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Been a Ford Truck owner for at least 35-40 years, but this is just wrong!


Clay Mosby

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5 weeks ago, after several weeks of researching and consideration, my son orders himself a 2019 Special Edition F-150 dressed exactly the way he wanted, color, trim level, everything.

 

Then, today, the dealer called him to let him know that in their infinite wisdom, Ford will not take his order because the 2020's will be available to order in a couple months. He is welcome to wait until November to order one, and they might start building them in February. 

 

This wasn't the dealers decision, but corporates. Now my son is being amazingly adult about it, after an initial few minutes of semi-ballistic WTFs, and after a little bit of discussion with me, headed off to the dealer to see what he could come up with.  Turns out as much as he wanted the SE, he was paranoid that in our neck of the woods that truck would be a theft magnet.

 

What irks me about the whole thing is why wasn't there any sort of notification to either the dealer or the customers that Special Editions have to be ordered by a certain date? Just really seems like pretty poor customer service to me.

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At least the dealer Said it was a corporate decision. I'd check with another dealer. Do it on line if you have to. I bought my last two cars on tline through a dealer and it was great.

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I have ordered several new vehicles over the years and as I remember, the manufacturers had a cutoff date that they would accept orders. Some special trim lines have earlier deadlines too. Just the nature of the business, especially in todays business environment of "just in time" parts supply.

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We did call another dealer and after some hemming and hawing and a couple of transfers to different managers they admitted that yeah, it was too late to order the 2019 version.

 

I have no issue with having cut-off dates. My issue is not making sure customers and dealers know about them and when they are.

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It’s possible the truck he wants is already setting at a dealer somewhere. They should be able to search for that.

But basically the fault lies not with Ford but with the individual dealers not understanding customer service.

 

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I had something similar happen: I wanted a vehicle later in the year, only to learn I was passed the cut off.

The dealer did a search and found one for me, two provinces over and had it delivered to his shop for me.

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Do a search. Perhaps his truck is already built and at another dealer. ;)

 

I am a little perturbed at Ford too. They claimed the new Ford Bronco would be out in September. Then I find “maybe January” on a search. Then I found an article talking about a 2021 release. Grrrr...

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We're having to order Dodge Chargers because although Ford is advertising their latest sedan police unit, it's not available for the 2019 year, nor until mid 2020, and quite possibly not until the 2021 model.  I like Chargers, but the local dealership where we have to go for warranty service is a PIA.  

 

That said, a dedicated dealership wanting to sell a truck would do a nation wide search and find what your son is looking for already on the ground.  

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1 hour ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Found On Road Dead

 

Can Have Every Valve Rattling On Long Extended Trips

 

Drops Oil Drops Gas Everywhere 

 

There, now that’s out of the way...:P

Not quite...

Damn Overhauls Do Get Expensive

Cheapest Heaps Visioned Yet.

"Friggin Old Rebuilt Dodge

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I really like the much needed , heated end gate on the Ford 150 ,,, helps keep your hands warm when pushing ....

Fuel Range on a F-150 ,,, the distance between repair shops ....

Two "C" class Motor Coaches same trip both 22E models alternating lead the Ford burned $325 in fuel the Chevy $150..... Not much else needs to be said ...

 

Jabez Cowboy

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16 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

It’s possible the truck he wants is already setting at a dealer somewhere. They should be able to search for that.

But basically the fault lies not with Ford but with the individual dealers not understanding customer service.

 

My experience with car dealers is that unless they're able to sell something right off their lot they have little motivation to help you.

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Over the years I've had fewer maintenance problems with Ford Motor Company products (Ford, Mercury, Lincoln).  However, I refuse to take my vehicles to my local Ford dealers for maintenance.  We have a Lincoln dealer not far away, and they have serviced our Fords, a Merc and Lincolns, and go out of their way to be helpful...even though we've never actually bought a vehicle from them! (Just didn't have what we wanted in stock when we needed it.)

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And MMH wins the kewpie doll!!  Our son was told that was the reason, that they weren't making any more 2019 Special Edition parts.

 

Happy ending, he went to the dealer yesterday and found a truck that with  the exception of the color and the blacked out grill, was exactly what he tried to order and they immediately took $6000 of the price.  So he has a truck, and he loves it. He's just not real thrilled with corporate.

