1 COBRA

What a fricking CRYBABY!

If I were Bill Ford I would tell you to go flap yourself and buy a GTO.

05GT-O.C.D.

If Ford can't tell the difference between a stock order and a custom order, then they need a new system. Custom orders should be pulled in the order they were placed, when commodities are available, and they should take priority over the stock cars. There is nothing unfair about that. As far as allocation, any custom order should get pulled regardless of dealership size, because it's the end customer (us) who gets the short end of the stick. Why should I be punished for buying from a small dealer? Save the allocation crap for the stock cars. I agree, wake up Ford, it's the year 2005, time for a new order system.

IWantMyNewGT

Well said!

Boomer

When the hotness of the car dies down, you'll be able to order whatever you want, when you want.

there are so many factors in why a car may not be pulled, from allocation, dealer BS, factory parts available, cafe laws, etc etc.

Does it suck? When you want your car .... yes...

Ask people who have ever been on waiting lists for 'high demand cars'
When the new beetle came out, when the s2000 came out, when the yada yada came out....eventually that will die down. Try to get any one of those cars now, see how long you have to wait compared to the first year....or second.

We can't always get what we want, when we want.
If you really want the car, find one in dealer stock.
If you want to order, you have eat whats being served, whether you like how its done or not.
It works, whether you like that or not.

jwede

Ford can tell if the order is a retail order as opposed to stock order. I had to go into the dealership about a month ago and sign a form stating I still wanted the car "due to the age of the orders in the system"

Ford is dropping the ball. Boomer I agree with you to a point. If there has to be a wait, everyone should wait. I'm something like 13 weeks unscheduled, but yet others are getting pulled. Yes that makes me pissy. Yeah, maybe I'm whining. I totalled my SHO about 3 weeks ago so now my carless-ness is starting to be a pain.

There is hope as I see other old orders finally getting pulled.

Karpro

The system has flaws but it is needed. Everyone says pull sold orders first, fine then every order a dealer puts in will be listed as "sold" with my grandmothers name or next door neighboors name attached to the order. Then every order in this system would be a "sold order", and it would still revert to the allocation and commodities issues. The smaller dealers do get punished a little and, in a way, they should. If I sell more "dead" product (crown vics, freestars, taurus, etc) I should get more hot product.

If the allocation system didn't exist, I could come on here, start taking orders at our $200 under, get them in 6-8 weeks, I would sell thousands of them. It would make it near impossible for other dealers to get any. As much as I would love that, that wouldn't be fair either.

Again, the biggest problem with the system isn't the system. The problem is with honesty. If I tell you it will take until June to get you a car and you are willing to wait, no problem, that is the trade off for the great price I offer. The problem is when a dealer lies to you and says you will have your car in 6 weeks and knows it won't be here until June.

05GT-O.C.D.

Yes, it's not so much about being on a waiting list, it's about making the wait fair. You have orders placed in Jan w/ IUP getting pulled ahead of orders in Oct! I don't mean to sound like a crybaby... "but Mom, it's not fair..." but who wouldn't be a little angry if they were Mr October?

jwede

I get the impression that Ford is tking care of the big guys and turning their back on me (the little guy). For all intents and purposes they are.

I stopped in to a LARGE dealer last night while I was in Omaha. The sales guy told me the regional rep called him with 3 additional allocations that were available. So of course he took em. Why couldn't these be used to fill other orders in the KC region??? As of two weeks ago I was the 41st oldest order. You would think that Ford could bang out 41 freaking cars.

Right now I'd like to get the KC region reps phone number....

TomServo92

This is the exact reason I planned on buying an '06. I knew this car would be hot and hard to get (for whatever reason). I have my '04 Mazda so I have no reason to be in hurry other than the "I gotta have it now!" mentality which, so far, I've been able to keep under control.

EleanorsMine

There are just "bad" dealers everywhere....Trust me, I made the 2005 mustang my life for many many months. I got very familiar with every Ford dealer within 60 miles of me.
Bad can be- the one who treated me like a woman(I didn't bring my husband). Told me women shouldn't buy cars alone. Jerk.
Bad can be - dishonesty. IE- trying to sell me their product at a markup because "as you know the 05 mustang is a limited model"
Bad can be all kinds of BS. I saw it all, and got aggravated by it all as well.

