The REAL Reason Ford CEO Jim Farley Doesn’t Want You To Tune Your Truck!
Frustrated not being able to tune your modern Ford? You have Ford CEO Jim Farley and his daughter’s boyfriend to thank for locked ECUs.
Ford has a long history of catering to both vehicle owners seeking enhanced performance and the aftermarket. With Ford Performance tunes, upgradable parts, and a history of partnerships with companies like Roush, it’s clear that, on the whole, Ford is happy for their customers to customize their vehicles and increase power output and performance. However, recent years have seen Ford starting to lock down ECUs that control the powertrain across its entire lineup, from trucks to Mustangs. As one might expect, a healthy number of buyers don’t love that concept. Fortunately, Jim Farley, Ford’s CEO, is here to clear the air just a bit.
The Drive brought to our attention that Farley recently made an appearance on The Decoder podcast, discussing this issue among other topics. It’s worth noting up front that, if you’re not familiar, Farley is no stranger to the world of automotive performance. In fact, he races an actual Ford GT40 at places like Goodwood and has a collection of cool performance Fords of his own. So, he definitely understands the need for speed. At the same time, he must consider the company’s reputation and the longevity of its vehicles.
Farley’s Family Tuning Incident Story
“The aftermarket is a real opportunity, but it’s also a big challenge for us because a lot of people like to write software in the control module that controls the powertrain to get better performance, but what they don’t know, and what the user may not be aware of, is that all the reliability and the quality issues that might come up are very expensive,” said Farley.
It’s easy to dismiss those who have damaged their own vehicles with aftermarket tuning and point to the fact that they are knowingly voiding the vehicle’s warranty. However, it stands to reason that some people may not fully understand the consequences of their actions on the car or truck. Farley shared a personal story involving his daughter and her boyfriend about this exact scenario.
“My daughter’s boyfriend is one of these people. He bought a brand new F-150; he’s got a supercharger on it. He recently got a bunch of error codes because he updated the ECU against Ford’s standards, and now he needs thousands of dollars of expensive repairs because the vehicle has started chewing its camshaft. It was great that he could get 650 horsepower out of his EcoBoost F-150. He didn’t think about what he was doing to the reliability of the vehicle, but we have to at Ford,” Farley continued.
Saying It Without Saying It
Speculatively, one can assume what Farley is implying here. If you’ve ever worked in customer service, you’re likely aware that customers are all too familiar with the “customer is always right” philosophy. It’s safe to assume that a company as big as Ford regularly has to deal with folks who have voided their warranties, damaged a component of their vehicle, and want it replaced for free anyway. Of course, that’s just a bit of a thought experiment.
On the whole, it seems that the locking down of ECUs is primarily intended to present a PR disaster that could impact Ford’s quality control and longevity outlook. When that outlook is affected by something outside of the company’s control, it’s easy to understand why they would want to put a stop to it. Even still, it’s a shame that those who take responsibility for their modifications and create some truly astonishing builds from modern Fords will also be negatively impacted by these decisions.
Photos: Ford
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