Your Week in metro Detroit: A Ford movement no one saw coming
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Good morning, Your Week subscribers!
This week brought some really great journalism to Freep subscribers.
On Wednesday we told you about GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, who posted a video calling Gretchen Whitmer "Michigan's original insurrectionist."
The Grand Hotel had $8 million to spend on an expansion. They're hoping the big changes will lure in couples, families and professionals who can work remotely. Take a look.
Here in Detroit, the once-decrepit Michigan Central Station is constantly being worked on — and new details have been revealed about what's coming.
Lastly, the popularity of the Ford Maverick is a movement that nobody saw coming — even Ford.
Below, autos reporter Phoebe Wall Howard gives us some insight into how the story happened.
"The Maverick story is what happens when I review boring year-end auto sales data off deadline and wonder what I missed – or what no one else has covered.
In this case, Ford reported totals for the all-new Maverick pickup but never broke out details regarding hybrid vs. non-hybrid. Sometimes automakers reveal specific sales categories, sometimes no.
In this case, I discovered we could get the numbers. Industry analysts were so surprised that a carmaker would offer hybrid as a standard feature but no one had broken down the take rate.
So I first requested the data from Ford and then cold called dealers in Michigan and around the country (Fla., Texas, Calif) to talk to – and convinced those dealers to put me in touch with their early adopters. In these situations, people are not prepped or managed.
I get the email and the phone number and plunge in. As a result, the Free Press had the first story on the Maverick hybid early adopters – who felt like golden ticket holders headed to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory."
Phoebe can be reached at phoward@freepress.com.
Thank you for supporting the Free Press with your digital subscription!
You make stories like these possible.
Until next week,
Elissa Robininson, Free Press Web Editor
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Your Week in metro Detroit: A Ford movement no one saw coming
