MrMorden

Hey guys, like others on here I have ordereda 2006 Mustang GT. Also like other, I have been told my car will probably not be built until after the first of the year.

I'm willing to wait. In my mind, no other car holds a candle to the new Mustang GT in price/performance and just plain coolness factor.

But the obvious question remains: WHY the long wait? Surely Ford knew this would be a hot seller, and experience from the 2005 model year should tell them what to expect in 2006. Why has Ford not ramped up production on the GT or opened another production line to meet the demand? After all, as poor as domestic auto sales have been, ANY car that can exceed average production numbers should be cherished like gold.

The only reason I can see for this issue is that Ford is worried about meeting overall lineup MPG targets. The GT gets 2 mpg worse than the V6, so if Ford builds a ton of them their average MPG goes down and the government come along and whacks ther pee-pee for that.

Even so, it is kind of ridiculous that orders on a general availability car with a base of under $25K are being pushed back six months or more. If this keeps up, instead of being a huge cash cow for the company, the Mustang GT will be a PR black eye for them.

Anyhow, I'll just keep waiting... <_<

holderca1

Because there is a lot more to it than deciding to just open another production line. They would have to increase production (or ask their suppliers to increase production) of a lot of things that they may be capped out on already, it only takes one part that is maxed out to limit the production of the car.

MrMorden

I definitely understand this. But they are cranking out V6s like crazy, and the GT shares 90% of components with the V6. If there were a bottleneck in the non-shared components, Ford could get it solved. After all, the 05/06 Stang has been in production over a year now, and the demand and remained constant and high...Ford has had time to resolve any production volume issues.

Be advised I'm not bashing Ford, I'm just bummed at the wait and not sure why it's necessary.

jsheehan

Another thing you have to think about is will the new Mustang still be this hot a few years from now? If not then they actually lose money by ramping up production now. Once they have met the current demand and demand falls off later they are left wth unused production capacity. Government CAFE requirements on MPG might also play into it. The truth is, none of us know every piece of information that goes into making a decision about how much of a car to produce, so it is futile for us to second guess Ford. The truth is, making and selling cars is a bussiness, and the number one goal is to make money. Therefore, there must be some economical reason as to why Ford is producing the number of mustang GTs it is.

Ranger

As you can imagine, there have been a number of threads on this topic the last 9 months or so. For the 05, being a first year model, IMO it would be understandable to have the marketing forecasts off. If I remember right, the initial forecast for the IUP was around 20% - and the actual was 80%, and so on. I don't think it would be unreasonable, now that they have the 05 GT under their belt, to expect more production and less shortages....so hopefully while your expecting the worse, you will get your 06 sooner than you think!

TomServo92

Put yourself in Ford management's shoes and ask yourself this question: Mustang demand is outstripping AAI production now, but what will it be in 2-3 years? It takes alot of capital to convert a production line and capital is a precious commodity at Ford right now. Management has to be careful not to dump that kind of money into a new production line that might not be needed in 2-3 years.

TomServo92

Apparantely we think alike! You posted this while I was typing my post above.

05stangster

Quote " ... ordered a 2006 Mustang GT ... been told my car will probably not be built until after the first of the year"

imo, I find this almost unbelievable (not the quote, but that Ford already has enough backlog on MY06 which just went on sale) to justify 3 or 4 months wait time. Let's be conservative and say they are slow and only build 15,000 a month. That would mean they have already had 45 - 60,000 ordered ??????????????

Am I missing something here?

moc1976

We've been around and around on this topic, but I have to agree with the original poster, there's no reason why there should still be a 6 month waiting list for a 06 MGT. Its just not good business, I don't care what the bean counters say.

We've already beat the topic to death on how, when, or where to increase production, but the bottom line to me is that it should be feasible with the technology available today. And the suppliers should also have had ample time to increase their production as well of critical GT parts.

I'm not trying to bash Ford either, but from the customer's point of view, this is unacceptable.

TomServo92

It has been beat to death (I know you and I have at least!). I will say this: I don't doubt it's technically feasible. The question is whether it's economically feasible for Ford. Bean counters or not, if Ford doesn't have the spare capital, it just can't be done.

