[anverc]

Just got off the phone with Meghan (who has always been very helpful to me - and recognized my voice when i called, even though I've only talked to her once before), my wife's ETA hasn't changed (mid last month) and mine hasn't changed (mid this month)... neither have shipped so obviously mine is going to come and go as well.

anyway, she offered information on what she's been told is the hold up:

Apparently the plant where the fiestas are being built are being used for the entire western globe - Brazil up through Canada. The Brazil cars were supposed to be shipped out prior to the US ones - this is where the issue apparently started.

The leather used for the Brazil models (apparently different than the US ones) was flawed. They had to re-do the interior of the Brazil production right around the time our cars started getting out of production and into the 'waiting to ship' phase. At this point, the workers who were supposed to be shipping out the US cars were moved to help speed up the process for the now very far behind Brazil fleet, leaving the cars bound for the US to slow down to a trickle.

On top of all this, apparently they decided at some point that they wanted to give every US bound 'fiesta pre-order' car a once over (i guess they missed bryan's in this process? ) and to do this, they had to move all the cars back off of the 'ready to ship' area and into the 'we're going to give this car a once over' area.

That's about all I know, I was trying to take notes as she was telling me this, but couldn't find a pen... There was something about 40% something or other (perhaps the US cars are 40% of the total production?)

 

[PowerShift]

That's a good start, now when do they expect things to get back up to speed?

 

[NLC-KC]

What is holding up the delivery of the Fiestas already in the US?

 

[the_fox]

Just as a side note, Brazil is not even getting the global Fiesta, they are getting this instead:

 

[FiestaFan]

I think Brazil is getting the global Fiesta, just as a more expensive counterpart to the one you posted the_fox.

 

[iamz]

Well, that's a nice story she told you but a quick check of Ford's Brazil website proves her wrong.

Ford - Viva o Novo

the_fox is right, Brazil does not get our generation of Fiesta in any form.

 

[TeamFord]

I can attest to some of the truth in what Meghan said. When the F-150 Raptor and new 2011 Mustangs came out, they were holding them to the side. Let me add these were retail special orders, not stock units. They would take them to an off-site location and have a team go over the vehicles with a fine toothed comb. They want to make sure that special orders were in perfect condition.

Case in point, my Fiesta. My Fiesta was the first one ordered by my dealership. The 3 I got in yesterday were all stock units. Matter of fact, the first 5 we ordered were all retail orders, stock orders were placed weeks after that.

Basically you should be happy about this, you are most likely to get a defect free car.

 

[FeistyFordFiesta]

A reason is better than nothing..

I'm glad Meghan was willing to give out a reason for the delay, but if she is telling the truth, then that means Mahi flat out lied to me yesterday.

Giving an honest explanation is always a better idea than lying to your customers.

But no, I'm not at ALL thankful for the lies OR the wait.

My delivery date was mid-May, and they keep going back and forth between telling me the car has been built, then it hasn't, then they don't have it on the schedule yet, then they have it on a train, then it's still in Mexico.

How can a vehicle go back and forth between built/shipped/scheduled? If I'm to believe everything everything I've been told by the reservation center, my Fiesta has been un-assembled and re-built three times, loaded twice, and shipped twice!

A VIN was finally assigned two days ago, so how was it built May 26th? Did they build it without a VIN?

I'm thinking it has not been built yet, but they don't want to admit it because then they would have to refund my deposit.

 

[PowerShift]

I guess the extra go-over is nice, but if the cars are good enough for the general public aren't they good enough for us? There's a point when enough checking is enough.

If someone had just told me that it was Ford policy to hold the customer orders longer, I would not have ordered and would still have the deposit $$$ in my pocket. I asked the res. center about stock vs. order delivery timing back in January and they didn't mention it.

 

[GapBoyPCS]

According to TheTruthAboutCars, the "new" Fiesta is coming.

What is strange though is the timing. The new euro-Fiesta is supposed to be launched in Brazil this year or early next year (I’m betting on the latter). The Brazilian new old Fiesta is purported to find its inspiration in the euro one and supposedly fits in Ford’s new kinetic design language. Something must give.

I have to admit there's not a lot of information about Brazil and Ford being down there, aside from their Brazilian website. However, they seem to have an interesting mix of "European" and "North American" models. So, one could see where Meghan's explanation may be valid.

In addition to Bill's examples for the Raptor and Mustang, I know there were some initial issues with the Edge/MKX/Flex when they first rolled off the line at the Oakville Assembly Plant, and Ford also held up shipment until they seemed to be sorted out.

 

[MegEtc]

My feeling about a couple things y'all are saying below:

Even though the Brazil version is different, Cuautitlan is the factory for all fiestas in the Western Hemisphere, so even if it looks different, it's still made in Cuautitlan. Also, it's a reason why you can't make the US cars until the Brazil cars are done for a while - it obviously takes a lot of different parts than ours do.

