Itravelalot

This is my first new car, and I have never been through the ordering process before. I have kept current on all of the developments for the 2012 Mustang since before the ordering guide came out. As soon as the ordering guide came out, I went to the dealership and put my $500 down and ordered my 2012 Lava Red GT. Shortly thereafter they let me know that the car had been ordered and everything was going well. At least a month passed and several people were saying that they had vin#s on thier 2012 GTs, and I asked if my dealer had that, and just got the standard runaround. Fast forward to the beginning of January and the salesman said that they had a meeting with their Ford rep and got their allocation, and that at the end of January, they are going to buy or order? the car wholesale and have it ordered. I think it was after that that I am supposed to get more info.

My question is; Does anyone know enough of this ordering process to write quickly down what happens in the ordering process. I have a fairly good idea of what allocation means, but do not really get how the specifics work. I also do not get why you would order the car in the system, and then order it again wholesale after allocation comes in. I think that I propably should have been willing to pay a bit more tax and just gone to a larger dealer. I think I probably would recieve my car earlier.

Ltngdrvr

Sounds like a line of BS to me.

Why would you have to pay more tax to go to a larger dealership???

Overboost

If they have allocation and the order is submitted, you should get a VIN within 5-7 days. I believe that orders are submitted on Thursday, so you may have to wait until the following week to get your VIN and build date.

There was a similar issue with a friend of mine who ordered a car from a small dealer. He was getting the run around for nearly 3 months and they kept telling him it was ordered, and even gave him part of his VIN after 8 weeks of waiting. They never ordered the car until later in the year when they had allocation, and it took nearly 5 months after his "order" before it showed up.

On the other hand, I ordered from a well known dealer, had a VIN and build date 3 days later (ordered on a Monday), and had the car in 29 days.

If they can't produce a DORA or a VIN, I'd start shopping other dealers. The 2012 order banks have been open for some time and plenty of members have build dates, so you should too.

David Young

Go to a larger dealership. You'll get just as good a deal or better at a large dealer.

Itravelalot

They are on a county island and do not have to pay city sales tax, only state. But after hearing all of these things, I am going to call again, and see if I can get more reliable info. Thanks all. I will keep looking into this and will hopefully figure out what is going on.

David Young

I have to add. I guess my dealer is a larger one. They have 202 2011 cars in stock as of today. 33 of the 202 cars are 2011 Mustangs. My dealer ordered my 2011 Mustang for me before they ordered one for theirselves. They didn't receive a 2011 Mustang until three or four weeks after i had mine ordered, delivered and driving it .

Ltngdrvr

That's different than in Texas, here when you buy a vehicle you only pay the state sales tax, no city or county tax involved.


This situation is why the first question to ask the dealer if you intend to order a car is "Do you have any available allocation?" before you get too far into the process. If they don't then go down the road to the next dealer.

JimmyM

As others have said, allocation is key.

Should just use X-Plan and go to a large dealership that won't have issues with allocation.

If you feel like they are kind of just BS'ing you, chances are that they don't have any allocation yet but they do not want you to go buy from another dealership.

GL

Itravelalot

I called the salesman yesterday and asked him some of the stuff mentioned here in this thread. He said he would have to check in with his manager and see what was happening. So, the salesman just called today and said that they again met with their Ford rep last night, so he had talked with the Ford rep and the manager. The salesman said that:

1. They already did buy the allocation for my car from Ford and the car is in the order banks

2. They are only waiting for Ford to pull the order and assign the Vin#

3. Due to the delay in production the order has not been pulled yet.

4. The DORA and the Vin# should be assigned within 2-4 weeks, and he will give me weekly status updates.

He also said that I am the most well informed customer he has ever dealt with (he has been a salesman for a good long time), and that my order has been moved to priority #1 at the dealership. I am not really sure if everything he says is true, but I do know there is a delay, and if it is only going to be + or - 1 week or so different from another dealer, it will make sense just to stay and not deal with the hassle of changing things and getting my $500 back. I hope that this is not another load of BS though, because it is already over a month since it was supposedly ordered last time.

