Is this true? - FEH Quality control hold
#11
09-26-2008, 08:06 AM
Re: Is this true? - FEH Quality control hold
Maybe it depends on your region. I ended up having to call Ford corporate when I noticed at the BlueOval website, just about every order tracked showed the date the order was accepted, then showed the VIN being assigned either almost immediately or after about a month. I had been on my 4th month of waiting when I started pressing the dealer and the Ford regional rep that something was obviously fishy with my order. The Ford regional rep pretty much said "I don't believe you know of anyone who ordered an FEH after you and is already driving it." -- so of course I went to the website and showed them order & deliver dates of all these people who ordered their cars AFTER me -- and not only was I not _driving_ my car... I couldn't even get the VIN number assigned.
This ended up getting escalated to a director at Ford who called me back. He explained what's going on with the car, fessed up that my region (which is basically most of the state of Michigan) has a very limited number of cars per month -- there are lots of regions in the same situation, but some regions (e.g. California regions) seems to be able to get all the FEHs they want.
To help put me at ease, he looked up my order number, checked the queue of orders to see where I was in the queue, looked at the monthly allocation for my region, and estimated when my car would actually be built (even though I have no VIN yet).
It was then that he explained that each month, in the first week of the month, they do their production planning for the following month, then issue the VIN numbers for those cars and told me approximately what day the VIN number will be issued for _my_ car (he basically said my VIN will get issued in the first week of October so I should probably phone the dealer the 2nd week of October and they should finally have the number for me to track.) But he was clear that for my region the VINs were all issued only in the first week of the month -- so if my VIN wasn't issued there would be no point in calling the dealer for the rest of the month to check progress.
I've been very careful to say that this isn't the same for _all_ regions. California, for example, is a huge exception. So you'll see VIN numbers for cars in those states issued all the time. But if you live in Michigan, you can't even order an '09 FEH anymore. Michigan's allocation ran dry on August 15th. Anything ordered before that date will get their car. Any orders after that date probably resulted in a follow-up call from frustrated dealers that had to explain to the customer that they're probably not _really_ going to get their car at all unless there are some cancellations.
I don't know what the other "exception" regions are... I suspect Florida and possibly New York are the others, but it's regional. Some regions span multiple states, other regions don't even make up a full state. For example I think upstate NY is not the same region as NYC.
This ended up getting escalated to a director at Ford who called me back. He explained what's going on with the car, fessed up that my region (which is basically most of the state of Michigan) has a very limited number of cars per month -- there are lots of regions in the same situation, but some regions (e.g. California regions) seems to be able to get all the FEHs they want.
To help put me at ease, he looked up my order number, checked the queue of orders to see where I was in the queue, looked at the monthly allocation for my region, and estimated when my car would actually be built (even though I have no VIN yet).
It was then that he explained that each month, in the first week of the month, they do their production planning for the following month, then issue the VIN numbers for those cars and told me approximately what day the VIN number will be issued for _my_ car (he basically said my VIN will get issued in the first week of October so I should probably phone the dealer the 2nd week of October and they should finally have the number for me to track.) But he was clear that for my region the VINs were all issued only in the first week of the month -- so if my VIN wasn't issued there would be no point in calling the dealer for the rest of the month to check progress.
I've been very careful to say that this isn't the same for _all_ regions. California, for example, is a huge exception. So you'll see VIN numbers for cars in those states issued all the time. But if you live in Michigan, you can't even order an '09 FEH anymore. Michigan's allocation ran dry on August 15th. Anything ordered before that date will get their car. Any orders after that date probably resulted in a follow-up call from frustrated dealers that had to explain to the customer that they're probably not _really_ going to get their car at all unless there are some cancellations.
I don't know what the other "exception" regions are... I suspect Florida and possibly New York are the others, but it's regional. Some regions span multiple states, other regions don't even make up a full state. For example I think upstate NY is not the same region as NYC.
Back in July I was given the "by the end of the year" time frame from my dealer when they spoke to the regional rep. My dealer said they were trying to get the order escalated which may have helped to get it picked up sooner but I have no way of knowing for sure. The only thing that I find concerning for people without a VIN yet is that there are no new tracking requests from anywhere and like GaryG said the fleets were on hold until around sep/oct which may cut into how many are being produced for dealers orders.
#12
09-30-2008, 08:30 AM
Active Enthusiast
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: New Jersey. Land of high auto insurance and pollution.
Posts: 127
Re: Is this true? - FEH Quality control hold
Just got off the phone with Ford Customer Relations NY/NJ/PA Region. Our FEH, built 9/12 and supposedly shipped 9/16 is still at KCAP along with many others. Quality Control Hold with no expected delivery date.
The rep was also unable to tell me what the "quality" problem was, nor did she think she would be able to find out.
The rep was also unable to tell me what the "quality" problem was, nor did she think she would be able to find out.
#13
09-30-2008, 10:02 AM
Re: Is this true? - FEH Quality control hold
Just got off the phone with Ford Customer Relations NY/NJ/PA Region. Our FEH, built 9/12 and supposedly shipped 9/16 is still at KCAP along with many others. Quality Control Hold with no expected delivery date. The rep was also unable to tell me what the "quality" problem was, nor did she think she would be able to find out.
