Is Mountune on life support?

[jmrtsus]

Mountune was recently rescued by the original founder (don't laugh, a guy named Mountain) and a group of investors. Lost money last year and was on the market. They hope to revive the company and get into electric car parts. The USA has never been a big market compared to the EU. I hate it but the US market has died for them and I'm sure Ford Performance will continue to sell the US unique ST parts if they do bail out from Cali or convert to a warehouse/drop ship for Ford Performance. When investors buy a company losing money cuts are inevitable. Lots of complaints about what used to be their strong point, Customer Service on the Forum and stocking issues. So decreased staff is probably the reason for poor customer service and lack of money in the stocking issues. Their parts still viable in the US market like radiators, exhaust, hoses and engine parts are already sold by Ford Performance and tunes are dead for them in the USA. Until we dump Trucks, SUV's and CUV's there is no market for hot hatches with tiny powerful engines. A partial quote from the article; " We can’t wait to get back to supplying and supporting our customers and dealers properly ......."

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/tuner-mountune-goes-independent-acquisition-founder

 

[XR650R]

When I go to the Ford Performance page, I see nothing for Fiestas. They dumped it all. https://www.fiestastforum.com/threads/ford-performance-is-selling-fist-parts-cheap.20452/

 

[M-Sport fan]

I am surprised that England, Europe, and the rest of the world which still buys Mk8 FiSTs in droves is not able to sustain their market share/viability.

Yeah, our market is almost dead for them, and unless they start offering many viable alternative aftermarket items for the road tank EcoBoost platforms (Raptor, F-150s, Explorer STs and the ilk), just as CP-E has done (and they may be on their way out as well, despite that shift), they could never expect to survive here.

 

[jmrtsus]

I am surprised that England, Europe, and the rest of the world which still buys Mk8 FiSTs in droves is not able to sustain their market share/viability.

Yeah, our market is almost dead for them, and unless they start offering many viable alternative aftermarket items for the road tank EcoBoost platforms (Raptor, F-150s, Explorer STs and the ilk), just as CP-E has done (and they may be on their way out as well, despite that shift), they could never expect to survive here.

Too expensive to get them past EPA........and they know "off road only" is dying. Turbo I-4's are their thing and I saw where Ford my be dropping it in the Mustang for the EU market. Europeans have always loved tiny engines, my first car was a Fiat 600, 38hp I think it was. I dreamed of Abarth parts for it!

 

[jmrtsus]

When I go to the Ford Performance page, I see nothing for Fiestas. They dumped it all. https://www.fiestastforum.com/threads/ford-performance-is-selling-fist-parts-cheap.20452/

Levittown Ford still lists the LSD and various hoses, 6 months ago they still listed the Radiator and Exhaust, head, engine and engine parts, probably dropped the listings due to unknown delivery dates.

 

[XR650R]

Levittown Ford still lists the LSD and various hoses, 6 months ago they still listed the Radiator and Exhaust, head, engine and engine parts, probably dropped the listings due to unknown delivery dates.

That, and the fact that Fiestas are dead here. They're going to dump their inventory, if they have any, and save that space for parts that sell.

 

[jmrtsus]

That, and the fact that Fiestas are dead here. They're going to dump their inventory, if they have any, and save that space for parts that sell.

I believe you are correct. If the Ford Performance site is no longer listing the FiST parts, it used to be just a Mountune Catalog! Bet they couldn't get stuff from Mountune either.

 

[stascom]

Are OEM parts still available from Ford? Engine internals, transmission, etc.

 

[green_henry]

Fwiw, I ordered track pads a few weeks ago and received them in a couple of days.

 

[jmrtsus]

Mountune was sold and a huge amount of money was brought in. That does not mean they will spend it supporting a dead platform like ours like they once did. I suspect high selling universal items like their radiator will be funded but performance parts for the 1.6L USA engines I think will not be made any longer. Levittown Ford Performance was where I bought some Mountune products like my MP-215 because they discounted the Mountune parts. They list very, very few Mountune items for the FiST now. The MP-215 died when Ford did not recertify it for the '17 up FiST for Mountune. Even their exhaust has been dumped from the Ford Performance line. Ford Performance sells their Mustang EcoBoost products but I have serious doubts it is a viable market. Right now with no small Fords here the USA market is almost dead for Mountune. In the rest of the world they are doing fine. My understanding is Mountune USA is a subsidiary company and can disappear in a fingersnap when it can no longer fund itself and I think that may be sooner than later. They can sell the few items they have online from a website or Amazon.
The USA FiST has had a great run and will continue as a cult car but it also has been a sales failure for FOMOCO USA. My wife and I had a conversation on what we would replace our FiST with if totaled. After 30 minutes we agreed the only replacement would be a used FiST.

