Ford’s Custom Garage Push Bets Big on Owning the Aftermarket

Ford will build exactly 1,000 copies of a hot pink Bronco Desert Rising and price the package at $13,695, pushing the SUV’s sticker to $57,350. It is the first drop in a bigger plan: turn vehicle customization into one of Ford’s highest margin businesses.

The push lands as Ford points to the $53 billion U.S. aftermarket industry as its target, the same month a federal fix meant to keep that market open to independent repair shops got stripped down in a congressional committee.

Ford Bets 1,000 Broncos on Sneaker-Drop Hype

The reveal happened Monday at Michigan International Speedway, where Ford’s customization arm unveiled the vehicle to press. Desert Rising launches the Horizon Series, a new line of Custom Garage packages built around real places. Ford senior designer Bhavna Mistry said the team pulled its color story from Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Utah, chasing the quiet light before and after a desert race rather than the dust and speed of the race itself.

The package adds a pink grille, magenta Katzkin leather seats and optional bodyside graphics that abstract the dunes, lakes and horizon of that Utah landscape. Orders opened July 27. Only 1,000 units exist.

“Think like a ‘Nike dropping a sneaker’ is the vision,” Matt Simpson, Ford Customization’s executive director, told CNBC at the event. Ford wants similar scarcity-driven moments across Mustang, Maverick and F-Series too, not just Bronco.

Ford says 46% of its new-vehicle buyers in the U.S. customize their vehicle in some way, and Bronco owners customize more than anyone else, ahead of Mustang and pickup truck buyers.

A $15 Billion Services Bet Backs the Strategy

Ford Custom Garage launched last year as the automaker’s one-stop shop for factory-backed customization, and Desert Rising is its highest-profile drop yet. The division already sells Bronco Matte Black and Bronco Dark Trail Matte Black packages, plus performance upgrades across Mustang and F-150.

“It is a growth lever for us. It’s been a good business for us. We think it can be significantly bigger, hence the investment,” Simpson said.

Package prices scale with the vehicle and the ambition behind it.

Ford says its $15 billion software and physical services business, which folds in customization revenue, is targeting roughly 8% annual growth through the end of the decade. Reporting on Ford’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call showed that growth also leans on Ford Pro, the commercial arm, widening its parts catalog to multimake components so third-party shops can service more than Fords. Custom Garage’s styling and performance packages, by contrast, stay exclusive to Ford’s own dealers.

“We’ve never had a Ford showroom as prime for this as we have today,” Simpson said. “Bronco, the Mustang, Maverick, the F-Series, this is the most passionate lineup of vehicles that Ford has ever had.”

SEMA Data Shows a $53 Billion Playing Field

Ford’s timing tracks the broader market. The Specialty Equipment Market Association, the trade group for the auto aftermarket industry, found accessory and performance-parts sales reached $52.92 billion in 2025, even against a mixed economic backdrop for new-vehicle sales.

• $52.92 billion in aftermarket accessory and performance-parts sales in 2025, according to SEMA’s newest market report
• 1 in 4 vehicle owners bought an accessory or performance product to personalize their vehicle last year
• 30% of all industry sales came from pickup-related gear, with owners spending more than $15 billion modifying trucks

More than half of accessory buyers are under 40, per SEMA, a demographic Ford is courting directly with Bronco, the youngest and most modification-hungry buyer base in its lineup.

Are New Broncos Too Complex to Fix at Home?

Not for warranty work, according to Ford CEO Jim Farley. He says modern Broncos pack enough specialty electronics and safety systems that an owner working on one at home risks doing it unsafely, even though he says he is fine with people repairing older, simpler vehicles themselves once the warranty no longer applies.

The question flared up in June, after President Trump met with Ford and General Motors executives about right-to-repair rules and came away surprised. “They don’t want people to fix their car,” Trump told reporters. “I said that’s strange. I’d never heard of that.”

Farley pushed back on the characterization. “Ford’s position is very reasonable, really,” he said. “We’re a big advocate for the ability to repair a vehicle, but it has to be done at a reasonable cost.”

These are very complicated cars and we don’t think that’s safe for many of the repairs on our vehicles.

Farley said that of new Broncos specifically. He can still fix his own 1973 Bronco in the garage, he said, but would not trust an untrained owner to safely open up a new one, which he said needs specialty tools most driveways don’t have. The same complexity that keeps independent shops out of the engine bay is what Ford is now packaging and selling back to buyers at the dealership, with a warranty attached.

Congress Waters Down the Right-to-Repair Fix

The federal REPAIR Act, formally the Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair Act, would force automakers to give independent shops and vehicle owners the same access to repair data and tools that dealers get. The bill’s full committee record shows bipartisan sponsorship behind Representative Neal Dunn, R-Fla., its lead author.

It did not survive intact. In May, the House Energy and Commerce Committee set aside the REPAIR Act’s full text. It folded a narrower right-to-repair title into the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act instead, which cleared committee on a lopsided vote, but the version that passed dropped the broader provisions on telematics and direct wireless access to vehicle data.

“The legislation considered by the committee does not fully reflect the original REPAIR Act and fails to protect consumers, independent repair shops and aftermarket manufacturers,” Dunn said. He is pushing to restore the stripped provisions when the bill reaches the House floor.

Car dealers, represented by the National Automobile Dealers Association, oppose the bill outright. The group’s opposition to the REPAIR Act argues a 2014 industry memorandum and a 2023 commitment already guarantee independent shops adequate access, making new legislation unnecessary. Polling cited in the debate found rare bipartisan agreement on the other side: 85% of Trump voters and 86% of Harris supporters backed the REPAIR Act’s original terms.

The Squeeze on Independent Shops

Put together, the pieces describe two different tracks through the same $53 billion market. Ford keeps the styling and performance upgrades buyers want most in house, under warranty, financed through the dealership. Independent shops and aftermarket parts makers compete for what is left, on vehicles that keep getting harder to open up without factory tools.

• Ford and its dealer network capture the order, the install and the warranty on Custom Garage packages, and Simpson said even basic protective add-ons carry margin straight back to the dealer.
• Loyal repeat buyers get pulled deeper into the brand; Simpson said spending more on accessories tracks with higher loyalty.
• Independent repair shops and aftermarket manufacturers stay outside the highest-margin, most complex work, the exact ground Dunn said the narrowed bill still fails to protect.

Ford is not shutting independents out of everything. Ford Pro’s widened parts catalog still sells multimake components to outside shops for commercial fleet work. But the exclusive drops, the packages built to double as marketing events, stay inside Ford’s own showrooms.

Monthly Payments Absorb the Upsell

Ford is also changing how customization gets paid for. Buyers can roll the cost of Custom Garage packages into their monthly loan or lease payment rather than paying cash up front, the same financing mechanics used for the vehicle itself.

That lands on top of a market Simpson himself describes as strained. New-vehicle affordability has been squeezed by high prices and elevated borrowing costs, and industrywide sales growth has slowed.

“Even with declining sales and unaffordability squeeze, a lot of these accessories, especially the kind of basic, like I want to protect my vehicle, that’s margin for the dealer to add in,” Simpson said.