I guess, after years of “unveil” events, veteran auto journalists must get a bit jaded by the hype that manufacturers foist. But not me. I was invited to my first-ever unveil, the Denver preview of the 2011 Ford Explorer, and I was ready for slick and sassy.
Especially after having looked up from my Cheerios this morning to see Ford CEO Alan Mulally on the Today Show do a TV network unveil. I tapped my wife with “that’s what I’m going to see at lunch today.” An SUV loyalist, she said she was impressed. She asked “is it for me?” I said I’d find out.
Here’s what happened.
Colorado has to be a very important market for the Explorer. Take in this scene. The venue they chose was a very hip, out-there organic restaurant in an area that’s morphing from nondescript to gentrified. Right now it’s somewhere in the middle. Appropriately enough, the building used to be a garage — some of the signage is still there. I pulled up to… valet parking?
Here?
The PR people greeted me with a swag bag, filled with what I was told was a press kit in the form of a USB drive, shaped like a matchbox Explorer… along with a fold-out map of Colorado, a packet of Colorado wildflower seeds, a compass, a rubber key fob and a few packets of Ford-branded chewing gum.
Servers hovered everywhere, proffering
I-can’t-remember-and-I-didn’t-fully-understand-when-they-told-me hors d’oeuvres, cold drinks and so forth. I do remember that my iced tea was “cucumber.” It’s good, my server said.
It seemed like everyone wore their uniform of role. A lot of “suits,” which is often an assault to the eye in a terminally informal city like Denver. I never did find out who they were. Dealers who didn’t get the dress memo? Trying to impress the brass from Dearborn? They sort of huddled among each other, perspiring.
It was confusing, because all the Ford people had on matching white polo shirts and black pants. Except Moray Callum, Executive Director, Ford Americas Design, who was in all black. Well, I thought, he could get away with it.
The scribes? I went with khakis and a button-down sports shirt. But I saw cargo shorts, tee shirts, sandals, Hawaiian shirts… whatever.
Fully sated, it was time for the big show. We all stepped into the sun, to a hulking shape that was covered in black cloth. Ranking Dearborn exec Barb Samardzich, Vice President, Powertrain Engineering, spoke first, about the Explorer’s no-compromise features, its aero, its power trains, its economy, its state of the art infotainment system.
Then she called up Moray to help her pull the cover off the vehicle. And so they did, amid rolling video cameras and a panoply of still shots.
Callum then waxed on about how the stance of this SUV is characterized by pulling the wheel arches out, cutting overhang, how the black lowers give a visual center of gravity…. On the interior, he said it’s one of their best ever… elegant, luxurious and world-class, with the latest My Ford Touch interface which, among other things, now understands some 10,000 voice commands, and a Sync Mobile WiFi Hotspot capability. And a third row seat that folds flat into the floor, or folds out to sit forward… or folds backwards for, say, tailgating, all automatically at the push of a button.
Everyone stormed over the vehicle, peering, pressing, playing. But I took a different tack. I sidled up to Mr. Callum and engaged him with provocative questions about life in design. Questions like how long does it take you to develop products, these days? He said 30 to 40 percent less time than, say, five years ago.
And when did you actually put this design to bed? He said 14 months ago, or maybe a year. Although we were making detail changes up to about eight months ago. It really depends on how long it takes to do the tooling.
And when are you going to redo the Mustang? He laughed. Everyone on his team wants to work on that, he said. It’s an icon. Like the Explorer and the F-150. If you ask someone on the street what products they think of when someone says Ford, that’s what they say. So you really want to get them right.
And, with that, he glanced over at his creation, glinting in the noonday sun, and he really did look like a proud father.
They popped the hood and showed off the engine. But they didn’t start it. There were no test drives. That comes shortly before the model’s actually offered to the public, this fall, they say. I’ll be ready for it. I still have to find out if the vehicle is for my wife.
*Editor's Note: This story was written by Dick Badler…one of the newest members of the Rocky Mountain Automotive Press. When not driving or writing about Porsches, Badler contributes to TFLcar.com.
