According to Viper Pilot, our FEHL was shipped 9/22. Does the sum total of this thread mean that the info from VP, Blue Oval is worthless?

 

I couldn't tell you yes or no. But I would suggest you call your dealership and ask them to check on this for you.

 

I am also waiting for my 09 FEH which was built on Sept 12 but which is still sitting in KC. The info my dealer got was they are holding it because of a transmission issue so the that may be the quality control issue. Not sure if I can believe its due to the credit crunch as I live in Canada and shouldn't effect us as much as the US but you never know. All I know is its been a long wait for it and seems like its going to be a few more weeks before we see it shipped as KC is on layoff this week.

 

I guess the credit slush (ain't a freeze yet.) could stop autos a dealer wanted to floorplan into stock. But the hybrids are mostly presold. We have our own financing so that can't be holding things up. Must be something more serious. Julian

 

Not sure I follow you on the financing part of your post. I agree that most hybrids are pre-ordered but not necessarily pre-sold. While not speaking for your personal experience I believe that many, maybe most (who knows), of the pre-ordered hybrids will still be financed through one means or another. I did not use Ford Credit but I certainly could have if I had chosen that route. While my vehicle was pre-ordered it was not pre-sold as I could have walked away at any time and the dealer could easily have sold it to another buyer.

But I have no idea if the credit crunch is causing any of the current delays or not.

 

See, Gary, this is the problem with your "thinking". More like "assuming".

I don't work in the Escape plant, so it doesn't personally matter to me what issues the Escape hybrids are having, it has NOTHING TO DO WITH ME. I am only "the messenger" and I am only reporting WHAT IS IN THE SYSTEM; not assumptions, rumors, conjecture, theories, half-truths, deductive reasoning, or bu775hit. It's that kind of honesty which is why people come to me in the first place.

If I reported that FEHs were shipped on the 15th of September, it's because that's WHAT THE SYSTEM SHOWED. I have no reason to lie, hide, avoid, make up information, or bu775hit. The FEH issues HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ME, I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER IT, I'M ONLY THE MESSENGER.

The REAL reason that I am no longer providing the service is that THE BEHAVIOR OF CERTAIN PEOPLE has put my tracking system under scrutiny. When people start talking about using the service to threaten, coerce or sue Ford Motor Company or its dealers, it puts undue pressure on me. I have a 20+year career at Ford Motor Company. This tracking system I did as a courtesy to customers, but it is not my primary function at FMC.

I tried to pass along as much information as I had (which wasn't very much), and when that certain person kept PMing me at BlueOval, and posting innuendo about me in the forum and I called him on it, YOU called me an a$$hole, which was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back". Look at the dates, any more tracking posts after your "Okay ViperPilot, the gloves are off with GaryG NOW!" post? That night was the last night I did any tracking. Basically you butted in without knowing the whole story. I did, however, notice that you made no comment about it after I told you that, not even a "OK, I see your point".

I tried to do people a favor; I don't need the **** and abuse and I certainly am not going to jeopardize a 20 year career because people want to abuse the system in a manner that wasn't intended. I avoid even going into the system now because I don't know if someone is watching. The last person had to quit because of a similar issue (Google "Kzinti")

This is a shame because helping the customer was something I enjoyed doing. Also a shame that it's spoiled for everyone now. So if I sound annoyed over the issue, that's good, because I am.

VP

 

You may have stopped tracking after my post, but it was you that claimed that tracking was closed before my post. There was no mention from you about PM's that were the reason for closing tracking before my post either. All I read was you were getting involved personally between a customer and a dealer raising the price of an order and had closed tracking. This seemed unjustified and you were the one that came up with the term "taking your gloves off" before my post. I did not see where you were being abused or scrutiny until now. I took the time to read that customer's communication to you in his tracking request before I posted and found nothing that he said to justify your threats or actions. As you can see from my post, I still don't believe you stopped tracking because of this customer and now your blaming me. Sounds like your making excuses for any reason to justify stopping tracking to me. It is true the information you provide could be used in a customer dispute, but you have done nothing wrong.

