Finally

[kdogg_60]

Well, my fiesta finally is set to start it's build next monday, that is if they don't push it back a 4th time...

[aspitaletto]

Sweet!

when did you place the order ?

[kdogg_60]

ordered june 21st

delay after delay, i just want my car so i can start my mods

[Audrey]

This is just like last year. I'd hoped Ford would have done better for the 2012s since they had a good excuse in 2011 (first production year). Sadly that is not the case it seems.

[Norm201]

Originally Posted by Audrey

This is just like last year. I'd hoped Ford would have done better for the 2012s since they had a good excuse in 2011 (first production year). Sadly that is not the case it seems.

I wonder if it's because of demand or the fact they are made south of the boarder? Different work ethic (one that I admire but could not conform to).

[Audrey]

Originally Posted by Norm201

I wonder if it's because of demand or the fact they are made south of the boarder? Different work ethic (one that I admire but could not conform to).

It seems like it is due to utter lack of information between plant --> FoMoCo --> dealerships --> sales associates. The plants stop making specific models in May and June to prepare for the new year. This means people will have to order 2012s starting pretty early even though they don't start building any 2012s until the end of July. So people that ordered early get delayed or orders changed, and become frustrated. Really they should have been told up front what the timeline was. Also, no salesman should tell someone less than 8 weeks. They are misleading you otherwise, because that train from Mexico to the USA is extremely slow. It's somehow a logistical problem, and FoMoCo should step up and resolve whatever processing problems are causing the slowdown. Cars should not take a month to travel by train. There's no reason for it to take weeks for an order to be submitted. The build process itself is a couple of days it seems; the in-plant work seems to be the fastest part.

[PowerShift]

My theory is that they put a much lower priority on customer orders than dealer stock. Dealer stock cars can move through the system very quickly. For example the first Fiesta I ever saw on a dealer lot arrived on 6/29/10. The date on the sticker that indicated the earliest possible build date for it was 6/2. That's four weeks build to delivery. The lesson is don't order, just wait for one you like to show up at a dealer in your region. If you really want something specific you can do an inter-dealer transfer.

[Norm201]

Originally Posted by PowerShift

My theory is that they put a much lower priority on customer orders than dealer stock. Dealer stock cars can move through the system very quickly. For example the first Fiesta I ever saw on a dealer lot arrived on 6/29/10. The date on the sticker that indicated the earliest possible build date for it was 6/2. That's four weeks build to delivery. The lesson is don't order, just wait for one you like to show up at a dealer in your region. If you really want something specific you can do an inter-dealer transfer.

You may be correct. An ordered car is money in the bank, why worry about it. But a dealer order has yet to be sold.

[Audrey]

Originally Posted by PowerShift

My theory is that they put a much lower priority on customer orders than dealer stock. Dealer stock cars can move through the system very quickly. For example the first Fiesta I ever saw on a dealer lot arrived on 6/29/10. The date on the sticker that indicated the earliest possible build date for it was 6/2. That's four weeks build to delivery. The lesson is don't order, just wait for one you like to show up at a dealer in your region. If you really want something specific you can do an inter-dealer transfer.

4 weeks for delivery is correct. The build date doesn't tell you how long before it was built that the dealership submitted the request.

Any custom order should be given a priority between 10 and 19; lower number the better. My own car was ordered 8/4/2010 with a priority of 10. My salesman hadn't received any sort of build or VIN information by September, so I used Twitter to communicate with the Fiesta Brand Manager at the time. He got my priority boosted to 1, the highest it can be. My car still wasn't built until 9/20/2010. The thing that took the longest was the train ride by far, since it didn't arrive for me until 10/24/2010 (I was out of town so I didn't pick it up until the 28th). I had the highest priority possible and it still look 6 weeks to get to me. The prior 6 weeks of lead and build time had to do with production delays due to a couple hurricanes. Also, they don't make all of the car colors and options all at the same time, so your order may be waiting a couple weeks while they run other options.

It's upsetting that Ford doesn't provide better information for dealers to provide to customers. Accountability and information is vastly preferred by customers over ambiguous or meaningless guessing.

[Rob T]

Congrats!
Now if I could just get mine to atleats have a scheduled build date I'd feel a lot better(ordered June 17th)