https://carbuzz.com/ford-sues-restoration-company-for-making-new-broncos-look-like-classics/
Haven’t read the article, let me guess: this shop was making their own stuff with a logo or a copyrighted name, or similar?
Off to read it.
Edit: that article sucks. Basically clickbait. Better article: Ford Sues Company For Body-Swapping New Broncos with Classic Bronco Design
Safety, brand recognition, and unlicensed use of the name and logo are named as concerns of Ford. Not surprised they are being sued
@Knox
Yep. You’re the only person who seems to have both correctly guessed the reason and tried to read the article, instead of going along with the ragebait headline.
varlerie said:
@Knox
Yep. You’re the only person who seems to have both correctly guessed the reason and tried to read the article, instead of going along with the ragebait headline.
Isn’t that the American way tho now…
@Marshall
I still don’t understand why ford and other American manufacturers don’t get into this.
I have a 2016 f150 lariat that drives and rides fucking awesome but I still choose to drive my 75 f100 every day despite it being uncomfortable, loud, and driving like shit
@Kane
Safety is probably the biggest legal reason. Emissions would be weird. It would cut into the bottom line of the current F150, and that is probably the most important to Ford.
Knox said:
@Kane
Safety is probably the biggest legal reason. Emissions would be weird. It would cut into the bottom line of the current F150, and that is probably the most important to Ford.
I’m sure once you actually tool up to mass produce these at a price people would buy them at(if they didn’t fall afoul of things already mentioned) they become a whole lot less appealing
They already went for the retro-contemporary look with the new bronco in many ways.
@Knox
Good job.
Lot of other commenters here haven’t actually read the article.
@Knox
Makes me wonder if they undersold the name a bit and were just a shop to do mods if they would fly under the radar.
Anastasia said:
@Knox
Makes me wonder if they undersold the name a bit and were just a shop to do mods if they would fly under the radar.
Probably. I can think of dozens of shops that do that with various brands.
As long as its differentiated sufficiently, generally they dont care.
@Knox
Meh NAL, I feel like it’s still shitty of ford
Calling a modded Bronco a ‘vintage bronco’ doesn’t seen particularly problematic
I get there’s precedent for this sort of thing, but it all seems rather frivolous, this is a cottage industry that aught to be allowed to exist.
@PixelPioneer
It is a cottage industry that does exist, though. This is, effectively, no different than a lot of tuners and builders that will modify classics or even modern cars and sell them. They just dont use the brand name, or they use the name in such a way to sufficiently differentiate between the OEM and the builder. Until emissions got too tight, Flyin Miata built whatever Miata you wanted with a modern drivetrain. Lingenfelter builds high HP versions of half a dozen cars (provided they actually build you one.)
If you don’t use the brand name you can do this. You just gotta be smart about it and look at the dozens of companies that got sued into non-existence for doing it wrong.
@Knox
Really, kit cars are nothing new. They should just rename themselves “Wild Horse Customs” or something, and let people buy real ford badges or something from Etsy on their own.
@Knox
If you want to read an article as free open up the reader on iOS
Reading the article, there are some valid points. It seems like it’s partially to protect ford as these cars are modified and customized. Any safety claims could bring ford into a lawsuit if someone gets injured. My initial thought was once the car is sold, why should ford care until I read further down the article.
Well while the suit is probably valid, can’t deny thats awesome! Cool overhauls they do. Shame they couldn’t work out an agreement instead.
Declan said:
Well while the suit is probably valid, can’t deny thats awesome! Cool overhauls they do. Shame they couldn’t work out an agreement instead.
Yeah, they look cool!
Declan said:
Well while the suit is probably valid, can’t deny thats awesome! Cool overhauls they do. Shame they couldn’t work out an agreement instead.
The automotive industry also gets sued a LOT. Knowing that, I’m not sure there’s a way to come to an agreement
@Everett
It’s actually not that hard for the company to bypass Ford here.
All you do is remove any name, image, likeness of Ford/Bronco for the project.
Then, you “leak” onto the Internet how to do the additional Ford modifications, logos, branding, etc. It’s not illegal for a consumer to do it.
@MustangMaven
You’re right, but it kinda shows how frivolous the lawsuit is…you aught to be allowed to do these things and badge it as you’d like.
It’s not like they’re building these cars from scratch, I’m the end they’re modifying a bronco