How many Rubicons did Jeep sell last year?
How many FX-4's did Ford sell?
What about Range Rover, how many Disco's do they sell yearly?
Clearly there is a market for off road packages and trail worth off road rigs right from the dealer, allbeit a small market, but a market none the less. You cant ignore that.
Why do you think Honda makes SUV"s now? Because if they didnt get into the SUV market they would have been SOL
The same reason Nissan and Toyota build full size trucks now, because they were losing their ass to Dodge, Ford, DC in the US..........
If there is a market, even a small one, you gotta have a product to at least try and compete....Ford is not going to steal Jeeps spot in the offroad market, not with any "CUte Yute" anyways, but they gotta offer something....
I really like the looks of that BRONCO concept, but thats about as far as it goes for me........looks
Now I hate to say it but for Ford this is a GREAT idea. We all rag on teh H2 because underneath its nothing more then a Tahoe, and we know how far a Tahoe will go off road, but thats doesnt stop John Q Public from buying them, because they look like a tough ass off road beast, right?
So say you are in the market for a Cute Yute, you are looking at the Escape, the Liberty, the Freelander and here you come to the Ford dealer and see this Bronco!!! OH HECK YEAH a Bronco?? WOW It looks tough = they will sell just like the H2. I mean look at the Xterra, how many people do you know that got an Xterra because they are serious off road vehicles? How many do you think bought Xterra's because they LOOK the part?