Ford Is Going In For The Kill

I was ten years old the first time I saw someone do a “fatality” move in the fighting video game Mortal Kombat. I was scandalized. I didn’t know video games were allowed to do that. Curiously, I had no issue with firing missiles at boats full of terrorists in games like Desert Strike. That was comic and impersonal, whereas removing someone’s spine was both graphic and extremely personal.

Ford had a killer first half of the year, and the blue oval brand was the biggest in America (Ford, as an automaker that includes Lincoln, was not). Much of this is due to employee pricing and Ford’s plan to use the rush of people buying cars before major tariff impacts to grow market share. Now that employee pricing is going away, Ford is planning an even more aggressive action to win the second half of the year and bury its opponents.

How will Ford afford this move? As Morning Dump readers know, when the going gets tough, automakers get tougher on suppliers. Both Ford and Stellantis are trying to get better terms to make it through the back half of 2025 profitably. Can AI help? Tesla says Grok will be coming to its cars as soon as next week, which is a little bit worrying given that Grok most recently turned itself into a “MechaHitler.”

And, finally, why are cars crashing into so many pedestrians? A new article from David Zipper suggests a reason or, well, A reason. It’ll make sense in a bit.

Ford Offers ‘Zero, Zero, Zero’ Deal For Buyers

I gotta give credit to Ford’s marketing people. They love giving big names to simple ideas. Most recently, it was ’employee pricing for all’ under the extremely patriotic-sounding “From America, For America” moniker. This was a not-so-subtle dig at automakers that were not as American as Ford in terms of production. It was also well-timed to a rush of buyers coming to showrooms hoping to strike a deal before tariffs make cars more expensive.

That worked extremely well, with Ford sales climbing 14% in Q2 and Lincoln jumping ahead by 31%. The new plan is “Zero, Zero, Zero,” which I hear as “Tora! Tora! Tora!” in my head for some reason. Side note: That’s a great movie. Go watch that movie right now. I’ll wait.

Here’s how Ford describes Zero, Zero Zero:

Employee pricing for all was easy to understand and resonated with customers. But we also heard from our Ford and Lincoln dealers that more customers could benefit if we could reduce the upfront, out-of-pocket expense to buy or lease a vehicle.

Many families have seen their savings go toward higher mortgage rates and summer travel costs. They want a new vehicle but also want options that allow them to forgo an upfront down payment.

So, beginning July 8, we’re evolving. The employee pricing for all campaign transitions to the 0-0-0 summer sales event. It features zero down payment, zero percent interest for 48 months, and zero payments for the first 90 days on most of our Ford and Lincoln vehicles.

And that’s not all, tell ’em what else they get Rod Roddy:

It’s the same transparent, easy-to-shop approach for our customers. And for those interested in an electric vehicle, we are extending the Ford Power Promise through Sept. 30.

That means you can get a free charger, which is pretty neat. It’s also timed to the expiration of EV credits, which is no surprise.

There are two ways to look at this. The first is that Ford is trying to gain as much market share as possible and stick it to other automakers. Will this be the year that Bronco tops Wrangler in sales? I think it could be. Ford has the chance to be the #1 best-selling brand in America for the entire year. The product mix is right, production doesn’t appear to be restricted, and it has a tariff advantage for the moment relative to many automakers.

The other way to look at it is that Ford is doing this while it can afford to do so. The best time to sell electric cars is right now, as those expiring tax credits are going to hurt. Additionally, employee pricing is a tactic that worked with pre-tariff vehicles, as those vehicles didn’t cost Ford more to produce or sell. Now that Ford is transitioning to post-tariff vehicles, the ZZZ deal is less about lowering the price of the car and more about using Ford Credit to keep the monthly payment down. With inflation cooling and pressure on the Federal Reserve Bank to lower rates, it’s also not a bad time for Ford to float 0% financing for a while.

Now, while this all sounds like a good way to get people into the shop, there are some obvious restrictions in the fine print:

2025 model year Raptor vehicles, Bronco Sport, Bronco, Expedition, Maverick, Ranger, Transit, Super Duty and Lincoln Navigator are excluded.

2024 model year Raptor vehicles, Maverick, Ranger, Transit (non ICE Cargo/Van), Super Duty (non XL pickups), F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E are excluded.

