existence of the Baby Bronco at the time. 

I was just thinking, why not just call it the Bronco Escape? I Kinda like that better then the other names so far trotted out and works better if they are building it as a sub brand. 

Edited by silvrsvt
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54 minutes ago, akirby said:

Boring to you equals more sales to others and you have baby bronco for those wanting a more edgy design.

The baby bronco has rugged off-road looks. That is not the same thing as aggressive. You can still have an suv that is aggressive (like the blazer in RS trim) that is not rugged or designed for off road. I think they went a little too soft with the current design.

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1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:

They toned it down, but they didn't even know the existence of the Baby Bronco at the time. 

I was just thinking, why not just call it the Bronco Escape? I Kinda like that better then the other names so far trotted out and works better if they are building it as a sub brand. 

The name fits, but I think that gets too close to Escape itself.  For some reason, it sounds like just a trim line of Escape (like Escape Titanium) and not a separate model.

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1 hour ago, T-dubz said:

The baby bronco has rugged off-road looks. That is not the same thing as aggressive. You can still have an suv that is aggressive (like the blazer in RS trim) that is not rugged or designed for off road. I think they went a little too soft with the current design.

But you’re not the target market.  We’ll see how it sells since that’s all that really matters.

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3 minutes ago, akirby said:

But you’re not the target market.  We’ll see how it sells since that’s all that really matters.

Ford should hire you as the chief marketing officer.  You spin anything Ford into a great story ....You seem to know what everyone wants and Ford offers a vehicle to meet all target markets (although the reality is they don’t).  

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13 minutes ago, akirby said:

But you’re not the target market.  We’ll see how it sells since that’s all that really matters.

As a 2 time escape owner, I am definitely the target market. I am also in a fusion now and looking to get an suv. I’m assuming the whole point of getting rid of sedans was to push me into escapes or edges. Since I have a long commute to work and need good gas mileage and space for a family, the escape redesign was the vehicle I was most excited about. It’s also the one I’m most disappointed with. Now the baby bronco is my only hope for a ford product.

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2 hours ago, rmc523 said:

The name fits, but I think that gets too close to Escape itself.  For some reason, it sounds like just a trim line of Escape (like Escape Titanium) and not a separate model.

But it works since its a part of a sub-brand and its related to the Escape anyways. Its a Bronco first and an Escape second....even though it shares its platform with it. 

 

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1 hour ago, T-dubz said:

As a 2 time escape owner, I am definitely the target market. I am also in a fusion now and looking to get an suv. I’m assuming the whole point of getting rid of sedans was to push me into escapes or edges. Since I have a long commute to work and need good gas mileage and space for a family, the escape redesign was the vehicle I was most excited about. It’s also the one I’m most disappointed with. Now the baby bronco is my only hope for a ford product.

Just because you owned 2 in the past doesn’t make you the target buyer.  Think Honda CR-V buyers.  You even admitted you’re more interested in the baby bronco which is the whole point of Ford’s 2 vehicle strategy.

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1 hour ago, 02MustangGT said:

Ford should hire you as the chief marketing officer.  You spin anything Ford into a great story ....You seem to know what everyone wants and Ford offers a vehicle to meet all target markets (although the reality is they don’t).  

As a business strategy it makes perfect sense.  Trying to make one vehicle that competes with both Jeep Renegade and CRV gets you something in between that doesn’t compete well with either one.   With Baby Bronco having unique styling and performance they can charge a premium that current Escape can’t support.

Some people only view things in terms of what they like or what they want to buy and can’t understand the bigger business picture.

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14 minutes ago, akirby said:

As a business strategy it makes perfect sense.  Trying to make one vehicle that competes with both Jeep Renegade and CRV gets you something in between that doesn’t compete well with either one.   With Baby Bronco having unique styling and performance they can charge a premium that current Escape can’t support.

Some people only view things in terms of what they like or what they want to buy and can’t understand the bigger business picture.

Again, you have a perception about what people want.  Not always true.  

I do agree that the strategy makes perfect sense.  Unfortunately for auto manufacturers, sometimes those business strategies don’t turn out so well.  However, like you said, we will see how the Escape sells.  I have no doubt that anything with the Bronco nameplate will sell like crazy, at least initially.  

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4 minutes ago, 02MustangGT said:

Again, you have a perception about what people want.  Not always true.  

I do agree that the strategy makes perfect sense.  Unfortunately for auto manufacturers, sometimes those business strategies don’t turn out so well.  However, like you said, we will see how the Escape sells.  I have no doubt that anything with the Bronco nameplate will sell like crazy, at least initially.  

Escape will offer a 2.5 hybrid which is (I smile) Ford coming full circle on a decision last product cycle,
we see how much traction Ford lost by ending hybrid Escape and choosing C-Max. At the time, Ford swore
up and down that C-Max was a much better plan than Gen 2 hybrid Escape, their research said so and they
presented all kinds of sales data to support that decision, so yeah Ford often skews the product discussion
and decisions that may ot may not make sense to us.

I see the same with cars, Ford is all about killing them right now but there's still significant car buyer numbers
who could be lured with the right sized and styled products and as we've seen, never say never (Ranger)

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46 minutes ago, 02MustangGT said:

Again, you have a perception about what people want.  Not always true.  

I do agree that the strategy makes perfect sense.  Unfortunately for auto manufacturers, sometimes those business strategies don’t turn out so well.  However, like you said, we will see how the Escape sells.  I have no doubt that anything with the Bronco nameplate will sell like crazy, at least initially.  

I agree it doesn’t always work out but all you need to do is look at crv and rav4 sales vs Escape to see what the market seems to prefer in that segment. And they had nothing to compete with Cherokee or Renegade.  And I think you’re still ignoring Focus hatchback buyers.

without Bronco and Baby Bronco I agree it would make more sense to make Escape and Edge more masculine.

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12 minutes ago, akirby said:

Baby Bronco design started as a Bronco design that didn’t make the cut.

Correct, the original idea was to go back to the earlier, squarer / chunkier version but then,
something changed with Ford not wanting to follow RAV4 with two plants basically dedicated
to producing the same vehicle, Bill Ford stated in the recent past that he didn't want Ford doing this.

So the preference now is diversity, differentiation achieved through hard and soft styling comes at a cost
of an either/or choice over a one style suits the maximum number of buyers and then there's the Corsair..

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4 hours ago, jpd80 said:

I see the same with cars, Ford is all about killing them right now but there's still significant car buyer numbers
who could be lured with the right sized and styled products and as we've seen, never say never (Ranger)

Maybe young designers at Ford like Andrew Bazinski will help make that happen. Mr. Bazinski said in the interview that he and other designers are very fond of wagons. That makes sense, as wagons are much nicer looking than crossovers.

"I wish car companies could bring back wagons. I wish there were more wagons here. That might be a designer thing."

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