I had my car in to the shop this week and upon further inspection I was informed that it needed $5,600 in repairs as the clutch assembly, a bearing and the rear seal were caput, toss in a leaking shock and a brake flush and you have me in the poor house. The service manager said “we used to be able to rebuild the clutches but now with all the electronics it all has to be replaced and it’s expensive. Hubby had a small litter of kittens when he heard the cost but it’s still less than a new vehicle so I told them to go ahead and fix it (plus I love my SUV). We got talking and decided we needed to get a manufacturer to build a vehicle that is simple and fixable like they used to be. No electronics gizmos and doodads that are just overkill like electric steering, automatic everything, it would have a standard transmission, key for entry and ignition etc…
You could make them affordable and I believe they would sell like hotcakes for those of us tired of over engineered and techie crap that fails more than it works.
The grandkids got in my old Ford farm truck which is just that, simple, reliable and the vehicle all my grandkids have learned to drive in. The youngest boy asked how to open the window and after much searching on his part I showed him the crank. He thought that was the COOLEST thing - LOL. That’s why I am choosing to write to Ford and beg them to make something simple, low tech and fixable.