Twenty-five years ago, Ford brought out a trio of concept cars that signaled toward a colorful, compact, and bright-eyed future that, style-wise, never really came to fruition. Now, though, you can get a taste of a Ford we never got because one of them, the 24.7 Pickup Concept, is now for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $3,000. (Although, as of this writing, the listing is marked as Pending.)
Trotted out at the 2000 North American International Auto Show in Detroit (what a time and place to be alive), the 24.7 Concepts were cute, futuristic, and blocky—everything Ford wasn’t at the time. There was a green Coupe, a white Wagon, and the orange Pickup you see here. All were built on the first-gen Focus chassis and powered by a 2.0-liter Zetec four-cylinder.
Check out this old Motoring TV clip and chuckle along as the description “computers on wheels” is spoken with distinct pre-Tesla incredulity.
Hella screens, constant “email and internet” connectivity, voice controls, phone service, and nav. The 24.7’s styling may not have carried over to any real, production Ford models, but boy, did its ideas prove to be right on the money when it comes to where cars would eventually go.
In the words of late veteran auto journalist Bob Kacher, “Well, I think they’ve basically lost their mind. [Then-Ford CEO] Jacques Nasser presented us with a program that basically said the car as an icon was gone. We would no longer measure performance and horsepower but by the internet, and all we needed was a box with four wheels to take us from point A to B. I think it was a big statement of arrogance on the part of Ford to try to cram something that they want to do down everybody’s throats.”
The foreshadowing here is almost haunting.
Surrounding all those electronics are four doors (the little rear doors open backward in the style of the Honda Element and Mazda RX-8), the tailgate folds down, and the back window can lift up.
The one being sold on FB at the moment is in rough shape, and the listing says it “was drivable at one point,” implying that it is indeed not currently drivable. The seller assures, however, that it “still has all the computers.”
The 24.7 Concepts’ designs may not have made it to production, but this could be an interesting buy for somebody handy looking to snag a unique piece of Ford history that has the shadows of a Maverick-like truck from an alternate universe.
Top image: Guy Davis
This just makes me miss the Ford SYNus concept. 17 year old me was ABOUT it.
The Sinus?
Yessir, it hit me in the sinuses with the ferocity of a 6-pack of NoseBeers.
Rough. Better hope someone like the Petersen buys it.
Was it parked in a swamp? Jesus, I can smell that moldy interior from here.
Hey everyone, I’m the guy who bought this, plan is to replace the electronics and have it as a roller for C&C events. It’s pretty much a 1999 focus underneath with the 2.0l, albeit with a tiny gas tank and no exhaust. All the electronics have been exposed to the elements for a long time so I assume they are toast, but I’ll find out. Me and my girlfriend have some interesting Ford’s (we both work there) so this was just too good/cheap to pass up.
If you want to follow along I’ll post on Instagram @othersamharris
That’s a fantastic buy!! I’m glad it went to someone with Ford connections.
Once rebuilt, I wonder if it can get road registered with an inspection as a custom or hot rod. It would also make a great electric conversion.
I believe someone bought it. https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthiscar/comments/1n3phiw/saw_this_on_the_5_today/
“all we needed was a box with four wheels to take us from point A to B.”
That was truer then than now. You can’t say something is just for A to B when it 0-60’s in three seconds, looks like a Dr. Robotnik lair on the inside and costs as much as a house in the Ozarks.
Show me an SUV from 2000 and 2025 and tell me which era cared less. The whole idea of “car as appliance” is an enthusiast red herring.
I wonder how you’d register this? I have an idea: drop the body onto an air-cooled Beetle floorpan. Those have a VIN number and as long as you have a title you can register it that way. You could even convert it to electric, they make Beetle conversion kits. The upside is that the electric motor takes up much less room than the upright air-cooled one, so it could fit under the bed. Otherwise the pan is basically a skateboard so it can be shortened or lengthened as necessary. Some modern screens could enhance the interior, even if they don’t do much other than look cool. All the original computer stuff looks fucked, so unless you just really, really love Ford concept cars, it’s probably better to revamp the whole thing.
