Hey folks--

I'd like to hear from others who have placed an order but are waiting (and waiting, and waiting). I was told by my dealer last week that their Ford district rep had told them that all orders placed through 5/31 had been scheduled for production. My order date is 6/6/07 and I was told that they should get to scheduling my order some time "soon", possibly leading to a delivery date in October. I'm in Iowa and am purchasing through a small town dealership.

I think it would give me hope to see a few of the "waiters" turning into "owners" over time!

Raven
Mother, meadmistress, wannabe FEH owner
Coralville, IA

 

Why did you choose not to go to a big city and pick one up from "in stock"?

Typical wait time for an order is greater than 16 weeks.
When I heard that back in Feb. of 2005 I said NO THANKS! and drove a few hundred miles to a big city ( Ok, Los Angeles! ) and picked one out right away out of over 20 to choose from.

Isn't getting one right away worth one or two tanks of gas and one or two days of your time to go get it????? Make a family trip out of it some weekend!
-John

 

I'm in Minneapolis, not too far (relatively) from where Raven is, and there are NONE in stock in this area and haven't been for a couple of months - I've checked every so often. Nearest one I could find in a search is in Chicago, and I'm not that hard up for one - no it's not worth my time to travel that far to get one. I'm getting it for just under invoice, and given the current situation there's no way anybody would let one go for that now. Plus, I definitely wanted the Vista Blue, 2WD with the Nav & Premium packages and that color with that combo is fairly hard to find so I ended up ordering it when I couldn't find one in stock back in May.

I just walked into my dealer yesterday to try and get the scoop on mine. I ordered mine on 5/30 and it hasn't even been assigned a VIN yet, and he has 9 others in front of me. He said that Ford is building them by region, and our region seems to be getting the short end of the stick.

Monday I'm planning on calling another large dealer across town that I also know someone at to see if he gives me a different story in case my current dealer is lying to me and this whole deal is held up because of his allocation - but I doubt it is because the dealer I ordered it from is also a fairly large dealer in the area.

 

When we placed the order the wait was supposedly 6-8 weeks, and in early June that seemed reasonable since we weren't in a big hurry. When I was doing the initial research back in May here on GH, it looked like that was about right from what people were saying as well. We figured we could get exactly what we wanted (base model with a moonroof). We also like to do business locally when we can. We did first go to a larger dealership that had one on the lot (loaded with every option, which wasn't what we wanted). The dealer gave me the creeps and made up (dumb) answers to questions when he didn't have real info. I don't understand how in this day and age car salesmen still haven't figured out that women aren't necessarily idiots. He insisted that $2000 over invoice was necessary so that they could afford to get the special training for their mechanics to service it. What?!? (The story changed the next time we came in when I had my husband with me. Grrrrrrr)

After asking around among friends and co-workers, I found out that the small Ford dealership 15 miles away has a great reputation. I still think that's worth something, as opposed to picking a car out on the internet and buying it from somebody who never has to deal with me again. The small town dealer was at least honest when he didn't know all the answers, and offered to take $500 off the invoice price immediately. I realize that others have done better on the deal, but I was satisfied with that. Of course, if I had known then what I know now.... I had no idea about the system of "allocations" that favors larger cities and larger dealers, or the politics behind getting one of these things built.

If I get the word from the dealer that we won't get the vehicle this year, I'll cancel the order and look elsewhere. We're still not in a hurry, as we really need the vehicle next year as our small business ramps up production and we'll be traveling around the state with cases of mead in the back. We only jumped on it this year in hopes of getting in on the full tax credit (or whatever portion of the credit we'll qualify for... what a tangle that whole thing is).

Raven
Mom, Meadmistress, Master Knitter wannabe
Coralville, IA

 

I ordered my FEH on May 27th. 2007 and it was delivered to me here in Eastern Massachusetts on Friday August 24th, 2007-almost 13 weeks later. I was told by my Ford Dealer that the reason for the delay was the Ford Plant was only able to produce 5 vehicles a week. I was orginally told that I would have my FEH in 4-6 weeks but due to an unusually large number of orders they were not able to meet demand. I picked up my FEH yesterday the 25th, and I am very happy except it didn't come with the keyless keypad which was something I specially asked for. The Salesman and myself searched all of his information and we couldn't determine if it was even something they offered. Anyway, going to call Service Manager tomorrow to see if an after market one can be installed. On the Ford website it looks like you can get one installed on the car when you order. Too much confusion with dealer and website. Since the dealers don't even have any 2008's on the lot they aren't familiar with the new design at all. It's like the blind leading the blind. Oh well.

