Set less than a quarter mile behind the Detroit Lions training facility in Allen Park is the future look that Ford Motor Co. wants for its dealerships.
Ford has built a simulation lab in an office complex there. It holds a new dealership design that Ford dubs “Ford Signature 2.0” that the automaker hopes all of its 9,000 dealerships worldwide will eventually adopt.
Ford Signature 2.0 is more than just a freshening to curb appeal or new art and furniture for a dealership. It involves a totally new concept and approach to selling and servicing cars. With it, comes training for dealership staff to work within a new environment to emphasize hospitality and lower sales pressure to customers.
In fact, you’ll hear Ford leaders repeatedly saying “hospitality first” when they talk about Ford Signature 2.0. It’s because the entrance to the dealerships is redesigned to feel more like you’re walking into a hotel than a car store.
Gone will be a reception desk, replaced by an open-concept showroom with lounge seating, a center area with food and beverages and a person to greet the customer. Whether the customer is coming to buy a car or get their car serviced, they will each experience the same greeting and access to the open showroom with food, beverages, Ford vehicle displays, Ford accessories and clothing also exhibited throughout.
“It can be intimidating going into a dealership, to be honest,” Elena Ford, Ford’s chief dealer engagement officer, told the Detroit Free Press. “You could know what you want and get there, but it’s not as comfortable as going into an Apple store, as an example. So this ‘hospitality first’ was something that really came out of, not just talking to customers, but benchmarking other industries.”
That’s right, Ford spent months benchmarking hotels and even health care to study how they put the customer at ease and then based the program around its findings.
Ford leaders know it is a lot to ask of dealers to redesign their entire dealerships, said Rob Kaffl, Ford’s director of U.S. Sales and dealer relations. He declined to disclose how much Ford expects dealers will spend redoing their exteriors and interiors of the dealerships. But he said it is a “significant amount” because everything, from landscaping to artwork, has been thought of and included in how Ford wants future dealerships to look.
“We’re not forcing anyone right now (to do the redesign),” Kaffl said. “We’re hoping that, as a Ford dealer, you understand this is a lot less about doing this for Ford than it is about doing this for your customers. We’re going to do it the right way with one-on-one conversations, talking to some of those dealers we really feel need to upgrade their facilities and introduce them to Signature 2.0.”
Kaffl said Ford, which sought dealer input when developing Signature 2.0, showcased it to dealers at a Las Vegas dealer event recently. He said Ford had about 100 dealers indicate interest in doing it to their stores. In Michigan, Ford leaders expect there to be interest in doing it as well.
Kaffl said in 2026 the following stores are projected to open: Skalnek Ford of Lake Orion and Baumann Ford Oregon in the Toledo metro area. 
Ford created the Ford Signature 2.0 simulation lab in Allen Park “to bring the dealers in it so the can feel the difference for themselves versus Ford telling them about the difference,” said Jennifer Kolstad, Ford’s global design and brand director.
The difference comes in an exterior that is all glass to provide transparency to even those driving by, which sends a message of trust and welcoming, she said. Then, there is a lowered grated canopy of wood leading from the exterior entrance into the interior, a design element that research shows puts people more at ease than high ceilings, Kolstad said.
“The arrival is a hospitality moment first. There’s no more a reception desk,” Kolstad said. “We understand that is a gateway to access, so we’ve removed that and instead we have food and beverage and smiling associates waiting to greet our guests. It’s called the hub.”
Ford has a suggested menu of beverages and food, mostly granola bars and the like, all incorporated in a cost model that dealers can purchase. It includes water bottles with the Ford logo label and mints and graham crackers wrapped in Ford logo packaging.
The seating areas were borrowed from hotels by design so that customers feel relaxed in the dealership.
While there are displays of vehicles, “now we’re pairing them with accessories and merchandise. We call this ‘Step into the lifestyle’ and it allows our customers to imagine themselves in this particular lifestyle and lineup,” Kolstad said.
Another principle to the design is that of “self governance,” meaning allow a customer to experience the dealership however they want to do it.
“They’re no longer guided through by a sales associate, but rather, we’ve created this open hospitality condition with a number of different variables inside of it,” Kolstad said. “So if we have guests who want to sit in more of a lounge-based scenario, they’re welcome to. If they prefer to sit at a café table and transact that way, that’s fine too.”
