2017 Taurus SHO

[SilverSH0]

Well, if Ford is smart and accepts their customers (a majority of them especially the ones that buy performance vehicles) will want to modify them in some sort of way! Therefore, Ford needs to continue and grow / add more products to their Ford Performance line! A lot of manufacturers have gone this route - some German ones have a full blown OEM aftermarket tunes & products for their customers. Plus, what a great way to capture even more revenue from this market!

I think it's pretty widely accepted that the majority of people who buy cars do not modify them. Most people leave the cars stock and those who do modify are definitely in the minority (not majority).

But the people can be broken down into even smaller groups to analyze. Lets look at the SHO, it's a pretty small market to start with and nearly everyone leaves theirs stock. There just isn't much market for Ford to develop a new factory tune for the SHO when there isn't much market. But if you compare that to something like the Mustang, even a small percentage of total sales amounts to a large number of people who tune their cars. As a result, Ford has seen there's a market and they have started developing options....http://jalopnik.com/fords-warranty-preserving-ecoboost-mustang-tune-is-fina-1787660757

The problem with the SHO is that it will never be as big as the Mustang and have a pretty small market for much aftermarket. If the SHO motor was ever completely different and locked out, it's likely nearly all tuners would disappear. It wouldn't be worth it for them to go through the R&D for the small SHO market. But since it is shared across platforms, that R&D can be spread across multiple platforms to make a larger market.

 

[SHOinVa]

I think it's pretty widely accepted that the majority of people who buy cars do not modify them. Most people leave the cars stock and those who do modify are definitely in the minority (not majority).

It wouldn't be worth it for them to go through the R&D for the small SHO market.

You make some very good points and I am not saying your wrong but lets look at it from a different point of view. Your correct, relatively few people modify there cars and most of the cars sold are not even performance cars. Lets take the Mustang for instance, through the years, its always considered a performance car but the truth is the six cylinder automatic version of the Mustang is the one that has paid the bills and kept the factory's humming. However its the fire breathing V8's performance models that drive sales of the rest of the fleet. Not many people can afford an actual tricked out Shelby but everyone driving a Mustang even the High School girls thinks they have one. My point is that even though very few cars are actually performance cars people modify it is those cars that actually drive sales making them important to sales overall.
I generally hope Ford stays out of the tuning business for two reasons, first you would have to go to a dealership to have it installed and I have found most dealerships full of ignorant thieves who only do the right thing when its the only things you can do. Secondly there is always a premium on any OEM performance parts, pretty much a 50% on anything they sale.
Lastly your correct there are not that many SHO's in the world but just because its a ECO does not mean its the same ECO across the board and does require a specific tune, so there must be a reason its still supported. My guess even if its not profitable then its at least a break even and gains them customers who may use them for something else. Just my two cents,
C/