97svtgoin05gt

Tom, you are right on the money here. I'm hearing a lot of "spoiled American" comments on this thread. We're talking about whether Ford should sacrifice their financial well-being to satisfy the thirsty American public on this vehicle. My view is this car represents a VERY BIG leap forward for Mustang lovers AND a really slick, cool car for people who would have never even considered a Mustang prior to S-197. This all translates into one thing. BIG DEMAND. Right now Ford would be utterly crazy to just go convert another plant to produce more Mustangs for a number of reasons including, but not limited to conversion and tooling costs, labor costs, parts shortages, and possible future demand shrinkage.

Dealer stock units are always under production and being delivered. If you simply can't wait for an ordered car, you should search often and throughly to locate one you can cut a deal on. There may be some sacrifices option wise, but people need to give a little, take a little. If you utterly MUST have the car you want with no exceptions, get on line and be patient.

moc1976

spoiled Americans or not, the fact is that a 6 month wait for a car in its 2nd model year is bad business!

I'm not going to get into the same arguments, but in my line of work(supply chain systems for a major grocery company), if we didn't "fix" this type of issue in that amount of time, you can bet we would be in some serious trouble from upper management. I know that its not apples to apples with groceries and cars, but its close enough for comparision.

moc1976

And why is it that Ford continues to build dealer stock units instead of retail orders That makes little sense to me. I know, I know, those sneaky dealers have ways to make their stock orders look like retail orders, but this is something that could have been fixed by now!

Any why would they have to convert another plant to produce Mustangs to build more GTs? Why can't they just stop making so many darn 6ers and make more GTs? Use the current plant, just make more GTs! Is it the CAFE standards, well, at least that's what I've heard. But again, I don't see how 2mpg really makes that much difference.

Flyinlow

I was going to make the very same comment. I too work for a grocery company. I know the three basic necessities are food, clothing, shelter, but if you had to add a fourth it would have to be the car. Unless you live in a big east coast city, you have to have transportation.

If we mis-forecast groceries the way Ford has missed the forecast on the Mustang, we would be in serious doo doo.

In the 2006 order guide they still show the mix of GT coupes at 20%, which I think is still too low, it should be at least 30%. At least they boosted the IUP to 75%.

PonyLover

Another thing to think about is did you order from a high volume dealer that already has orders before you?

If the dealer has already taken 10 orders before yours then it could be the beginning of year before you get yours. The dealer is only alloted so many GT's per month.

TomServo92

Because the 6 is pretty good seller for Mazda. Should they sacrifice Mazda's financial health to satisfy the demand for Mustangs? The problem is never as simple as you make it out to be.

97svtgoin05gt

Tom, I believe he was referring to 6cyl Mustangs, not Mazda 6's. No matter how you slice it, you cannot compare cars with groceries. You may as well compare production of toothpicks to Air Craft Carriers. It's just not the same thing. Supplier management, delivery schedules, production schedules, engineering changes, line issues etc etc. Grocery products, you turn on the line and let it run. As long as there is raw materials, things don't stop. Not only that but how often do you hear something like "DANG, I wanted those hamburger rolls, they are the COOLEST!!" If you can't get a certain hamburger roll, you buy a different brand. That all doesn't exist here, so let's just face it. IT ISN'T THE SAME.

mmoonshot

imo The customer ordering the car should come first period, the dealers are raking in the profits from marked up sales, literally Ford is raking in the profits as well, the bottom line is money, 26 to 29 k is alot of money for the average american consumer, Ford has to step up to meet the demand, it is very poor business to neglect the people who support Ford, and american built cars, and support dealer greed. There should not have to be sacrifices if you are the customer period, remember you are the customer., its youre hard earned money being spent and you should be able to get what you want, when you want it ! :bang: :bang:

stargirl66

My guess is they aren't so backlogged with new 06 orders that is causing a 3-4 wait. It's the backlog of 05 orders that won't get to production this year and will be given priority as a new 06 order. I think Ford has increased production, and will eventually meet the supply and demand, it just hasn't happened yet.

Burke0011

One side note I have - yes the 05 GT coupes are rare horses (figuratively). And because of the way they always run production numbers threre are what 3 times as many V6s - and yes they underestimated HOW many people would want GTs.

But after the verts rolled out, I'll tell ya - people who had ordered GT verts seemed to get them in a fairly timely manner and easier than the coupes. I might be wrong but the average wait I seem to remeber was maybe 8 weeks if not shorter?....)

So I think needed adjustments had started to be made at that level anyway. I think the 06s will be a bit smoother.....