Some dealers want a traditional desk so Ford has designed that as well to work into the design and room for private offices as well.
“There are six or seven variables they can choose from, but it’s like puzzle pieces and the dealers love this because they shop in a catalog and they can go through and assemble the puzzle pieces that make sense to them,” Kolstad said.
To assure that all customers had a similar experience, the design reimagines the service bays.
“Service was a challenge for us. You have a front door, which is sales and typically a back door or side door which is service. That is no longer the case,” Kolstad said. “We still have the service bay and still have access from the side if needed, but our service guests are welcomed into an amazing experience and then straight through to food and beverage just like our sales guests.”
The service write-up area offers seating for two people opposite the service adviser with open integration to the showroom to encourage service customers to wander into sales and maybe buy a new car.
The reason Ford calls the redesign program “Ford Signature 2.0” is because it builds on key learnings from Ford Signature 1.0, which was an interior-only U.S. design introduced in 2017. The 2.0 design is the most significant retail program update since 2003.
Ford said Ford Signature 2.0 meets modern shopping trends, noting that slightly more than half of car shoppers begin their journey online, yet 40%-45% still make their initial contact through a walk-in visit, according to a 2024 study by Cox Automotive. At its core, the design is supposed to ease customer flow and integrate digital and physical interactions.
Elena Ford said the company spent months studying behavioral science to apply it to Ford Signature 2.0 and create a design that is human-centered to build trust.
“We spent six months benchmarking and studying how people feel. You may think that’s sort of strange, they’re just coming to buy a car. But you really want to make them feel like they’re welcomed and want to come to the store,” Ford said. “Sometimes the dealers come at you a little quickly so we’re also putting in training that we benchmarked from Lincoln — on training the dealers how to use the facility.”
A few years ago, some Ford dealerships in China and Mexico started implementing elements of the interior design to their stores, she said. Ford initially looked at how that design worked in those markets before taking it to dealers in the United States. It was a hit with customers, she said.
More: Ford invites public to tour new Dearborn headquarters for 1-day event
“I went to China, I went to Mexico and we interacted with customers all day,” Ford said. “We saw how, when they came into the dealership and they’re greeted by somebody and they’re offered a coffee or a water, in a lower pressure situation, that they’re more open to: ‘I’m interested in this vehicle … do I want to test drive an Explorer versus an Expedition?’ “
Elena Ford then took the idea to Ford’s global dealer roundtable where representatives from dealerships all over the world could weigh in. The result is Signature 2.0.
“We put them through the exercise of ‘would this work in your market?’ because this a global design that we want to implement in all markets,” she said. “Are their nuances for each market? Yes. We have a dealer in Alaska who — the front trellis can’t handle the snow — so there are nuances everywhere that we’re dealing with.”
In the United States, only one Ford store, Boulevard Ford in Delaware, has completed Ford Signature 2.0 on that store. Owner Dave Wilson called it a “game-changer.”
Kolstad said, “We’re already hearing from our guests, owners and sales associates that it’s exceeding their expectations in the way the guests are using this. They are naturally coming in to service their vehicles and finding their way to lounge on their own and now the service agents are coming over to find them and complete the transaction wherever they are. It’s service and sales anywhere.”
Kaffl adds: “It’s like the old saying, sales will do the first vehicle, service will deliver that second, third, fourth, fifth vehicle. So making sure it’s integrated” will help dealers sell more cars.
Kaffl said he expects to have at least another 25 U.S. dealers indicate interest in doing the renovations by year-end. Any new dealer that is buying a Ford franchise that needs the upgrade will be required to do Signature 2.0 in the franchise agreement, he said.
“We have second- and third-generation folks buying the store from Grandma and Grandpa, we’re trying to educate them on, these are some of the requirements we’re going to have you look at to renovate the store,” Kaffl said.
Elena Ford said the company will have 20 dealerships open this year across 10 countries with Ford Signature 2.0 done on them. She expects to have a total of 250 dealers globally this year indicate they will do it.
Jamie L. LaReau is the senior autos writer for USA Today Inc. who covers Ford Motor Co. for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Jamie at jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.

source