I spoke to Meghan earlier today and she told me the Brazil explanation too. I think they maybe just got permission to tell us about it today. Mahi may not have been allowed to mention it, or maybe they hadn't been informed about it until today. I don't think Mahi lied yesterday. I think this is new information.

I guess all the militance about inspecting the Fiestas was made worse by the JD Power and Associates ranking them 5th in initial quality. They have a rep to protect. If only JD Power ranked speed of delivery from the factory!

 

[GapBoyPCS]

I guess the extra go-over is nice, but if the cars are good enough for the general public aren't they good enough for us? There's a point when enough checking is enough.

If someone had just told me that it was Ford policy to hold the customer orders longer, I would not have ordered and would still have the deposit $$$ in my pocket. I asked the res. center about stock vs. order delivery timing back in January and they didn't mention it.

I don't think it was Ford's intent to "hold" orders.

In Ford's defense, you ARE the general public. Right now, the Fiesta IS an important launch for Ford. Yes, there are issues with the Reservation/VIP program. However, in the GREATER grand scheme of things, they don't want the general public (including you folks) to start commenting on how poor the leather seats are made, or how there's an oil leak when they pick up their cars, etc. The whole industry is heck-bent on quality and reliability (doesn't help with Toyota having all those recalls, etc.). From the "greater of two evils", the dissatisfaction with the VIP/Reservation process would probably be lesser of an evil than having built all these Fiesta with known issues and Ford appearing to have done nothing about it (despite being able to by holding off shipment to its customers).

Aside from the issue of being told what the build status is of your vehicle: Would you feel better if they did a once-over and held up your car to "make sure" everything seems okay? Or, would you feel better if you got your car now by your shipping date, and a few months from now your leather seats have fallen apart or an oil leak develop?

 

[dfw.embalmer]

I call BS on that!

Just got off the phone with Meghan (who has always been very helpful to me - and recognized my voice when i called, even though I've only talked to her once before), my wife's ETA hasn't changed (mid last month) and mine hasn't changed (mid this month)... neither have shipped so obviously mine is going to come and go as well.

anyway, she offered information on what she's been told is the hold up:

Apparently the plant where the fiestas are being built are being used for the entire western globe - Brazil up through Canada. The Brazil cars were supposed to be shipped out prior to the US ones - this is where the issue apparently started.

The leather used for the Brazil models (apparently different than the US ones) was flawed. They had to re-do the interior of the Brazil production right around the time our cars started getting out of production and into the 'waiting to ship' phase. At this point, the workers who were supposed to be shipping out the US cars were moved to help speed up the process for the now very far behind Brazil fleet, leaving the cars bound for the US to slow down to a trickle.

On top of all this, apparently they decided at some point that they wanted to give every US bound 'fiesta pre-order' car a once over (i guess they missed bryan's in this process? ) and to do this, they had to move all the cars back off of the 'ready to ship' area and into the 'we're going to give this car a once over' area.

That's about all I know, I was trying to take notes as she was telling me this, but couldn't find a pen... There was something about 40% something or other (perhaps the US cars are 40% of the total production?)

Then how am I driving this "pre-order" Fiesta??????????????????????
And how is my daughter sitting in this 2011 "Pre-Order" Fiesta?

 

[dfw.embalmer]

How does that explain me getting mine?

I can attest to some of the truth in what Meghan said. When the F-150 Raptor and new 2011 Mustangs came out, they were holding them to the side. Let me add these were retail special orders, not stock units. They would take them to an off-site location and have a team go over the vehicles with a fine toothed comb. They want to make sure that special orders were in perfect condition.

Case in point, my Fiesta. My Fiesta was the first one ordered by my dealership. The 3 I got in yesterday were all stock units. Matter of fact, the first 5 we ordered were all retail orders, stock orders were placed weeks after that.

Basically you should be happy about this, you are most likely to get a defect free car.

I got my vin# right after I ordered and the car delivered was the correct vin. So explain that?

 

[the_fox]

Even though the Brazil version is different, Cuautitlan is the factory for all fiestas in the Western Hemisphere, so even if it looks different, it's still made in Cuautitlan.

Cuautitlan is not the only factory making Fiestas in the Western Hemisphere. Actually Cuautitlan didn't even make Fiestas at all until it was retooled this year (it used to make F trucks before). If you look at this Wikipedia page and sort the table by country, you will see that Brazil also has Ford factories that make Fiestas. They are not the global (Mk6) Fiesta, but rather a facelifted Mk5 Fiesta. That's not to say that certain parts (like leather stitching) couldn't still be made in Mexico, for Brazil. I'm just saying that Brazil does have Fiesta factories as well.

