Ranger Easter Eggs

[SGT Ranger]

If Ford wanted to add $.25 to the MSRP there’s nothing stopping them. They don’t need to add a French fry symbol to do that. Having worked as an engineer in manufacturing, the fight on adding features is usually between engineers on one side and marketing, supply chain, and accounting on another. It was likely a discussion point that required engineering to justify its decision to the other parties. But also, it probably wasn’t a very big one. Given that it’s non functional, aesthetic only, the engineers were probably more concerned about the other side where tolerances for clips, structural ribbing, and part labeling would be more important. If s French fry icon gets a little less aesthetic, they don’t have to swap the molds. But if clips get out of spec, they do. So I think this is more of a “why not?” Situation. If the icon was, let’s say, a picture of a phone to indicate phone storage or even a little Ford logo, none of us would have bat an eyelash.

Oh I get it, the 25 cents was just a random number I pulled.

I also get if Ford wanted to add 25 cents they just would. But view it more of an accumulative thing.

As I mentioned, frog and boiling pot of water kind of deal.

The french fry icon much like anything in life, is never free.

A manufacturer can just add arbitrary money to a product price until it eventually reaches a threshold and people start asking questions, or worse, go buy something else. Imagine they know the threshold, then through a clever phycological plan to push the line in the sand a few more feet without the customer noticing, or better yet, willingly. Lets say you had a document in front of you that spelled out what it cost to make a Ranger down to every nut and every rivet. That 25 cents french fry icon is on there, but due to human nature we are going to gloss over that 25 cent french fry icon, because as an individual items on our individual truck we don't give a shit about 25 cents. We are going to look for those big dollar line items before asking "Well I don't need this, why is this on here?"

The french fry icon is not about duping the individual customer - its about duping the entire customer base as a whole. HA!

We all know that people who sell products go through great research and lengths to manipulate a customers state of mind. A big rabbit hole if you start reading in to such matters.

Sure we laugh about the idea on here and as I said, the post is just for entertainment purposes, but its a real tactic out there on varying levels of audacity.

And if you were an engineer then you understood my comments "An engineer didn't decide a french fry icon needed to be here".

We both know, people like software developers have that sort of humor, not engineers. lol

That is why the title of the thread caught my interest. In the general sense of the term, easter eggs were/are something you find in computer software.

Sponsored

 

[goalieThreeOne]

Oh I get it, the 25 cents was just a random number I pulled.

I also get if Ford wanted to add 25 cents they just would. But view it more of an accumulative thing.

As I mentioned, frog and boiling pot of water kind of deal.

The french fry icon much like anything in life, is never free.

A manufacturer can just add arbitrary money to a product price until it eventually reaches a threshold and people start asking questions, or worse, go buy something else. Imagine they know the threshold, then through a clever phycological plan to push the line in the sand a few more feet without the customer noticing, or better yet, willingly. Lets say you had a document in front of you that spelled out what it cost to make a Ranger down to every nut and every rivet. That 25 cents french fry icon is on there, but due to human nature we are going to gloss over that 25 cent french fry icon, because as an individual items on our individual truck we don't give a shit about 25 cents. We are going to look for those big dollar line items before asking "Well I don't need this, why is this on here?"

The french fry icon is not about duping the individual customer - its about duping the entire customer base as a whole. HA!

We all know that people who sell products go through great research and lengths to manipulate a customers state of mind. A big rabbit hole if you start reading in to such matters.

Sure we laugh about the idea on here and as I said, the post is just for entertainment purposes, but its a real tactic out there on varying levels of audacity.

And if you were an engineer then you understood my comments "An engineer didn't decide a french fry icon needed to be here".

We both know, people like software developers have that sort of humor, not engineers. lol

That is why the title of the thread caught my interest. In the general sense of the term, easter eggs were/are something you find in computer software.

Engineers have a sense of humor, I can assure you of that, haha.

The points you’re making are valid. It’s related to the idea of “scope creep” where the goals you try to achieve go above and beyond the original mission you set out to do to the detriment of your budget, schedule, or price.

I think that speaks broadly to the vehicle market. The reason trucks are three times as much as they were twenty years ago is inflation, yes, but also expectations. Everyone expects heated seats, automatic transmissions, touch screen entertainment centers, keyless entry, and five star crash ratings. You can’t sell a stripper truck anymore because no one is buying them
Except fleets. Even fleet cars have dual climate, touch screens, and satellite radio. It’s just one way it keeps getting harder to justify a new vehicle.

