Ford has faced a recent spat of negative coverage over the quality and craftsmanship of their vehicles.
For example, several mechanics have called out the company for its engine design, with one dubbing it the brand’s “worst design to date.” Others have simply shared their negative experiences with cars made by the manufacturer, with one user posting a video attempting to “deinfluence” TikTokers from buying the Ford Bronco.
As implied by the previous sentence, despite issues with the company, the Ford Bronco has seen some positive attention on TikTok, with many complimenting the car’s look and feel. However, for those considering a Ford Bronco purchase, a new TikTok from user @seoulwave1227 might make users question that decision.
What’s going on with this Ford Bronco?
In a video with over 120,000 views, the TikToker claims he’s currently working on a 2023 Ford Bronco. Upon trying to work on the car’s subwoofer, he discovered something surprising.
“I just removed the factory subwoofer enclosure, right? And I pulled the subwoofer out so I can get a sub signal out to my amplifier,” he starts. He then holds up a speaker frame that is missing parts essential to a speaker. This is also not currently wired up to anything. “See anything wrong with that? There’s no magnet, no voice coil.”
Thinking that he’ll instead need to get signal from the factory amplifier, he opens it up — only to discover a blank PCB with no electronics.
“They put in a fake amplifier with no power transformer, no capacitors, no nothing,” he states.
Why did the car have a fake subwoofer?
This TikToker isn’t the first to note this confusing addition to the car. Back in July, writer Lewin Day wrote a piece for The Autopian entitled “Why 2023 Ford Broncos Came With Non-Functional ‘Dummy’ Subwoofers And Amps.”
According to Day, the chip shortage resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for Ford to ship the cars as originally intended with a 7-speaker setup. Feeling they could remove the subwoofer without significantly harming the car’s sound, the company did just that, informing those with active orders about the change and offering those customers “a $250 discount to MSRP in exchange for the subwoofer delete,” per Day.
“Deleting the components made sense,” Day states. “Ford couldn’t source the chips it needed to build the amps that ran the subwoofer, and it seemed silly to hold up production over a single speaker. Thus, it made the call and kept the production lines humming.”
@seoulwave1227 hey Ford you wanna explain to your customers what this is? #ford #bronco #caraudio #fyp #automotive #technician ♬ original sound – Seoulwave1227
Commenters aren’t surprised
Given this information, while some commenters were surprised, many were already familiar with this information and explained the reasoning behind this move to the original TikToker. That said, some claimed that, even if the subwoofer had been installed, the results would likely have been poor.
“In my experience with subwoofers that factory stuff is nothing but a disappointment,” said a user. “And it cost so much to get so little. I’d rather just build it out myself.”
“Absolutely. I tell my clients all the time to buy the base model and do aftermarket upgrades in everything,” @seoulwave1227 responded.
“Yeah I considered buying a Bronco, was turned off that without the sub, stereo was terrible!” exclaimed another commenter. “Then it would have been $1,200 to buy the parts needed! Nope!”
The Daily Dot reached out to Ford via email and @seoulwave1227 via TikTok comment.
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