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Some '015 F-150 Buyers will have to wait 'til next year


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From today's Automotive News:

 

"DETROIT -- Some retail and all fleet customers who order their 2015 F-150s early won’t see their trucks until February. A letter to Ford dealers -- dated Aug. 20 and signed by distribution planning manager Kevin Giacomini and allocation and commodity manager John Bradley -- leaked on the Internet today details when some F-150s will arrive. Ford’s 3,000 U.S. dealers will still get some stock by the end of the year, but customers who order a specific truck with unique trim and colors will have to wait until February to take delivery. That’s also when fleet order will start to arrive, Ford confirmed. “We understand the desire to get the customer units as quickly as possible, but do not want to compromise our commitment to quality for the sake of a few additional weeks of delivery,” the letter says. Ford’s Dearborn truck plant in Michigan is shutting down Aug. 25 for the extended changeover to the redesigned 2015 aluminum-bodied F-150. The first pre-production prototypes are scheduled to roll off the line about Oct. 22. Industry analysts have said the changeover from steel to aluminum on such a high-volume vehicle is an unprecedented undertaking. Ford, in a statement today, said: “Customers are excited for the all-new F-150, which they will be able to buy and drive off dealer lots late this year. Those customers ordering specific configurations may not receive their truck until early 2015.”

Full article here:

http://www.autonews.com/article/20140822/RETAIL/140829951/some-2015-ford-f-150-buyers-will-have-to-wait-until-next-year

 

 

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From today's Automotive News:

 

"DETROIT -- Some retail and all fleet customers who order their 2015 F-150s early won’t see their trucks until February. A letter to Ford dealers -- dated Aug. 20 and signed by distribution planning manager Kevin Giacomini and allocation and commodity manager John Bradley -- leaked on the Internet today details when some F-150s will arrive. Ford’s 3,000 U.S. dealers will still get some stock by the end of the year, but customers who order a specific truck with unique trim and colors will have to wait until February to take delivery. That’s also when fleet order will start to arrive, Ford confirmed. “We understand the desire to get the customer units as quickly as possible, but do not want to compromise our commitment to quality for the sake of a few additional weeks of delivery,” the letter says. Ford’s Dearborn truck plant in Michigan is shutting down Aug. 25 for the extended changeover to the redesigned 2015 aluminum-bodied F-150. The first pre-production prototypes are scheduled to roll off the line about Oct. 22. Industry analysts have said the changeover from steel to aluminum on such a high-volume vehicle is an unprecedented undertaking. Ford, in a statement today, said: “Customers are excited for the all-new F-150, which they will be able to buy and drive off dealer lots late this year. Those customers ordering specific configurations may not receive their truck until early 2015.”

Full article here:

http://www.autonews.com/article/20140822/RETAIL/140829951/some-2015-ford-f-150-buyers-will-have-to-wait-until-next-year

 

 

quick answer....THEN DONT RELEASE THE DAMN ORDERING GUIDES SO FAR AHEAD OF ACTUAL DELIVERY....Ive had Transit passenger ( 8 passenger variants in the larger Transit, not the Connect ) vans on order since febuary and STILL no vin numbers...think thats good for consumer satisfaction Ford?....

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I wonder if it's more a case of see what inventory stock is being made/available and picking that as the dealer order?

 

Inventory builds may contain vehicles that are close in specification to what the retail orders are,

perhaps some of those customers may prefer to change their order instead of waiting until February..

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The letter, which explained Ford’s latest launch procedures, said, “Current practice is to not schedule retail orders until the early production units have passed a number of post-production quality checks. Once ‘OK to Ship’ has been received, we begin to schedule retail orders within allocation.”

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The letter, which explained Ford’s latest launch procedures, said, “Current practice is to not schedule retail orders until the early production units have passed a number of post-production quality checks. Once ‘OK to Ship’ has been received, we begin to schedule retail orders within allocation.”

This has been the norm for the past several years.