 

[SGT Ranger]

Engineers have a sense of humor, I can assure you of that, haha.

The points you’re making are valid. It’s related to the idea of “scope creep” where the goals you try to achieve go above and beyond the original mission you set out to do to the detriment of your budget, schedule, or price.

I think that speaks broadly to the vehicle market. The reason trucks are three times as much as they were twenty years ago is inflation, yes, but also expectations. Everyone expects heated seats, automatic transmissions, touch screen entertainment centers, keyless entry, and five star crash ratings. You can’t sell a stripper truck anymore because no one is buying them
Except fleets. Even fleet cars have dual climate, touch screens, and satellite radio. It’s just one way it keeps getting harder to justify a new vehicle.

I would change only one thing about your reply in regards to expectations.

Pricing is probably more of a reflection of shareholders than customers.

I could be wrong, but that is who Ford answers to at the end of the day, like many other companies.

 

[goalieThreeOne]

I would change only one thing about your reply in regards to expectations.

Pricing is probably more of a reflection of shareholders than customers.

I could be wrong, but that is who Ford answers to at the end of the day, like many other companies.

Profitability is probably the more important number to them. And these special models are brining it in. That’s the real reason Ford prioritizes the Bronco. They make more off the eight or nine different trim levels of Bronco (painting the top white and including steel rims and charging $20k for a Heritage trim is genius level marketing) then they do on the old timers buying XL trim Rangers.

 

[Texasota]

Ford is in business to make a profit as it should be. The market determines what will be paid for a particular model as it should be. There is plenty of competition in the mid-size pickup sector and if customers are unhappy with the price they will move to a competitor.

This is our free enterprise system and capitalism at work. It's a terrible system until you compare it to every other economic system every devised by humanity.

 

[SGT Ranger]

Ford is in business to make a profit as it should be. The market determines what will be paid for a particular model as it should be. There is plenty of competition in the mid-size pickup sector and if customers are unhappy with the price they will move to a competitor.

This is our free enterprise system and capitalism at work. It's a terrible system until you compare it to every other economic system every devised by humanity.

Yea, no one was actually discussing any of those things or suggesting otherwise.

Just tongue in cheek chit chat.

Most people are just none the wiser the tiny nuisances of formulating price points and "squeezing the juice" in often creative ways.

No one, including me, gives the french fry icon scandal anymore thought beyond entertainment theories. Although Ford could go the mile for the laughs and and add the french fry icon to the features listing on the dealer window stickers.

Maybe I'll add it to mine when I take it home, then frame it and hang it in my office.

I'll make sure under the tally column to photoshop in $0.25 right above the deliver and destination charge lol

 

[jrRaptor]

Engineers have a sense of humor, I can assure you of that, haha.

...

Can confirm.

-Source, am engineer, I LOLed.

For what it's worth, in my occupation, Marketing throws a fit when I try to add a feature that adds any pennies to the project. For a plastic injection molded part, something as simple as a symbol added is just a matter of solid modeling in Solidworks or whatever software and the tooling factory implementing it in their CNC programing for machining the tool. The tool itself is miniscule in pricing and part of developmental costing. The added geometry might add a very small amount of time for the machining of the tool cavity, but that's not really a factor in the tool cost unless it was significant. The only time something like that adds cost is if it's added after tooling was completed and the tool has to be modified to add it and the supplier doesn't want to eat the cost. They'd still need approval first and my Marketing team would say nope as any cost after the fact eats into profit margins. - Granted I don't work for a car manufacturer but I do work with plastic injection molding enough.

 

[carmigo]

Foot pedal and door handle symbols

I think the cost for such bespoke tooling can be negated if the tools are used for multiple generations which seems to be Fords goal. Yes it costs more, but what cost even more is having a different part for every model.

We can learn from the Lego story here. They almost went bankrupt because they were making way too many bespoke tools for small quantity pieces. Once they standardised their pieces and models to use the same pieces the abnormal cost problem was solved.

Ford could be playing a similar game.

How would I know where my fries are meant to go if the symbol was not there? Huh?

This will help me a lot. I often try to open the door with my foot but it never works.. ford should really clarify.

Sponsored