2011GB/CS

What i did when i ordered my car was went strait to the gentlemen that does the ordering for both of the dealerships (they have 2 locations) that way i was updated everytime something was done. Weather it be the Vin, the week it was being built, when it was released from the plant, and the day it was to be delivered to the dealer. This way I wasn't wasting my time with any salesmen.

Sorry to all the sales guys out there. No offense

Five Oh Brian

That sounds correct. I often put orders in the system weeks before Ford pulls the order. Some orders get pulled the same week, but allocation timing plays a big part in the process.

5 DOT 0

Isn't the DORA and VIN two separate processes that can happen weeks apart?

OAC_Sparky

In a nutshell this is the order of operations:

>You hammer out the details with the dealer he submits the order, the dealer can print out what was sent to Ford. It's called the VOC (Vehicle Order Confirmation)
>The system confirms that the order is a valid one, according to what is allowable in the order guide. ie No pink seats in green cars, no glass roofs on base GTs, no Boss Recaros in V6 cars, IF everything checks out OK the dealer gets back a DORA (Dealer Order Receipt Acknowledgement), if it's not it will get kicked back to be edited.
>The order is input into the system as Order# XXXX from dealer #YYYYY as "unscheduled clean" (not scheduled, but an allowable order)
>When the the plant is ready to accept the order in the queue, and YOUR dealer's allocation slot comes up, the order is assigned a VIN, at this time it may remain "unscheduled clean", or "material hold" if there's a part shortage (this happened to me when I ordered an FX4 Ranger with a manual and there was a shortage in the special shifters that came in them), or they will "Schedule to week (mmddyy)"
>When it gets closer to that week, they will look where they are , if they are behind, or if there are any production hiccups. If it looks good, they will "Schedule to Day (mmddyy)"
>A day or two before this day, if everything is going to plan, the order will be "Sent to Plant" and from then on the car's journey throught the production line starts.

The time between DORA and VIN assignment can vary depending on your dealer's allocation. It can be a few days but yes even weeks.

Itravelalot

This is definitely shedding a lot of light on the subject, but this still leaves me wondering about how the allocation system works. I get that allocation is given based on several factors including previous sales, but what does "buying allocation" refer to? He mentioned buying allocation, or something like that wholesale for my GT. So does that mean if hypothetically I were to just walk from the deal after the allocation was bought, but before the order was so far along it couldn't be changed or cancelled, they could potentially lose money just for buying allocation? I don't want them to lose any money, but if they string me along like they did the last couple of months then I will get concerned again.

Other quick question: Since they said that they had already purchased allocation, and that the order is already in the system waiting to be pulled, when should I start worrying if they cannot show me the DORA for the car? Dealer Order Receipt Acknowledgement comes before they give the car a vin# or a build date, right? So is this delay in production then also causing delays with dealers also getting DORAs?

OAC_Sparky

TBH, I haven't heard of anyone using the term "purchasing allocation". It may be a local term or they are referring to trading with another dealer that already has allocation. So I have no idea what "costs" would be involved. I have no idea what your deal is with the dealer or of you've given a deposit or what terms you have agreed to with the dealer if you cancel and whether that will mitigate any loss to the dealer.

I'm basically saying, "I don't know for sure", I don't work AT a dealer maybe someone that does can clarify.

As far as the DORA goes, your dealer should receive it within a week or two of submitting the order. A DORA isn't a guarantee of build or allocation. It's only that the order has been received, and OK'd by Ford that the order is a valid one.

Overboost

The part that worries/confuses me is this; if you've submitted the order to the dealer, why haven't you received your DORA yet?

You might want to contact 05fordgt or Five Oh Brian and see if they can shed more light on this.

Itravelalot

I ordered at the end of November (like the 20th or something like that), and still no DORA, and no Vin. I only have yet more assurances that I will get them soon.

OAC_Sparky

Did you at least get a Vehicle Order Confirmation?

drewzx3

I ordered dec 23 and have nothing.

Itravelalot

They had a printout of what I was ordering when I paid my $500 deposit in November, but other than that I have not seen anything.