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Consumer Reports criticized the new Ford Edge’s rear liftgate: it had neither a key-fob-operated power opener nor a handle, making it awkward to open and close. When Ford engineers began defending the design, CEO Alan Mulally told them to listen and take notes. The episode, described in BusinessWeek coverage from June 2007 and reproduced in a textbook excerpt, captures his response to uncomfortable feedback—not proof that one meeting transformed Ford.
What Consumer Reports disliked about the Ford Edge
The criticism was about everyday access to the rear hatch, not the Edge’s overall performance or styling. The account describes a Consumer Reports staff member who was five feet tall trying to raise the liftgate while carrying two grocery bags, then struggling to close it because of its height. The hatch had no electric opener triggered by the key fob and, as the account puts it, not even a handle.
That demonstration made the design problem tangible: a feature can look acceptable in a design discussion yet prove inconvenient when a person is reaching, lifting, or carrying things. The account is an anecdotal usability example, not a standardized test or a quantified comparison with other SUVs.
How Alan Mulally reacted to the criticism
The visit came early in Mulally’s Ford tenure. The reproduced account places it on a chilly February morning, about eight months after he took the CEO job; it credits the original coverage to BusinessWeek in June 2007 but does not give the exact day.
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As Consumer Reports testers explained the liftgate problem, Ford engineers began interrupting to defend their design decisions. Mulally handed out pads and pens and redirected the room: “You know what? Let’s just listen and take notes,” he said, according to the reproduced BusinessWeek account.
The report presents the exchange as an example of a problem Mulally saw in the company: employees rationalizing mistakes instead of focusing on how to fix them. He also described the broader tendency behind that response: “We seek to be understood more than we seek to understand.” Both quotations are attributed to Mulally in the textbook excerpt reproducing the June 2007 BusinessWeek coverage.
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Why the visit mattered—and what it does not prove
Mulally’s intervention changed the immediate purpose of the meeting. Rather than letting engineers rebut the testers, he made their criticism something to hear and record. That is why the scene is often remembered as a leadership lesson: customer feedback can reveal practical problems that internal explanations do not resolve.
A 2010 retrospective describes Ford executives reviewing problems in weekly meetings and notes that Consumer Reports had elevated several Ford models by then. It also quotes David Champion, identified as Consumer Reports’ director of automobile testing, recalling the brand’s earlier reputation: “I wouldn’t have touched a Ford vehicle eight years ago.” Those later observations provide context for broader changes, but they do not establish that the Edge meeting caused them.
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The takeaway from the Ford Edge episode
Consumer Reports’ complaint was specific: the Edge’s liftgate was hard to manage for a shorter user carrying groceries, in part because it lacked a key-fob power opener or even a handle. Mulally responded by asking Ford’s engineers to listen before defending the design. The story’s value is in that moment of leadership; it should not be mistaken for evidence that this single exchange produced Ford’s later results.
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