I've been a loyal Ford customer for 40 years and as a result more people are buying the FEH/MMH. I traveled 3,000 miles at my own expense to prove to people the FEH could get 61.8mpg. If I could get that kind of mileage with News coverage, just maybe someone would buy a FEH/MMH and have no problem getting 30mpg. So yes, I was upset when you closed tracking which is a valuable service we are not getting from most dealers. You can't tell me Ford does not know what your doing because Ford employees have posted on Blueoval and said they are monitoring post there. I've been PM'ed by FEH engineers myself here and other sites in addition. In fact, one engineer over a year ago told me he was waiting for the '09 FEH to become available and was passing on the '08 FEH.

Sure, I'm thinking there has to be a bigger reason that Ford is not shipping and your not tracking. I'm certainly not blaming the product at this point or the tracking information you have provided so far.

GaryG

 

Gentlemen,
Could we please get this back to the topic at hand.

There is some kind of quality control hold on our FEH's.
It is unconfirmed that it may be transmission related.
There is NO expected gate release/delivery date on these vehicles even though KCAP updated the computer systems to show that they shipped.

Lets pool our resources and find out/confirm the information we already have. Gary and VP, you are both wonderful assets to the Ford online community, couldn't the two of you just agree to disagree?

 

I second that twolostminds, those of us that are waiting just want as much true info we can get on why these built units are being held and want to start enjoying them as soon as possible.

 

Sorry to get back off topic for a moment but I just wanted to add a couple of points in here.

Gary, you are correct in your valuable posts regarding the FEH and I have been reading you for a couple of years while I waited for the 2008...only then to find out that I really wanted to wait for the 2009 model...so I thank you for all your continued support and dedication to this wonderful vehicle.

VP is also correct in what he states as well on BlueOval as I have read with great interest all that I can there also.

VP did make the comment about taking the gloves off but he did that toward the original poster there who you know I actually disagree with based on all our comments there. VP did not make that comment toward you though. It was at that point that VP did say originally that he was going to suspend tracking which was before you called him an a-hole so you are correct in that. VP then came back and started tracking again because he did not think it was fair to turn it off for everyone because of one person (the original poster). I know this because he told me so.

From reading all the posts it was my belief that the tracking was officially turned off because of the original poster and those that supported his line of reasoning for his process to try and resolve his issues. I am pretty sure you know that I don't agree with that poster's methods and I know that VP does not either. I do not believe anyone disputes the original poster's issues however, merely the manner in which he is going about trying to resolve them. He had many options that he never utilized to make his situation much better (ie; get an x-plan price up front, cancel his order due to delays, find another dealer and order, or go on line looking for other availability) but he chose not to do any of those. He tried to force the dealer to do something when he simply does not have that leverage. Then he started his lawsuit threats. Is the dealer wrong in how he is treating a customer? Heck yes he is. Is the dealer within his rights to do what he is doing? Unfortunately he is. The original poster is dealing with a bad dealer and I hope that place of business has their business dwindle up so that they cannot create havoc on other customers but a lawsuit attempt is not they way to go about it (at least not in my opinion). The original poster may win his case and if so I will post that I was wrong.

Okay...back to this issue here...you are a great value to the hybrid community and specifically to the FEH/MMH community and I thank you for all you do. VP is a great value to the Ford community and I thank him for all he does. VP was talking in relations to a customer who is mad about Ford and a dealer and I think VP is qualified to talk in those terms just as you are more than qualified to talk about all things hybrid based upon your vast driving experience. I say you have free reign to talk all things hybrid and VP has reign to talk about all things Ford. If he says that his decision to stop tracking is due to how some specific poster is acting with regards to his data (which is how this all started) I say we take his word on that.

Anyway, that is my opinion on the matter and I happen to like reading the posts of BOTH you and VP in your respective areas of expertise.

I now return us to our regularly scheduled program...