I have no problem with a dealership not wanting to honor x-plan. As far as I know they are not required to extend that courtesy to Ford shareholders. My gripe here is the outright blatent lies in the email response to my friend.

Shortage of batteries and won't see FEH's till summer 09? Then telling me that they could get one in a few months at 2K over invoice. I'm not upset over the 2K over MSRP, supply down/demand up = higher prices. But to outright lie?

When I go into a dealership, I'm prepared with as much knowledge about the vehicle I'm looking for as I can. Like Pravas Prime said also, I've read as much as possible this last 7 months about the Sanyo/Ford HV battery and knew your friend was being lied to. My local dealer gave me an internet quote of the sticker price with no other fees. He didn't tell me that it was the sticker price, but I knew it was from my Broker. To me, withholding information is the same as not being honest. If I had ordered my vehicle from the local dealer, what other lies would come up during the order process?

I consider myself lucky having a Broker who works at my Credit Union who deals with these Fleet Managers on a daily basis. His fees are paid by the dealership at a locked in price on all deals. There is no incentive for my Broker to lie and the dealers want to continue to get his and my business on other purchases in the future.

In your friend case, the dealer had an incentive to lie. Your friend had a relationship with the salesman, and the salesman just didn't want to rip off a friend so he lied. My Broker would choose to just tell me I had to pay $2,000 over if that was what it would take to get an allotted unit. The first thing he told me while he was on the phone with the Fleet Manager was I would have to pay sticker. I said okay and we ordered the vehicle. We all knew ordering began on 4/17, and production started on 6/23, so we knew it would be sometime after that my unit would be built. Here is a copy of my window sticker and at the top is a code that gives the date it will be built - 120080716 (08-07-16).
http://www.blueovalforums.com/forums...e=post&id=7358

So it took 23 days from the start of production for my '09 FEH to hit the production line. Glad I had a honest Broker!

GaryG

I can understand your reasoning. I guess I'm just irked by the lie.
23 days from start of production to yours hitting the line...thats great. What was your original order date? Our order was placed at the dealership on 6/26 and keyed into the system on 6/27, I'm hoping it will be serialized by the end of July but from what I've been seeing in the other employee thread I'm thinking more like August. keeping fingers crossed.

I think it is fair to say that there are several ways you can look at our ordering processes so far.

One is for those of us that ordered prior to production starting which means we automatically started out with a built in wait period. For me it was about 1.5 months before production and I think Gary was a week or two ahead of me thus increasing his 'pre-production' wait.

Gary's build date is about 1 week ahead of my expected date which is based on dealer information I received.

I think there are some folks who could be ordering now that could get individual orders slated behind some fleet builds but that is just speculation on my part.

I also think there are some dealers who either know more or take the time to actually find out more and share that with their customers. There could also be some dealers that are much more interested in moving inventory on their lot versus ordering something that could potentially increase their inventory value and affect their bottom line. The endgame, in my opinion, is that it is all about relationships. If you have a good one with your dealer (like I think I do) or your broker (like Gary does) you very well may get better information to help you understand your order as it flows through the pipeline.

I think it is also important to note that dealers simply do not have as much information as we, the consumers, may prefer regarding how the vehicle build process is evolving. They are not truly affiliated with the production cycle and we need to remember that they are salespeople and more geared toward moving vehicles that they can get their hands on readily.

All in all, from order to sale, I will be looking at around 3 months if things continue as I believe they are. I anticipate getting my exact build date this week but I have been told it is currently slated for the week after next which is the week prior to plant shutdown for two weeks.

My Broker was out of town on the start of the order date on 4/17/08. He gave me the phone number and name of the Fleet Manager to call and get the ball rolling. The Fleet Manager didn't know how the dealership was going to handle the allotted FEH's and ask me to wait over the weekend and call her back. By the 5th day they had mapped out my price and how to handle the order. On 4/22/08 I had a Vehicle Order Confirmation (VOC) with no name and a priority 80, but it wasn't really accepted by Ford until 4/29/08. At that time I got another VOC with my name on it and a priority of 14.

Once you get a VIN number (mine was 6/24/08), you can track the stages of the order by a person who works for Ford name ViperPilot at the Blueoval.com forum who will give you the status of your VIN number. ViperPilot provides this service for Ford and Mercury and this forum is not the Escape/Mariner Forum you ask questions on. In other words create a thread asking ViperPilot the status of your VIN number only. Here is the ViperPilot Forum and you can see my GaryG post for more details:
http://www.blueovalforums.com/forums...p?showforum=80

Here is the Escape/Mariner Forum for more information on ordering:
http://www.blueovalforums.com/forums...p?showforum=73

GaryG

GaryG

Thanks for sharing. A picture is worth a thousand words.

2005 AWD Escape Hybrid
Best Interstate tank trip MPG 39.02 (scangauge II) for 402 miles on I-70, 10.3 gallons used over mostly flat terrain.

Best Interstate tank trip E30 MPG 34.6 for 271 miles along I-80 in Indiana and Ohio.

Best multiple road tank trip E30 MPG 36.2 for 202 miles in Southwestern Pa.

Yes & no.

Yes there is truth that Ford can't get as many of these batteries as they'd like. HOWEVER, it's not as bad as it was in years past. They are able to get a lot more... just not as many as they'd like. However... they *are* making the FEH and they *are* taking orders.

As for the X-Plan. They are selling this on X-Plan, but before you start doing cartwheels down the hall... the X-Plan on _this_ car only drops the price by about $50.

As for the amount of time you have to wait... with gas prices what they are, pretty much all hybrids are in demand and nothing is just sitting around on dealer lots waiting for a buyer. If you want a hybrid (not just the FEH... ANY hybrid), you'll need to order it and be prepared to wait, but the wait is usually about 3 or 4 months. The idea that an FEH ordered today wouldn't show up until the middle of calendar year 09 is wrong.

The dealer may not be so much trying to mislead, but possibly just uninformed. There are MANY dealer sales people that have never ordered or sold an FEH.

Not sure where you are getting your info on pricing because that does not match any literature on the subject that I have ever seen. The paperwork for my dealer shows my pricing and the x-plan savings was considerably more than $50. Either way though, I ordered my 09 FEHL for the vehicle not the price. I live in a Ford town and wanted to support a local company and I wanted a hybrid.

Remember... this is a car that once upon a time wasn't available for X or Z plan wasn't available at all... just A plan. My '05 FEH was ordered back when only the A plan discount was available.

I ordered my '09 a short while back so I have the printout showing the sticker price as well as the pricing on A, X, & Z. A is a nice discount, but X & Z are pretty slim. This isn't a theoretical price on what the discount *might* be... this is my actual paperwork showing what the X plan price *will* be on my specific car. X plan isn't negotiable -- dealers can't change that number.

Sounds like we have the same paperwork. I have been working with x-plan vehicles for a few years and the discount on the paperwork lines up in line with what I have always seen for x prices. Keep in mind that A/Z plans are for current/retired employees and family. X plans are for partners. You can always seek out a current Ford employee to get you in on a friends and family price but I think those are just about the same as the X-plan.