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My guess from working in a similar industry is that the dates are out there and published by Ford somewhere for ordering etc ....but that your dealer didn’t realize it or research it and took the order without knowing it.   They then found out the hard way by being told no, and to save face admitting they didn’t look at the details before hand blamed it on Ford.  

 

Glad it it worked out....hopefully he got more than 6k off the sticker.  Last few Loaded XLTs I got were at least 12k off sticker.  Got a New style Ram 1500 this spring for 33% off MSRP which I felt put it in line or a bit ahead of Ford pricing for value for the buck.

I do miss the 2.7 ecoboost though...I was getting a real average of 21mpg with that and it was quick.  3.5 eco was about 18 mpg max, and the 5.7 Hemi is getting me 17 average so far but sure does sound good.

 

 

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I was reminiscing with a former boss, who has remained a friend in our retirements.

I mentioned this and he started to laugh.

He was the Fleet Buyer for the city and had been chasing an un-named department for their specs and quantity of vehicles they needed, in order that we could get a tender out, evaluated, awarded by city council and built.

The Know-It-All in the operating department allowed for our processing time, but seemed to think the specialized requirements in the vehicles wanted were just waiting to be delivered.

In fact, he became very belligerent about Roy pressing him for the information. 

We ended up missing the Build-Out dates and had to spend a lot of extra maintenance $$ on the existing vehicles to keep them running until they could be replaced.

We had a new person in the requesting department soon after.

 

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4 hours ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

 

The Know-It-All in the operating department allowed for our processing time, but seemed to think the specialized requirements in the vehicles wanted were just waiting to be delivered.

In fact, he became very belligerent about Roy pressing him for the information. 

We ended up missing the Build-Out dates and had to spend a lot of extra maintenance $$ on the existing vehicles to keep them running until they could be replaced.

We had a new person in the requesting department soon after.

 

Even though I see it every day in my job, it still flabbergasts me how somebody sitting in a padded chair in an airconditioned office punching buttons on a computer thinks that he knows more about a job than a man that has been doing said job for years.

I've been driving a truck for 30 years and I'm always getting told how to do my job by people who don't.

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On 9/13/2019 at 3:04 AM, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Found On Road Dead

 

Can Have Every Valve Rattling On Long Extended Trips

 

Drops Oil Drops Gas Everywhere 

 

There, now that’s out of the way...:P

 

Dad always said Chevrolet meant “Shove it or leave it”!

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4 hours ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

Even though I see it every day in my job, it still flabbergasts me how somebody sitting in a padded chair in an airconditioned office punching buttons on a computer thinks that he knows more about a job than a man that has been doing said job for years.

I've been driving a truck for 30 years and I'm always getting told how to do my job by people who don't.

I hear you.

As a Purchasing Agent, I always made a point of talking to the people actually doing the work, away from the supervisors, if at all possible.

In one instance, I had to buy a lot of used vehicles to replace those of a contractor who was unable/refused to continue the work they contracted for, threatened to simply go bankrupt and tried to hold us up for the cost of their then 6 year old fleet when I tried to buy them. 

I used my purchasing agent network to locate used vehicles around North America and sent the mechanics, hydraulic and body men etc. out to view what was available used and subject to trade-in, around the continent; to evaluate and select the ones I would buy, to be put to use for the 6 to 7 months it would take to tender for a fleet and have the specialized vehicles built.

I stayed in the office, negotiated costs and arranged shipping of the units selected by people who knew what they were looking at.

The people who did the job did it well and had an adventure they never expected, along with letters of commendation for their work, signed by the Mayor and presented at council.

Those letters hang proudly in homes that never expected to get an "Atta-Boy!" and when I bump into the odd one these years later, I still get thanked.

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On ‎9‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 5:49 PM, Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life said:

I have ordered several new vehicles over the years and as I remember, the manufacturers had a cutoff date that they would accept orders. Some special trim lines have earlier deadlines too. Just the nature of the business, especially in todays business environment of "just in time" parts supply.

The cutoff date may be due to engine emissions labeling.  In the off-road & on-highway medium & heavy duty markets the order cut-off date is 12/31 minus the lead time.  The model year of an engine is the start online year.  

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