On contrast- there are good dealers. Before the car wreck, we stumbled on the ford dealer close to me. Just happened to find THE salesman(we were looking at trucks that day). I asked in passing about the 05s, he said their first would be a lime GT. The day it came in, he called me to look at it. After he called me weekly when they came off the trucks- to peruse until I found "it". I found "it" the day Brad noticed a car hauler going down I65 towards me full of mustangs, and asked me to check em out. Eleanor was on that load. He was 100% honest when he said he could order me whatever I wanted as long as I was willing to wait 6-12 weeks for it, and he was SUPERB when I brought Eleanor home- No waiting at the dealer all day, he did the paperwork, and we just came in and signed. Eleanors coming home saga is another story, and an amazing one as well-that yellow car was meant to be mine. Story for another topic.

As a result, he is now getting our second business. Unfortunately a Ford truck and not a second mustang- but this dealership not stinking got them our loyalty and repeat business. As well, this truck shopping deal has also been excellent and he is super helpful.

Karpro

This happens alot. What this salesperson may not know is that the dealer might have had to buy 5 t-birds or 10 freestars to get this extra 3. Not every dealer would take that deal. They will use hot product as negotiating tools to sell not so hot product.

jwede

heck, I'd almost buy a freestar right now if thats what it took to get my order pulled

Same dealer has a 04 Mystic Cobra Vert. $36K. Made me re-think my order for a minute.

1 COBRA

You guys are overlooking the "dealer preference" and sales history factors. High volume sale dealers will not play second fiddle to low volume sale dealers. Ford will not make exceptions because the public has decided it likes the new Mustang.

Where were you guys in the last 10 years?

It might seem unfair on a individual basis but from a business stand point it makes all the sense in the world. And Ford is not unique to this practice. Chevrolet is doing the exact same thing with the Corvette. Not many "loyal customers" were tripping over themselves for the C5s, which needed to be sold at invoice and with rebates. Now that they want the C6s they are whinning like a bunch of little girls.

TomServo92

Chevy is doing this in regards to the pathetically slow selling SSR. They're telling dealers that in order to get better allocations for hotter products (i..e the C6), they must take SSRs.

05GT-O.C.D.

I do not see how it makes business sense to have unhappy customers and not be willing to do anything about it. If this is the first high demand car a company has had in a while, then it should be taken as an opportunity to attract new customers and build brand loyalty. We all agree that there's dealers that have the 'this Mustang's hot, it's 3k over MSRP, take it or leave it' attitude, we call those dealers the bad dealers. If FMC develops the same 'tude, I can't see it being beneficial to future business.

Grantsdale

Uhm, no. The problem with IUP demand is lack of the MyColor components. They are produced by Delphi. Delphi only had a certain amount that could be done with the machines that they had. It took them time for a new machine to be built and for it to arrive. Now the IUP delay is a bit shorter, and I bet they are working on getting even more capacity going.

1 COBRA

That's apples and oranges. You are now including the bad dealers in the equation which is a matter that Ford has no control over. Besides, there is a choice in not paying $3K over MSRP. Just ask the dummies that paid $3-5K over MSRP on the low production, high demand Bullitt and Mach 1. What is their resale value now? And what do you think is going to be the '05s' resale value in a couple of years when the market is flooded with Mustangs?

It makes a case for patience and getting the best deal one can because as sure as the sun comes up every day, the Mustangs will depreciate faster than the speed of sound.

Boomer

You make it sound like this is a new thing....
its not, its been happening forever..
With the internet now, info is just more easily spread.

And your still thinking on a small number of individuals who may be pissed off.

We make but a drop in the pond in mustang sales... plain and simple.

Me as a business person, would I agree to **** off 10000 people if it meant selling 180,000. or keep everyone happy and sell only 150,000
Keeping in mind, thats a fantasy...because if the 10,000 people I just satisified with cars may be you...I just pissed off a large dealership because they couldn't get all the cars THEY ordered.

'make more'
Whether that is or not possible, it would cost more in the longrun to up production, only to have that dwindle in the future as the supply/demand curve comes down.

I agree, it sucks when your on the short end..I know, I've been there before. I sympathize with anyone who is waiting.
But with the 'i'll go elsewhere' attitude, at this point in time, that car will still be sold, and someone will just take your spot in line.

You may feel your screwing them, as more and more people do it...but they will still be selling more cars and making more profit.

Bottom line: You can't please everyone.
Patience is a virtue

05GT-O.C.D.

I was only stating that FMC should not develop a bad attitude that some dealers have had. I agree paying over MSRP is a waste, that was only used to illustrate the poor attitude regarding the car and customer relations. The point is that if Ford is facing the decision of wheather they should have happy customers or happy dealers, it makes more sense to have happy customers. Why?... Because happy dealers will not guarantee that there will be customers to buy the cars. However, happy customers will guarantee that dealers will still exist to sell the cars. They'll still want to make the money.