I’m always amazed how some of you guys seem to know everything about Ford’s internal workings, profitability, engineering plans and or desires. Or at least you think you do. ANY manufacturing, whether widgets, cars, appliances, clothing, etc is a numbers game. If the numbers (volume) isn’t there, then selling a Raptor, R or otherwise, for even $200k is not going to be worthwhile doing. As someone so correctly stated, just testing and compliance with safety and emissions runs into the millions. Economics of scale (volume) means everything! Designers, engineers, and everyone else is on a very short leash to be sure that projects make economic sense. For many years I dealt with OEMs in the Auto industry and tier one suppliers, and I can tell you that designing, building, selling and supporting the products after their sale is not easy, and very seldom fun. The $$$ are not in small quantities of expensive vehicles, but rather in large quantities of run of the mill, easy to build cars. Yes, the Raptor is a “Halo” truck, but the bread and butter are in normal F150s, and fleet sales.
