Ford Quickclear heated windscreen tech is something invented not for customer convenience, but to please the UK’s largest car dealer network.
Well, sort of.
History time: it’s been around since the 1980s, and was designed to make life easier on winter mornings. Drive away in seconds, instead of minutes, went the promo (remember the man with the Orion in the print ads?).
Whether that was actually possible in cars with chokes, choking on sub-zero temperatures, is a moot point, but the thought was there.
Actually, though, I reckon it was developed to be a dealer-pleaser, too.
Dealer hots
Ford has more than 500 dealers across the UK (and maybe loads more back in the day). Each may have, ooh, between 20 and 100 used cars sat outside to lure people in.
Enter one cold snap, and cue frosted-over windscreens for each. What will be obscured by such an event? Yes, the price sticker hanging from the sunvisor behind the opaque screen.
In terms of manhours, this represents a lot of expenditure (and a veritable deluge of moaning). How better would it be to slash (silence) this with just the press of a button?
Of course, it wasn’t a perfect plan. Not all cars would be fitted with Quickclear screens. The higher-margin posh cars would be, though (Granada Ghia X and the like). They’re the ones in which dealers would have most cash tied up, and which they wanted to sell fast.
Quickclear would ensure the risk of missing vital marketing opportunities were minimised. Cue dealers quickly clear(n?)ing up (ahem).
OK, I admit. Ford probably didn’t invent Quickclear to please its dealer network. There, I jest, with tongue in cheek.
But knowing how thorough the brand is, I don’t doubt the consideration could have helped push the tech through in the planning meet, or featured in the strategy document presented to the Board…
+ What other unexpected uses for car tech can you think of?
+ Do you know of any other ‘Eureka’ type car inventions?
+ Ford is market leader and has Quickclear: coincidence?