 

[Mikey456]

Mountune was sold and a huge amount of money was brought in. That does not mean they will spend it supporting a dead platform like ours like they once did. I suspect high selling universal items like their radiator will be funded but performance parts for the 1.6L USA engines I think will not be made any longer. Levittown Ford Performance was where I bought some Mountune products like my MP-215 because they discounted the Mountune parts. They list very, very few Mountune items for the FiST now. The MP-215 died when Ford did not recertify it for the '17 up FiST for Mountune. Even their exhaust has been dumped from the Ford Performance line. Ford Performance sells their Mustang EcoBoost products but I have serious doubts it is a viable market. Right now with no small Fords here the USA market is almost dead for Mountune. In the rest of the world they are doing fine. My understanding is Mountune USA is a subsidiary company and can disappear in a fingersnap when it can no longer fund itself and I think that may be sooner than later. They can sell the few items they have online from a website or Amazon.
The USA FiST has had a great run and will continue as a cult car but it also has been a sales failure for FOMOCO USA. My wife and I had a conversation on what we would replace our FiST with if totaled. After 30 minutes we agreed the only replacement would be a used FiST.

Well that’s a bummer. I really like their stuff. I might have to drive down there sometime in the future to see if they have anything left in their warehouse for our cars.

 

[Zormecteon]

My understanding (could be incorrect but i'll go on anyway) was that it was sold back to the parent company based in England. The cars are still very popular there and there SHOULD .. I say SHOULD continue to be all the same parts availability. Not from FORD itself but at least thru mountuneusa.com or even mountune.com.

Just because FORD has quit the small car business in the US doesn't mean they've quit altogether..

I may well be wrong in all of this but..

 

[M-Sport fan]

Obviously they have not given up on the small car market in the rest of the world, otherwise they would not be giving a single penny to M-Sport (although they only give them about a 50th of what Toy and 'Dai give their teams ) to market/promote the Fiesta in the WRC, everywhere but here.

 

[Dpro]

OP above is speculating and does not know what he is talking about. Mountune USA is not going away in a finger snap. They are actually broadening out their support to other vehicles to do exactly the opposite. They have a large Focus RS catalog too.

They are basically doing what any business in the automotive aftermarket business does they are going where the money is.
The market for the FiST is extremely limited. When you realize that there is one main retailer that carry’s a comprehensive selection of stuff for our car you realize while not a bad aftermarket for our car its not a great one.

The Nissan 240sx for example had much more support in the aftermarket even 10-15 years after the company had discontinued the model.

There were once more companies that had a comprehensive amount of parts for our cars. Now most have a small selection at best.

Mountune USA saw the handwriting on the wall and have done things too address that.
I should add a lot of stuff they dropped also had to do with whether or not it was CARB compliant, which they dropped. That included their sportcat downpipe.

They are indeed planning another MoFoCo meet as well, coming up this summer.
People need to realize the FiST was not all their business here. They do a lot more with FoST’s and FoRS than FiST’s and have always have I should add.

They also are doing Raptor stuff as well as Ecoboost stangs and starting to do VW stuff.

 

[Overland History]

They are indeed planning another MoFoCo meet as well, coming up this summer.

Not sure if this was a Freudian slip, but regardless it made me lol!

 

[Dpro]

Not sure if this was a Freudian slip, but regardless it made me lol!

Thats actually what they call it. Mountune as in Mountune parts for Ford Motor Company

 

[jmrtsus]

My understanding (could be incorrect but i'll go on anyway) was that it was sold back t.o the parent company based in England. The cars are still very popular there and there SHOULD .. I say SHOULD continue to be all the same parts availability. Not from FORD itself but at least thru mountuneusa.com or even mountune.com.

Just because FORD has quit the small car business in the US doesn't mean they've quit altogether..

I may well be wrong in all of this but..

It was acquired by a group of investors including Dave Mountain, the founder of Mountune, Roush bought Mountune in 2008 then they bounced around with other name changes. Were ready to file bankruptcy when Mountain stepped in. In a nutshell he said they would provide an influx of funds to correct inventory and supply issues. So I will take that as they did not have the money to stock things like radiators causing the constant out of stock status. Mountune USA was flying high with the only legal and warranty tunes available but that went away after only 3 years. Sadly all they have left in stuff for the FiST legal to sell is RMM, FMIC, Radiator and exhaust plus hoses, pipes,cold air intake and a few other things I believe. And that to a diminishing market. Mountune will survive but I think Mountune USA unless they get a sponsored tie in with another car company like they had with Ford cannot survive as it is now. All of those products can be supplied on Amazon for much less costs than a brick and mortar store. A good bit of their income from non street legal products is things they will have to walk away from soon. Just took a few minutes to look at Mountune USA site. The only legal tune for Fords was the Ford Performance tune for the Ranger. For a company that got its start on legal tunes now have only one and it is provided by Ford Performance. A search for the word "Mountune" on the Ford performance web site pulls up zero hits. I wonder with the buyout if Ford bailed on them here?

 

[FiST Mag]

Their engine just won Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. I think they'll be ok.

https://www.mountuneusa.com/Articles.asp?ID=265

 

[iGilgamesh]

Am I the only one that finds is silly they won using a Honda K-series and they don't even offer any Honda anything.

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^Yes, but originally they were engine BUILDERS exclusively, and would've built any company's product, even though they were mostly dealing with British/Euro Ford, and Ford's World Rally Team engines.