We ordered our FWD Mariner second week of June and orginally were told around the end of July for delivery. Was finally built the seond week of August and by the time it was delivered we recieved it the first of September. My wife and I love the vehicle and race to see who gets to drive it. Well worth the wait.

 

its been 2 1/2 weeks i placed my order and dealer is still waiting for allocation.

 

That gives us hope! We ordered ours the 3rd week of June. BUT, we haven't even gotten a VIN # yet. So that makes me real discouraged.

 

The Portland, Oregon area is getting inventory now. I just purchased an '08 Mariner Hybrid and am happily driving it! We tried to purchase in June but production dried up. After some research, I got two reasons for it.

First, the vehicle build was changed slightly to improve the driver crash test rating to four stars from three. To get the improvement your vehicle must have a build date after June 6, 2007. While there is no firm information on details, I speculate this could have caused a delay in production.

The dealer also mentioned that there was a shortage of hybrid components (no mention exactly which ones) that contributed to the delays in delivery but that has now been resolved. I'm glad I waited until now so that I could get a safer vehicle though.

 

did u place an order or they had it on their lot? if you placed the order when did u place it?

 

By this time the dealer should be able to tell you the production date for your vehicle, we finally received a VIN the week of its actual construction.

Also our dealer qouted the improved crash test rating which caused a produciton delay and lack of hybrid parts which caused another delay as the reason it took longer than expected.

 

Well, it was tough. But finally I am driving my new FEH. I got a fully loaded 4WD in Kiwi. Only option missing is no Side step/running boards.

I wanted the above vehicle and was in no particular rush, but did not want to wait the approx. 8-12 weeks it seems some people are sitting through to order one. I had an x-plan pin number, and remember seeing posts if people were able to use the pin. I had some troubles.

Alot of dealerships I went to flatly told me they would not accept the pin, this was whether they had the vehicle or not. I had one local dealership (DC area) who told me they did not have the vehicle, but would accept the pin and would easily be able to transfer the vehicle from another dealership. They sent me the Sticker to verify the car, but they were very vauge about when they could have the car by, insisiting I come down there and fill in the paperwork. I did this, and waited.. A day turned into 3 days, into 5, and finally after phone calls and angry emails, they finally told me they would not be able to transfer the vehicle. Who knows why they were not upfront with me in the beginning.

--in the interim, using cars.com and autotrader I found the vehicle relatively close and was in negotiations with this other dealer. They flat out told me no x-plan. But after a few days of negotiations and an offer from another dealership for a similar vehicle, they started to negotiate. I ended up paying $1000 over x-plan or invoice since they are so close. They threw in some all-season mats. I think this was a fair deal, given the availabilty. What I wanted is hard to find. Glad I got the deal done and love driving the car.

-green

 

Real sorry you had so much trouble.

However, just playing the other side, it could be that this salesman/dealer never had a problem trading a vehicle with another dealer, and this took them by surprise too. Those 5 days could have easily been the days it took to attempt to negotiate a transfer.

 

This is almost cartainly what happened. Ford dealers trade cars all the time and sales people will almost always say "yes" (without checking first) if you ask about a dealer trade. Once in a great while, a car comes along that's scarce due to limited production (Shelby 500 Mustang) or an unexpected demand/supply imbalance (FEH). This catches them off guard.

They are used to being able to trade easily, so they promise without verifying up front.

It's compounded by the fact that, as we know, many sales people lack FEH knowledge they often assume the hybrid is no different than any other Escape and therefore just as easy to find/trade.

 

Finally some good news! We were told this morning that our MMH is being "scheduled" and will get our VIN# soon. Whatever that means!