Julian, I will provide many pictures and a full review compared to my '05 FWD FEH after it gets here. This is day 10 after being shipped on 7/17, so it should not be long now. The only options I did not want or get was the side steps and AWD. Without the side steps you get the rear tire spoilers to reduce wind resistance. These spoilers may be something others may want to add to their older models so I'll take close-up pictures of those. Any other request?

GaryG

 

<img src="https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/files/1/4/0/0/2/09FEscapeHFrontPwide.JPG" alt="FEH 09" />

My pix are in... well... 4 are. I'm uploading the rest right now.... ENJOY!!!

 

I ordered my '09 FEH on July 21st and the dealer just told me its on a rail car and I should expect delivery next week.

 

It sounds like your dealer had one on order and changed the specs to your order. Ask them for the VIN number and back track it with Viperpilot by asking him. You need to join Blueoval.com and start a thread here asking for a tracking request with your VIN:
http://www.blueovalforums.com/forums...p?showforum=80

GaryG

 

Nope... it's most likely just because he lives in California.

I ordrered my car on June 5. I still have no VIN number assigned.

I knew something fishy was going on when I saw people who ordered their cars well after me who were already driving them... meanwhile not only do I not have the car, I didn't have a delivery date, the dealer had no idea (they weren't making excuses... Ford really was keeping them in the dark.), the dealer kept calling their rep for info, and the rep kept giving them dates that just kept changing for the worse. My original estimate of having it "around labor day" (which would have been about 3 months), was backed out to "probably by the end of the year" (which is nearly another 4 months away... so after waiting 3 months, I've actually gone backwards in the queue for a total wait time of nearly 7 months. And note it was only "probably" by the end of the year... the official answer was only that I WOULD get one before the end of the PRODUCTION year -- not the calendar year.)

Meanwhile... I noticed that just about every order tracked at BlueOval was getting their VIN number assigned EITHER on the day the order is accepted *or* within about a month of the order being accepted. My order was accepted (I definitely had proof of that), but after 3 months I couldn't even get a VIN number assigned!

When I was out in California a few weeks back and noticed they were being advertised on TV and on billboards, then learned that some dealers actually had them laying around on the lot, it was the last straw.

So I started digging, and got responses from Ford corporate along the lines of "we don't believe you know anyone who ordered a car *after* you and is already driving it." so I called their bluff (which is why I posted the thread to find out how pervasive the problem really was), showed them the order to delivery times, and made a lot of people squirm until they had to divulge information that they really didn't want to have to divulge.

The good news is that I actually know what's going on *and* I know when to expect my car (well... I have a rough estimate which is probably accurate to within a few weeks).

The bad news is, that at some substantially high level of management in Ford (e.g. the CEO or executive vice presidents), the decision was made that Ford should strive to improve their image in some markets -- in California specifically. So they've pulled out all the stops for California. The allocation isn't actually even across the country... some markets get more, some get less. Unfortunately I live in one that gets "less"... actually a LOT less.

Dealers in my area are actually not allowed to sell the car anymore (this effective about 3 weeks ago). They've been told that the number of vehicles coming to my market per month exceeds the number of orders in the queue for this market. So basically they expect that they will *barely* be able to fulfill existing orders by the end of the model year, and cannot take any new orders.

In the meantime, dealers in California can not only continue to order, they can actually order "dealer stock" vehicles. These are cars not ordered by a person (a.k.a. a "retail" order), but rather just so the dealer can have them sitting on the lot in case a buyer happens to stroll in who would like to drive one home right away. How nice.

I sort of compare this to the popular metropolitan night club... the sort with the velvet rope, a couple large bouncers, and a very long line of people waiting to get into the club. And instead of letting people into the club in the order they arrived and waited in line, the manager picks and chooses from the line based on who looks hip & worthy of being allowed in. If you're in the Hollywood "A List" crowd then you might not have a problem with this. Unfortunately the rest of us buyers are on Ford's "B" list.

I look at Ford's decision as significant blunder, but that's just my opinion. So I'll ask those of you who live in California.... has your ability to be jumped to the head of the line (or Ford's creation of the illusion that these cars are just sitting around waiting to be snatched up) actually IMPROVED your opinion of Ford?

I'm thinking the only thing this will do is create a more negative opinion in the other states where buyers have figured out the game that Ford is playing.

I am SIGNIFICANTLY LESS LIKELY to deal with this problem again. Yes I own an '05 Escape Hybrid. Yes I ordered a new '09 Escape Hybrid. But I can't see myself ever buying another Ford after this one.

BTW, I live in Dearborn Michigan -- the home of the Ford Motor Company. I have many friends that work for Ford. I really wanted to support the home-town company and "buy American". But now that I understand how my "home town American company" treats its buyers, I thinking I'll be buying Japanese.

Bill Ford, I hope your happy with this.

 

What he said AND when outside the cali market,

The ones getting them sooner went to one of the good ol boy dealers that Ford caters to.

You know the dealer that takes his regional manager out on his fishing boat to have a few beers and then takes them golfing and pays the bar tab.

That is what really gets you a quick turn around on your special orders with Ford.

 

I'll repost from the Mariner threads - (By the way - the dealers allocation is based primarily on prior year sales)---

It all starts with allocation. If your dealership is allocated 2 for the year and 1 was already in the order bank with a higher priority, you wait. Your dealer understands the system and should be able to tell you fairly closely when your vehicle should be built (within 45 days).

A lot of sales people don't have access to the dealer bulletins, scheduling systems, etc. and don't know how many are ahead of you in line (or their priorities). So they sing and dance around it and blame Ford (rather than tell you the real story, because you might go elsewhere for your vehicle needs.)

Questions to ask:
Do you have current allocation for a Hybrid?
What month should I expect production based on your allocation?
Am I ordering any commodities that are in short supply -"at risk"?
Are their other Hybrid orders in the system ahead of mine?
What priority are you putting on my order? (Dealers assign priority).
What priority are you putting on other orders? (If they are all the same, earliest submitted gets first pull. If others have a higher priority, you wait.)

The dealers control the production scheduling more than Ford does.

 

The reason I went to a large dealer in Miami that was part of AutoNation was for this very reason. The reason I agreed to pay sticker was it gave the dealer an incentive to cash in on a good sale ASAP.

The San Jose Ford Dealership is most likely one of the largest Dealership found in most states and is most likely a small part of a larger fleet of dealerships in the USA. California is a priority with the smog and population problems it faces and Ford needs to sell more green vehicle to balance out the not so green vehicles they sell in that state.

That aside, I ask Dale to get his VIN number so we all could track the ordering process for California and compare it to the rest of the Country. I still don't believe a FEH ordered on 7/21/08 has been built and shipped already. ViperPilot can confirm this in 24 hours after he gets a request of the VIN number.

GaryG

 

Red,

That allocation story is exactly what Ford would like the consumer to believe. It is FAR off from how Ford actually handles vehicle orders.

Several people have called Ford to the carpet on this issue and they (FMC) could care less.

Fair allocation with FMC is like the tooth fairy....

 

No no... I'm not talking about "dealer" allocation. I am talking about "regional" allocation. The entire region that I live in (there are 37 regions in the country) only gets about 20 FEH's per month. Divided by all the dealers in that area -- each dealer gets about 1 car about every 9 months or so.

There are two orders ahead of mine at my same dealer... are you ready for this? They are 2008 orders that got converted to 2009 orders. So basically these poor folks had their orders converted to '09s on first day available and they can't get their cars either! How sad is that?