You order has been sent to plant so it's already queued on the line.

 

I don't work at Ford, but OAC_Sparky does, and his response above would be an accurate status. I was curious to view your car's window sticker, which can be seen with the link below. Your VIN has one of the highest serial numbers I've seen. Looks like Ford is producing >70,000 2011's.

http://fordlabels.webview.biz/webvie...BP8CF4B5170013

here's our 2011 V6..
http://fordlabels.webview.biz/webvie...BP8AM9B5167772

 

OAC Sparky and SoFL05GT...thanks for the info. If my build date is 21 Jan, does that mean the the it's still in parts and will be totally build in one day? I was just curious about paint/assembly times. I can hardly wait for it to get here!

 

IIRC, a Mustang is on the assembly line for about 32 hours getting built. Assuming 8 hour shifts, and two shifts per day, that would be 2 days on the assembly line.

 

Do you guys know how the VIN sequence works? I just plugged my vin into a vin decoder and got a sequence of 170013 (12th-17th digit). Is the "1" at the beginning just a place-holder and the actual sequence is 70013? Also, is there a way at the end of the production year for 2011 to tell how many Mustangs were made? I am just curious how close to the end I am.

And thanks Brian for the info on production. Appreciate it!

 

The VINs are assigned in the order that vehicles are allocated: ie submitted, accepted and the dealer's allocation slot comes up.

After that, it's a craps shoot because there are a lot of variables at play, including: parts availability (ie if the Brembo wheel manufacturer can only make 2000 sets of wheels a week they can only schedule 2000 Brembo cars), trim mix, colour batch runs, etc. Vehicles get pulled in and out of rotation for many different reasons.

So in the end, vehicles do NOT run down the line in sequential order. Obviously #5 will be built before #20000 but there can be weeks between consecutive numbers.

The only way of knowing how close you are to the end is knowing your actual manufacture date (on the door jamb) and knowing the last production date for the model. If the highest VIN was 70,000 then the production number would roughly be 70,000 but the actual number would be 70,000-x amount of cancelled orders that had a VIN assigned. Only Ford will know that number.

 

That is about correct. This doesn't mean that you car is being worked on 2 days straight -- there are lots of "gathering points" between various stages of production where nothing happens to it. But it takes about 2 days from the time your body shell starts getting assembled to the point it rolls off the line, barring any hiccups.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Why do the 4 dealers here and a factory worker tell me that you can still order a 2011 from the factory for a couple months if you can't???? Then after your post I had to call a bunch more dealers and they all said I could order one however I want it into early march??? Please enlighten me!

 

Even with the best of intentions, many dealers do not always have the right answers. Not everyone within a dealership understands the ordering process. Typically, just one or two people have access to the order banks within a dealership to even know what's orderable.

As for the factory worker, depending on their job role they may not know when orders have to be in versus when the production changeover happens. They're still building '11's, so he just assumed you could still order one, not realizing there is a long lead time involved.

I have been ordering all of our store's Mustangs, Shelbys, SVT's, etc. for years. We started ordering '12 Mustangs in mid November and the official cutoff to order '11 Mustangs was in early November. I guarantee that it is not possible to order an '11 Mustang now. You can still buy a new '11 from dealer inventory or have a dealer trade inventory to get you one, but you cannot order one from the factory.

 

I can't speak for your friend, or your dealers. I work for Ford. I can only assume that your friend is going by "what he heard" or "what he thinks he knows", and no offense to dealers that read this, but very few are really up to date on things.

The attachment below is from a dealer communication:

You cannot put a FACTORY order in for an '11 now, the window is closed. They are building out all remaining orders this week and next week or so (there was a 2 week delay just recently for a parts issue).

That's not saying they can't FIND you what you want, only that you can't ORDER ONE from the factory like you want.

I'm sorry, your sources are just plain wrong. If you doubt me, go to your dealer, have him go into CONCEPS or OrderONE and try to order an '11 and watch what happens...

 

PS: Thanks Brian, I guess we were answering at the same time.

 

Well I stand corrected I guess! Sorry for arguing! I just assumed that what they told me was correct since they all work for ford....

 

No problem, I'm just trying to dispel bad info.

Not sure which factory your friend works in, but not all work in a position with access to information; it's on a need to know basis. Many workers at the plant don't even have internal computer access if their job doesn't require it. On the other end, my job requires it.

As for dealers, keep in mind that they work selling Ford cars for their own income; and while we are part of a "team" so to speak, they really aren't Ford employees. As Brian said, salesmen on the floor know the product to varying degrees but it's usually only one or two people in the dealership that know and are involved with the ordering process.

To use an analogy, pretend like Ford is Estwing Hammer company. Their offices and plant in Rockford Ill. churn out all sorts of hammers, hatchets, etc. Do you think the dude in the tool crib at Home Depot knows when the next design modification is coming out of the plant will be? Or what new product is coming in six months is? Probably not. He finds out when they show up in a box for him to stock shelves. Same with the dude at the plant feeding rubber hammer handles into a machine. What will happen is Monday his boss is going to show up with a box of new-style handles and say "Here, put these in".

The people that would know the change is coming would be a member of Home Depot's tool purchasing dept (ie dealer order manager) and the guy that would modify the machine to put the handles on (ie me!). I find sometimes the best source of info are some of the tooling contractors we have -- they've been working 3-6 months on changes coming before we do!

 

Likewise, thanks for posting the changeover timing report (I didn't have that handy when I was posting).

 

I posted it as proof of what's in the system, but even though it is somewhat common knowledge I figured it would probably be wise to pull it down, never know who's watching.

 

Just jumping in the thread now, didnt read everything so dont flame if its been asked b4... but:

Im planning on ordering a 3.7 in about two or three months. Would it be built at Ford factory? Or would i have to pick over whats left?

Edit: okay so i read it wudnt b built at factory. So how could i order what i want? Do i have to pick whats left? Also, r the 2011s done for the year?

 

Brian and Sparky, thanks for posting all this info on the Ford ordering process. It's great having resourses like you two on TMS!

 

IF you want an '11 V6 because of whatever incentives they are offering right now in your area, then you are going to be stuck with whatever stock the dealers have. But keep in mind that the dealers don't have ALL their '11 stock on the lot yet because they just stopped building them and are still being shipped.

So, keeping that in mind, the sooner you get into the dealer the better selection you will have as the '11s sell off. If you aren't as picky about what you want, you may want to hold off because the incentives will get better the longer you wait. You will have to be the one to decide where you sit selection vs incentives.

But IF you want a specific set of options that are less common, ie. backup camera, electronics package, performance packs, glass roof etc. and you really NEED to order it from the factory, they still can; but it will be a 2012 they will be ordering and because it is a newer moder the incentives also won't be as good.

 

I was wrong...I previously stated two days ago I had ordered a 2011. My salesman called me this morning and told me the 2011 I had ordered will be a 2012. More proof for you guys. And yes, my salesperson is clueless.

Can anyone give me any info on the dealer installed environmental package and security package? My dealershop cannot, even though they install them on every **** car. So, in a nutshell, a Mustang comes from the factory with passive anti theft, then you can option a security package including wheel locks, THEN the dealer installs ANOTHER security package...WTF