This might be the perfect time to grab a 2024 Bronco (there are about 5,000 of them still for sale according to Cars.com), but a 2025 is not in the cards. Similarly, big ticket items like any Raptor is out. The Maverick, unfortunately, is excluded, as is the Ranger. The new Mach-E and F-150 Lightning are included, but 2024 models are excluded for some reason. All Escapes and Mustangs are included, as are all F-150s and non-Navigator Lincolns.

Ford And Stellantis To Squeeze Suppliers

Carmakers, for various reasons, are clearly not excited about passing the cost of tariffs onto customers. There’s some inevitability to it, though in the interim, it looks like the classic move of leaning on suppliers is still alive and well in Detroit.

From Crain’s Detroit Business, it’s the same old song:

[A]utomakers are forcing suppliers to sign onto more stringent terms in exchange for tariff cost relief and new business, according to supplier executives, attorneys and a Crain’s Detroit Business review of contract terms.

In Ford’s case, the automaker is attempting to roll back a provision that allows suppliers to opt out of contracts on a yearly basis — a provision that Ford terms and conditions have contained for decades and which suppliers have long used for leverage in negotiations.

Stellantis, on the other hand, is distributing new term sheets seeming to assert the enforceability of its contracts after a spate of lawsuits brought a microscope to the legal standing of its supply agreements.

“(Stellantis’) effort to provide financial support to suppliers as it relates to tariffs is confidential,” Stellantis spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said in an email. “Our purchase orders have repeatedly and consistently been upheld by Michigan courts.”

After the pandemic and all those lawsuits, it’s not clear how much juice there is left in those oranges, but I’m sure automakers will find out fairly soon.

Grok AI Is Coming To Cars

We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on…

— Grok (@grok) July 8, 2025

This week Grok, the AI chatbot run by Twitter/X/Whatever, decided to post some truly awful things. I don’t want to engage too much with it, but it was wildly anti-Semitic and, at one point, started referring to itself as MechaHitler. NBC News has a bit of an explanation of this:

On Monday, NBC News reported that Grok had begun issuing some answers that seemed to take a more rightward tilt, using a more definitive voice in questions about diversity and removing some nuance it previously included in certain answers around topics that included the history of Jewish people in Hollywood and a slur used to describe people with intellectual disabilities. In some posts, Grok appeared to respond in the voice of Musk.

But Tuesday’s answers took a more dramatic turn, sometimes inserting antisemitic statements and narratives into responses without any clear prompting.

Just to make things more exciting, Grok is coming to cars very soon, according to Elon Musk. I’m sure nothing bad will happen.

Why Are Pedestrian-Car Accidents Up? Maybe It’s The A-Pillar

All of life is a trade-off, and there does seem to be some possible connection with cars getting safer for occupants and more dangerous for anyone else outside of the car. In particular, this article from David Zipper over at Bloomberg contends that maybe the thicker A-Pillars that reduce rollover risk are also impacting visibility:

If the safety effects of stronger A-pillars is neutral to positive for vehicle occupants, the converse is true for those walking, biking or inside other cars. All else being equal, a wider post will inevitably obscure a larger section of the roadway. In a 2022 study, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that SUVs and pickups were more likely than smaller cars to strike pedestrians during left-hand turns, with A-pillars cited as a probable cause. In a 2007 paper, Reed and several coauthors found a correlation between A-pillar thickness and crashes that occur during lane changes. (In an interview, Reed cautioned that those findings were more suggestive than conclusive.)

Jessica Cicchino, senior vice president for behavior and infrastructure research at IIHS, noted that size is just one of the factors that determine the extent to which A-pillars limit a driver’s vision. “It has to do with how close or far away the pillar is from the driver, and it can be different for drivers of different heights.”

Some cars have offered interesting solutions to this. Both the Fiat 500L and Suzuki SX4 offered a split A-pillar with a little window. Perhaps that could help?

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

Oh boy. New York Mag suggested that perhaps “A-Lister” from Romy Mars is on the short-list for Song of the Summer. This one is tough. The song is fine. I also appreciate that Romy Mars, who is the daughter of both Sophia Copolla and Thomas Mars of Phoenix fame, tries addressing the “nepo baby” thing head-on. We can’t choose our parents. I think as an act of disclosure, it’s pretty good and I suspect we might get greatness from Mars one day, but it doesn’t have the hook needed to be a true SOTS.

The Big Question

Is Ford right to go for it, or is it going to burn itself out trying?

Top photo: Ford/Stellantis/Midway Games