 

[MegEtc]

Cuautitlan is not the only factory making Fiestas in the Western Hemisphere. Actually Cuautitlan didn't even make Fiestas at all until it was retooled this year (it used to make F trucks before). If you look at this Wikipedia page and sort the table by country, you will see that Brazil also has Ford factories that make Fiestas. They are not the global (Mk6) Fiesta, but rather a facelifted Mk5 Fiesta. That's not to say that certain parts (like leather stitching) couldn't still be made in Mexico, for Brazil. I'm just saying that Brazil does have Fiesta factories as well.

I knew that parts of the car, notably the engine, were made in Brazil, but I didn't realize they are still in 2010 being assembled there. But I don't work for Ford, and news accounts of the factories and what each is doing is hard to come by for free. But that wikipedia page has no relevant footnotes, so it's possible those Venezuela and Brazil plants listed for the Fiesta are either from before the opening of Cuautitlan or just make components. Or I am totally wrong and there are several Latin American factories making the Fiesta for various countries, as you said. But I notice that all of those mentions of the Fiesta and their Latin American plants have been on that page since at least February 2006, long before the current retooling of Cuautitlan.

Either way, I was responding to the idea that it's not true that Brazilian fiestas are assembled in Cuautitlan. I think at least some of them are.

 

[BRGT350]

I can say that besides the small clip that fell out out of the decklid (probably fell out on the train) my car arrived in amazing condition and was flawless. Paint quality, fit/finish, everything was outstanding. My car probably got the once over in Flat Rock since it left on a train the day after it was built. Overall, I think there a ton of reasons for the delays. None of our cars have the exact same reason. I think that makes it so hard is that there is not one easy explanation for the entire thing.

 

[golf strom]

I don't think it was Ford's intent to "hold" orders.

In Ford's defense, you ARE the general public. Right now, the Fiesta IS an important launch for Ford. Yes, there are issues with the Reservation/VIP program. However, in the GREATER grand scheme of things, they don't want the general public (including you folks) to start commenting on how poor the leather seats are made, or how there's an oil leak when they pick up their cars, etc. The whole industry is heck-bent on quality and reliability (doesn't help with Toyota having all those recalls, etc.). From the "greater of two evils", the dissatisfaction with the VIP/Reservation process would probably be lesser of an evil than having built all these Fiesta with known issues and Ford appearing to have done nothing about it (despite being able to by holding off shipment to its customers).

Aside from the issue of being told what the build status is of your vehicle: Would you feel better if they did a once-over and held up your car to "make sure" everything seems okay? Or, would you feel better if you got your car now by your shipping date, and a few months from now your leather seats have fallen apart or an oil leak develop?

I've been saying this all along now....actually I was the FIRST to mention this on the FF.

Ford CLEARLY needs to do some rethinking about informing the public about way delays are necessary to maintain the excellent quality that customers now expect from Ford...

Note to Ford....you need to get the message out there that the delays are a GOOD thing in the LONG run for the customer....

It is clear that there are too many different answers from them about the delays.

 

[GapBoyPCS]

Ford CLEARLY needs to do some rethinking about informing the public about way delays are necessary to maintain the excellent quality that customers now expect from Ford...

Note to Ford....you need to get the message out there that the delays are a GOOD thing in the LONG run for the customer...

So, having press articles like this in 06 for the Edge wouldn't enough for the Fiesta?

Manufacturing problems delay Ford’s Edge

As much as the intent is good, other manufacturers will pounce on Ford for tweeting/relaying out every single delay needed to "keep customers happy".

Example: "Ford X delayed due to poor leather used, and we're going over everyone one before they go out so we make sure you're happy with your seats."

Competitor: "We use quality leather from the get-go, so there's none of this added time for inspection because we're just better than Ford."

It's a balance, pure and simple. Don't show too many of your cards in your hand. Show enough to get a message out to the overarching general public (not just the enthusiasts), and keep your competitors worrying when your product will beat them senseless.

 

[golf strom]

So, having press articles like this in 06 for the Edge wouldn't enough for the Fiesta?

Manufacturing problems delay Ford’s Edge

As much as the intent is good, other manufacturers will pounce on Ford for tweeting/relaying out every single delay needed to "keep customers happy".

Example: "Ford X delayed due to poor leather used, and we're going over everyone one before they go out so we make sure you're happy with your seats."

Competitor: "We use quality leather from the get-go, so there's none of this added time for inspection because we're just better than Ford."

It's a balance, pure and simple. Don't show too many of your cards in your hand. Show enough to get a message out to the overarching general public (not just the enthusiasts), and keep your competitors worrying when your product will beat them senseless.

I hear you BUT anyone with an IQ over 50 knows that even the BEST spec material can and DOES have occasional issues, that is the nature of manufacturing and even the most dim witted customers know this.

I do understand the need to keep competitors on their toes but I believe that honesty is the best policy with customers...The feeling is among customers that they are being patronized when they are given "blow off" answers by the PR machine.

If you are honest with your customers you WILL gain a HUGE amount of loyality and quite a bit of forgiveness in the long run for issues that crop up.