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I don't know what to say about this situation. Even though I am not in the market for a truck for the time being. My opinion is that it may have to do with the extra time involved with the metal composition of the truck itself. Aluminum is obviously a softer metal than steel, that we can agree on, but that aluminum as it's pressed needs to not have any sizeable dings, minute cracks in it, etc. That'll kill the deal right off the bat (from a buyer's perspective at least). And that's talking about a brand new, model year vehicle.

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Dealerships will basicly be out of the truck business,because all of our '14's will be gone by November.

 

271,000 F150s in inventory at the start of August, KCAP is still making around 20K/mth through to December..

Unless you plan on selling 371,000 F150s in 5 month, I think Ford will have plenty of stock..

Edited by jpd80
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Impossible. KCAP is building the '14 until the end of the year.

funny, 2 weeks ago I was told the 2014s were DONE, Thursday last week i was told they had been extended...man, very annoying, especially if you have relayed that fact to a prospective client....I should have known to ask you Pioneer , rather than our factory rep...BIG AHEM!

Edited by Deanh
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  • 2 weeks later...

How in the hell does building dealer lot orders before fulfilling customers custom orders have a damn thing to do with the quality of the truck. Who its built for is irrelevant. The truck is still going to be "out there". They might as well say this way if we send any shit out the door hopefully some of them will still be on the dealer lots and not in the customers driveway.

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That's exactly what they're saying, although not as dramatically. Even though they inspect each vehicle some things can get by them early on and it's a lot easier to fix a vehicle waiting for shipment or sitting on the dealer's lot than one that's already been delivered to a customer. They're simply trying to maximize quality for vehicles going straight to customers AND reduce a potentially long and unknown waiting period. When these early builds are waiting on repairs, there is no way to really track exactly where they are or when they will be delivered. They literally have cars parked in lots and they work through them from the outside in. This caused HUGE issues with the Fusion/MKZ launch where vehicles were held for repairs and/or shipped to Detroit and nobody had a way to track them.

 

I don't understand why this is such an issue. Worst case it means a 2 or 3 week delay.

 

Would you hire out a tile job to someone who was doing it for the first time? Of course not. So why would you want the factory to build your vehicle the very first day?

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BTW - I bought an early build 2013 Fusion from dealer stock. The trim piece between the rearview mirror and windshield was missing. A trim piece on the door came loose and had to be glued back. My fuel tank and sending unit had to be replaced. Waiting for OK to Buy eliminates most (but not all obviously) of these types of problems from sold vehicles and a good dealer would have noticed the missing mirror trim and replaced it before I purchased it.

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KCAP continues to build 2014 s while DTP changes over. But.....is KCAP building every model and trim level???? That I cant answer

 

I don't think KCAP builds everything. Some models are only produced at DTP (Raptor maybe??) and some are only produced at KCAP (trucks with 8' beds I think). Pioneer may chime in if he isn't completely covered up working 20 hours a day getting DTP ready for the '15.

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With the truck being their bread and butter vehicle I cant imagine them releasing them until they meet their "ready to ship" standard (whatever that is) no matter who it was going to. A recall of any kind will be met with more criticism than any recall GM or Toyota has ever met with. The critics of the new aluminum body, and of Ford in general, are just waiting in the bushes ready to scream like little school girls at the first sign of anything short of perfect.

 

I was at MAP when they launched the CMax and I can say those first vehicles that rolled out to the public had been gone thru with a fine tooth comb several times. If they found something wrong on one car then all of them were checked. I think I would have gladly taken one of those over the 2000th one that went down the line.

 

Despite all that, I get the whole concept behind their train of thought. It's just as someone who stopped leasing trucks 7 years ago due to gas mileage and is extending his lease a month at a time, waiting on the new truck, its especially irritating to be told their finally going to hit the lots early October but you cant get one like you want till late January or February.

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You can still get one in October or November - you just have to get your dealer to place a stock order the way you want it.

Thats what I'm trying to do but I dont think they fully get it...started out with yes we can do that...they had to call Ford Credit yesterday to verify I am working with them on getting one...he then tells me after I order it this week they will have a DORA number for me to give Ford Credit next month that will show I have one on ordered.

 

I'm think I will order it and let them know up front that I will also be letting a couple other dealerships know what it is I ordered and if they get one in before the one I ordered is being built than that will be the one I get.

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