The rep was also unable to tell me what the "quality" problem was, nor did she think she would be able to find out.
#14
09-30-2008, 10:17 AM
Re: Is this true? - FEH Quality control hold
Mine was supposed to be built 9/26 according to my window sticker. It seems to have shipped because my dealer called yesterday to say it should be here on 10/6 but that can vary on the shipping company getting a full truck load to make a delivery. So unless my dealer doesn't know about a hold mine seems to have gone through. I'll have to wait and see.
#15
09-30-2008, 10:22 AM
Re: Is this true? - FEH Quality control hold
Just got off the phone with Ford Customer Relations NY/NJ/PA Region. Our FEH, built 9/12 and supposedly shipped 9/16 is still at KCAP along with many others. Quality Control Hold with no expected delivery date. The rep was also unable to tell me what the "quality" problem was, nor did she think she would be able to find out.
The rep was also unable to tell me what the "quality" problem was, nor did she think she would be able to find out.GaryG
#16
09-30-2008, 10:44 AM
Active Enthusiast
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: New Jersey. Land of high auto insurance and pollution.
Posts: 127
Re: Is this true? - FEH Quality control hold
All I know is I'm very frustrated right now. Ford shows my FEH was released to Allied Rail on 9/16 with a dealership delivery date of 9/29. The system even shows the ramp# it was loaded on, yet it NEVER left the plant. Nor did they update the system, contact the dealership or Customer Relations who have been monitoring this purchase. And to add insult to injury, I have been told that they are not even going to start correcting these unknown (to us, the dealership & customer relations) issues until on or after October 5th! arrgghhh!!!!
ahhh...that rant felt good.
ahhh...that rant felt good.
#17
09-30-2008, 11:05 AM
Re: Is this true? - FEH Quality control hold
All I know is I'm very frustrated right now. Ford shows my FEH was released to Allied Rail on 9/16 with a dealership delivery date of 9/29. The system even shows the ramp# it was loaded on, yet it NEVER left the plant. Nor did they update the system, contact the dealership or Customer Relations who have been monitoring this purchase. And to add insult to injury, I have been told that they are not even going to start correcting these unknown (to us, the dealership & customer relations) issues until on or after October 5th! arrgghhh!!!!
ahhh...that rant felt good.
ahhh...that rant felt good.
sheesh. I'd be frustrated too. That sucks. I hope all goes well with mine and I'm able to get it this week so I don't have to go through tracking it like this
#18
09-30-2008, 11:56 AM
Re: Is this true? - FEH Quality control hold
I did a little checking and found this just now:
September 25, 2008
By Nate Martinez
Mazda CEO Jim O'Sullivan announced to his dealers today the Japanese automaker will drop Ford Motor Credit Co. as its primary dealer finance lender in the U.S. The nation's third largest automotive auto lender, Chase Auto Finance, will replace the Blue Oval's finance arm at Mazda Motor Corp.
Effective next month, Chase will take over all lease operations for Mazda's 662 franchises previously using Mazda American Credit, a division of Ford Credit. No change in regards to Ford-Mazda relations will occur, stated O'Sullivan in a company email. Ford currently owns 33.4 % of the Japanese automaker.
The decision to adopt Chase allows for Ford Motor Credit to focus its resources on the automaker's other brands, says Ford Credit spokeswoman Brenda Hines. The outfit provides financial services to Mercury, Volvo, Lincoln, and Ford, as well as the recently sold Jaguar and Land Rover until May 2009.
Officials at Mazda expect Chase to operate under its own name from the start, and according to one spokesman, Mazda may also establish its own finance division in the near future.
http://www.trucktrend.com/features/n...dit/index.html
GaryG
September 25, 2008
By Nate Martinez
Mazda CEO Jim O'Sullivan announced to his dealers today the Japanese automaker will drop Ford Motor Credit Co. as its primary dealer finance lender in the U.S. The nation's third largest automotive auto lender, Chase Auto Finance, will replace the Blue Oval's finance arm at Mazda Motor Corp.
Effective next month, Chase will take over all lease operations for Mazda's 662 franchises previously using Mazda American Credit, a division of Ford Credit. No change in regards to Ford-Mazda relations will occur, stated O'Sullivan in a company email. Ford currently owns 33.4 % of the Japanese automaker.
The decision to adopt Chase allows for Ford Motor Credit to focus its resources on the automaker's other brands, says Ford Credit spokeswoman Brenda Hines. The outfit provides financial services to Mercury, Volvo, Lincoln, and Ford, as well as the recently sold Jaguar and Land Rover until May 2009.
Officials at Mazda expect Chase to operate under its own name from the start, and according to one spokesman, Mazda may also establish its own finance division in the near future.
http://www.trucktrend.com/features/n...dit/index.html
GaryG
#19
09-30-2008, 01:02 PM
Re: Is this true? - FEH Quality control hold
Looked into the problem a little more and found the credit crunch could be holding up vehicle being shipped to dealers who are having problems getting financing for additional floor units. With sales down ~27%, those borderline dealers may be strapped for credit because of the volume of vehicles on their lots and credit. Last week I saw two Shelby's at one dealership and two Shelby's and one 427 special Mustang at another dealership. I found that odd, but may be that some dealers are the ones causing some of the hold-ups on shipping.
GaryG
GaryG