 

I like this thread! why? I'm seeing new members! Awesome! And Welcome!

You will love this site and you will love your Ford Hybrid even more.

Ford did build it right, and built it stronger and more robust ( and gentler on gas ) than any other hybrid out there. Pound for pound, and cubic foot for cubic foot, you all got the best car on the market!
( sure, I'm a little biased! )

I knew from the get-go that Ford would only be making ~20,000 per year for the whole planet to enjoy, and with 1 billion cars on the roads world-wide, that's just a drop in the bucket. One reason why I got mine early.... before the word got out that these were so good! ( BTW, they make about 100 cars per day... )

Good news is, looks like new customers are paying less than customers in 2005. And you are getting more options. Bad news is, you have to wait longer to get one. Be patient. It is an advantage to look at the coastal areas, and big cites. Most manufactured head to California or the large eastern cites. The mid-west has always gotten very few. I guess they figure we have ethanol to keep the air clear around here or something, and don't need hybrids as badly.
-John

P.S.

They do build 100 a day. But perhaps 99 are built as 'dealer' cars, and only 1 per day is a "special order". But in reality, I think the dealer was telling you a fairy tale, since he had no good reason for the delay.

 

I ordered mine on 6/28.

I have found alot of them at other lots several hundred miles away. Actually, several of those dealers have been very anxious to sell them and be willing to sell close to invoice without x-plan. That means I can still get my college discount.

My only hold up is that I am working with a small town dealer that has bent over backwards to make the situation better.

If you arn't dedicated to your order, go to autotrader.com.

It appears the market is recovering alot.

I think the whole thing came down to several auctions on Ebay got a little out of hand, so dealers all put in fake orders to get what they though were cash cows. In another month, I bet the market is flooded.

Many of the ones I am finding are AWD, unless someone tells me that the FWD doesn't do well in snow, I am going to try do the FWD. Extra tax credit, and better MPG.

 

Let me put it to you this way.
I have FWD and live North of Denver.
I go to the high country ski resorts almost every weekend in winter.
I lived through the snowiest winter in 25 years this year.
In 2 snow seasons, I have never been stuck or out of control.
The ABS brakes were used on ice this winter, helped me a lot, and should be the same on both FWD and AWD.

One drawback, and I DO NOT think AWD would help any:
You cannot use this car to pull out other cars stuck in the snow.
There is a load limiter ( stall monitor ) on the electrical system.
If you apply electrical current to the motor, and nothing turns within 1 second, all power is cut to prevent electrical overload / overheat. Thus, when tied to a tree stump or other car, you cannot move. You cannot "ramp up" the power if the wheels do not move within 1 second. And as you know, you cannot allow slack in the tie rope or chain and get moving first, because the "jerk" will snap the rope or chain. The gas engine has no power from a dead stop. The first few miles per hour are all electric. "Electric launch" is what Ford likes to call it. ( Of course I speak about a 2005, there could be "refinements" for 2008, but don't count on it. )

Once you are moving even 1 or 2 MPH you have tons of power.
99% of all people would do fine in a FWD.
Funny, 55% ( I think ) of all people buy AWD!

-John

 

To a degree, I think there is a definite advantage of AWD over a rear-wheeled drive vehicle. But I don't feel there is a real advantage of having AWD over front-wheeled drive. I've had a couple of front-wheeled drive cars (Chevy Cavelier and a Mits. Eclipse) and both did just fine in the snow (in fact, they were kind of fun).

Although I've had mostly 4WD's for the last few vehicles, I can probably come up with only one or two times a year when it really comes in handy in the winter - and those times I probably could have just avoided being on the road anyway if I needed to. But 4WD does help alot when you're trying to pull a 25' sailboat out of the water on a wet boat ramp, which is about the only real reason I did want it on those vehicles. Don't have the sailboat anymore, so no need for the AWD/4WD.

 

Unfortunately, as I search Autotrader for FEHs within 250 miles or so, at least 95% of them are 4 wheel drive. Argh! What a stupid system we have. I think that your average hybrid buyer puts some thought and research into the choice and understands that 4WD will be less useful in this vehicle, however the dealers "guess" that people will think they need the 4 wheel drive so that's what they order for the lot, then the people buy them because that's what's on the lot to buy, then the company figures that's what people want so they make more of them..... it would be really interesting to know the percentage of orders that are sitting (like mine) that are front wheel only models. I also wonder if that makes them less likely to be selected for production as the line is mostly set up to produce the 4 wheel drive models.

Raven