I agree with Paul. That's the essential supply chain in the manufacturer/dealer network. And I'm OK with waiting for the car to be "right." I just want to know I'm in the FACTORY queue and not sitting at some DEALER queue.

But I got an update tonight from the salesman. NO ONE has ever asked him for a DORA. Apparently I'm special.

I find this odd since these guys sell Roush and Steeda cars as well as lots of regular ol' Fords.

I'm sure everything is OK but I'm not getting the warm and fuzzy feeling from this dealer with the "I'll send an email to the guy" responses. Maybe Five Oh Brian or Paul or Stinger or someone else can shed some light but is sales that far removed from the actual "get the car from the factory" step???? Or is this just ambivalence exemplified?

 

I've ordered eight '11 Mustang GT's since the order banks opened a few months ago. All eight of them are still in limbo with a status of "unscheduled." Five are for dealer stock, and three are for customers (including a friend of mine!). I have no info to share with the three customers who ordered them other than their orders still aren't scheduled, and it's not because of anything we're doing wrong at the dealer level. I've been ordering all of our Mustangs, Shelbys, and SVT's for several years now and this is how it works. Orders for vehicles in high demand sit unscheduled for weeks on end after we put them in the order banks until the region gives us allocation for that particular vehicle. There are 130+ Ford dealers in my region and I'm sure our region is only getting a small number of '11 GT's each week to distribute so many dealers have to wait multiple weeks between GT's getting scheduled. Not a great system, but it's the system we're stuck with. Sorry if it frustrates customers who are waiting on any word about their order, but this is a Ford issue, not a dealer issue.

 

This oughta put a damper on some folks' sunny disposition when they read it in the morning.

 

I guess we should remember that Ford announced they had 11,000 preorders over a month ago, so who knows how many they had when production began. Ford hasn't even updated their own website yet, so good luck on a speedy rollout, my car was scheduled today but who knows whats really going on.

 

Brain, is it a Ford issue if a DORA can't be produced?

 

It could be, if the ordering system (Concepts?) is down, as it was the last time I changed my order (or maybe it was the second-to-last time), and Jeff couldn't give me a DORA for a couple days. Also, at some dealerships (maybe all?) the fleet manager is the one that enters the orders. If that guy's out (vacation, or limited hours, whatever) your order can't be entered into concepts.

 

Since April 3rd?

 

Is he dead? The stress of waiting could have gotten to someone and they offed him.

 

We don't get DORA's anymore at our dealership, unless someone specifically asks for one then we request one for that order. Any dealer can request a DORA, but most aren't anymore.