Ok, here is the no bs scoop on the ordering process for the new car(US models).

The order bank technically IS open for the car. There is NO gurantee that they will be made. This is week 20 right now. On week 24, Ford will begin structuring the que of which cars will be wholesaled by dealer. Meaning, that in week 24 Ford asks dealers "ok, we see your orders, which ones are you actually going to BUY from us. THEN the order will be 'bucked', and put in the production que. There will be NO pricing information untill just before or on Job 1 on september 7th.

So you can order a vehicle now, but you can not get a guranteed order that will be built untill week 24. After that, it becomes an "official" vehcile that will be manufactured, pending what days certain models and colors are being produced, and all parts are available at the plant. Vehicles do get on hold sometimes waiting for a supply of stereos, red leather seats, you name it. MOST LIKELY if you DO order a car AND it gets bucked, a personally ordered car will roughly "land" in mid October at the earliest.

Ford on launch will have massive "bulk" orders to fill for regular lot cars, rental cars, and force-fed ones(it works like this: "weve built 240 bucked(paid for) redfire cars today, and will make 140 more to finish the day off") Those cars are force fed out just to keep the production lines moving. Your own personal Sonic Blue car will be built when they are building Sonic Blue cars, got it? Even then, if your car doesnt make Sonic Blue day, it will have to wait untill another Sonic blue day comes around.....They prioritize moving numbers, a plant does not care if the car is a customers custom order or not, technically, every car they make is paid for as a custom order.

Dealers are talking about marking up the first batches of the cars, even A plan is not expected to be available right off the back. It will probably come out a couple months after launch(it could come out on day one, but its not likely). Good luck trying to get an xplan for a while either.

There are tons of those old-guys out there that have 20 cars in a collection and could care less if they are marked up or not and WILL order the car and pick it up on day one. These are the same guys that bought T-birds at 10k over and never thought twice about it. They will most likely come out of the woodwork like cicadas as the weeks go on. The BEST bet for us normal folks is to just wait a little bit for the innitial hub-bub to cool down and for production to get up to speed enough that a stockpile develops. I would then start to "feel" the new cars out, see if there is a match for your dream car in the area, or THEN retail order a car. Even whatever salespeople tell there customers right now, the dealer bosses are going to be in a 'wait and see' stance to see how much money they can make on the first ones. You have to remember dealers have been giving away mustangs with no proffit for years now.

Thats the scoop.

amen

Excellent info Kevin. Thanks.

Boy, Kevin, you sure no how to make the average Joe feel very, very small and insignificant. :eek: :crying:

Thanks for the info, though.

besides the fact that some buyers will want the early one for the sole purpose of getting a low serial number (i.e. one of the first built)...and will pay more for them too

Thanks a ton Kev. Good info. I suppose I'll remove the countdown...

I agree with everything you're saying except the X-Plan stuff. I have no doubt x-plan will be there come day 1.

depends on the dealer...there's nothing that says that they have to honor it...my dealer took it though (whew)

So Kevin,


You are saying I don't need to wait till Monday to order? No new information will be present then that is not there now?

And if I order, is it guaranteed my order will be "bucked"? If not, how can you change this?

Kevin... great read... thanks...

You just have to stay on your salesperson to make sure it gets bought by the dealer from Ford.

Kevin came through again. Thanks.

Not trying to do that, but I know I'm waiting it out till after they roll. ;)

They told you they did. You'll have to wait untill after Job 1 to find out. Just be prepared.

They told you they did. You'll have to wait untill after Job 1 to find out. Just be prepared. [/b][/quote]
Kevin,
As a consumer or even as a dealer, how do you or I track my order after week 24 and Job 1 date?

I made it a point to clarify all this with our inventory manager. Keep in mind that this dealers new inventory can peak at 2000 units, so we do sell a lot of cars. We also have some swing with Ford(see how many dealers get 2 confirmed most likely 3 GT's this year B) ) If the information changes I'll let you know but this is pretty strong.

Funny enough, we have ordered well over 100 500's and no one has placed a retail order for one. But it has no exposure, they will sell when they land and get advertising. Also remember, as far as demand, there has been no public advertising of the new Stang either yet. This car is going to explode in September. The Hybrid escape is going to be the really hard one to sell, we have 100 pending order requests from customers for an expected 5-8 units for the entire 2004 calander year. :shock: In lieu of marking them up, we are not taking any retail orders for them and it will be first-come, first-serve.

Kevin,
As a consumer or even as a dealer, how do you or I track my order after week 24 and Job 1 date? [/b][/quote]
ours show an "on order" status in our native inventory program. They get assigned order numbers when they are "bucked" and will get status updates like ordered/clean, bucked/clean, scheduled/clean, production, in-transit(the best one :-D ) It is tied into concepts, and any salesman can have their manager simply look up the status.

Great info Kevin. I really appreciate it

:geek:

Yup thanks Kevin.


I guess I need to call the dealer either today or tomorrow.


So, basically, the only way to get it "bucked" is to reaffirm to the salesperson that you are still interested?