Through its 120-year history, the Ford Motor Company has experienced plenty of success, and helped shape the course of motoring history. But not all of its cars have been universally well received.
To highlight that, here are a selection of the most controversial Ford models from its long and storied history.
DAVID FINLAY
Ford Explorer 1995
The Mk2 Explorer SUV went on sale in the US in 1995 and quickly became notorious due to a series of major accidents. This led to a legal battle between Ford and tyre supplier Firestone. In February 2001, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it had denied a request by Firestone to open a safety defect investigation into the handling and control characteristics of the Explorer if the tread of a rear tyre came away from the rest of it. The NHTSA stated that analysis of claims data showed there was “no significant difference in the likelihood of a crash following a tread separation between Explorer vehicles and other compact SUVs”. The affair led, among other things, to the exit of Ford CEO Jac Nasser.
Edsel 1958
Possible reasons for the failure of Ford’s calamitous Edsel brand, which was introduced in 1958 and axed just two years later, include incoherent marketing, a change in customer preferences towards smaller cars, low quality, dubious styling and a horrendous recession in the US, during which new car sales halved. Edsel was Ford’s first major disaster, and a sign that even an enormously resourceful company with talented staff can sometimes get things very badly wrong.
Ford Pinto 1971
Ford’s first North American sub-compact model sold in very large numbers throughout the 1970s, but it’s more famous now for its tendency to explode if the fuel tank was ruptured in a rear-end collision. Although there are differing views on just how dangerous the Pinto really was compared with similar cars built during the same decade, there is no doubt that it was an extremely costly car for Ford in terms of both money and reputation.
Ford Sierra 1982
A section of the British motoring public, familiar with the Ford Cortina for two decades, reacted hotly to the arrival of the Sierra in 1982. It had a silly name, they said, and it looked like a jelly mould. The controversy eventually died down, and the Sierra became as familiar as its Cortina predecessors had been. The high-performance RS Cosworth and later RS500 variants added glamour to what, by the end of the decade, was regarded as a very conventional car.
Ford Escort 1990
The European Escort entered a new generation in 1990. Compared with its immediate predecessor, the car was roomier, better equipped and only slightly more expensive. Customers liked it. This happy tale is spoiled only by the fact that early models were heavily criticised for their ride, handling, gutless engines and appearance. Ford reacted very quickly to complaints with a facelift, which made it the car it should have been all along.
Ford Scorpio 1994
The final European Ford in the Granada/Scorpio line, launched in 1994, was a conventional large saloon/estate, which in normal circumstances wouldn’t have offended anyone. The abnormal circumstance was its design. Commentators fell over themselves trying to outdo each other with ever more insulting remarks about the car’s appearance. To this day, the name of the primary designer of the car is not publicly known.
Ford Ecosport 2014
“It’s been a long time since a new Ford was as bad as the Ecosport,” we said at its launch. The model had been developed in Brazil and built (for the UK) in India. And while it passed reasonable muster in those markets, it didn’t in the highly competitive European compact SUV class. With doubts over its ride, handling and interior quality, the Ecosport at first sold poorly, although repeated facelifts did make things a bit better.