I remember when these concepts came out. The media and the general public were not impressed and these concepts were panned.
And in my view, deservedly so.
These concepts sucked and I don’t care what Ford’s then-CEO Jac “the Knife” Nasser thought.
He thought they were great obviously and I recall reading him being pissed that people “didn’t understand” these concepts.
But he was wrong… just like he was wrong about a lot of things.
After 3 years with that Jac-ass at the the top, they couldn’t push him out the door to his “retirement” fast enough.
Getting back to this FAILED concept… I wouldn’t pay a nickel for it.
Sold two weeks ago for $2500!
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/736425572520773/?ref=category_feed&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A5ae957bd-31b6-4c88-8763-506b4264d336
The real questions are:
– How did this guy get it?
– Why was he just having it sit there decomposing for so long?
– Why is he selling it for so cheap now? And yes, for a one-off concept from a major company this IS really cheap.
The broken plastic around the computers does not bode well. On the other hand, a lot of cosmetic stuff could be 3D printed, and the screens could probably be replaced by modern kit that is smaller and more reliable.
As an aside the rear hinged doors are more accurately associated with extended cab pickups.
$3000. I was born at night but I wasn’t born last night.
Maybe as a shell to convert to electric…
Ford took an Element and modified it.
There is, apparently, nothing on the dashboard, no turn signals, no headlights or side-view mirrors, but it does have one huge windshield wiper, Tesla style…
The dashboard when it worked had all of the screens under that curved plastic area.
I don’t know if the screens were screens or just projections, but you can’t really tell what is there if it’s not “on.”
Just did a little bit of research, but it was some collab between Ford and a technology company called Visteon. One of the features was a “Voice Activated Reconfigurable Projected Image Display”. It looked really interesting in the pictures, but I can’t tell if that was a fully working feature.
It sure looks like projectors under the dash from the video. I don’t think there was any other display technology available at the time that would’ve worked for that – LCDs weren’t nearly widespread enough at the time.
Well back in the day there was this online auto publication that had a feature about cars. This would be what was called crack pipe.
Maybe sell it to a high school or something? Give them a little project?
Not a bad thought, but it should be a donation.
Torch did point out a while back that teenagers now (or at least Otto and those in his circle) are into the style of the turn of the millennium. And if the engine and driveline are early Focus that’s the easy part.
It’s odd but kind of adorable. Shame it never came to production in some form.
“The 24.7’s styling may not have carried over to any real, production Ford models…”
You don’t see the shape of the front door windows, black vertical door handles, the way the fender kicks up at the base of the A pillar, and armrest ledge behind the window kickup in the concurrent Super Duty?
It’s rare that styling is carried over from concept to production as a whole – but bits and pieces do.
I see it!
Is the name a reference to Breaking Glass?
“Twenty-five years ago, Ford brought out a trio of concept cars that signaled toward an affordable, compact, and efficient future that never really came to fruition.”
Fixed it.
Hand-wired concept with lots of “computers” that looks like it’s been sitting out in the weather for a decade or two. Hard pass.
It really is a bummer that more “interesting” designs don’t make it into product more often than a blue moon.
Tesla swap everything, and I bet it would run just fine. Can we send this to Aging Wheels?
I loved that era of concepts, and this was a favorite.
There was a very brief era of millenarian techno-optimism that produced a very particular aesthetic, although sometime around fall 2021 all that fell out of favor for some reason and now we’re surrounded by pissed off blacked out pickup trucks.
So the Focus, Sport-Trac, and Escape, “From the future!”. It’s pretty cool, if it didn’t look like black mold city would be nice to get running and maybe do an ev conversion, but registering may be an issue. Maybe get a Focus Electric and body swap it and register it as the Focus.
Focus ST or a FiST donor car!
Oh this is a good idea. Delete the computers that are guaranteed to be dead and have some fun