I live in a "rural" area with 3 Ford dealers within driving distance. They sell lots of non-hybrids, but never have any hybrid Escapes in stock. When they do come in, they get a couple hybrids that are fully loaded and they sell out immediately.

By contrast, I can go to my local Toyota dealer and have a complete choice of hybrid models, colors, accessories right off the lot. And they sell lots of them.

Is this a dealer issue, or is Ford constraining the supply? If I lived in an urban area could I go to a Ford dealer and pick the color and options I wanted off the lot?

I ended up buying the Prius. But I'm still interested in the Ford hybrid for a second car. But I'd like to have some say in how it is equipped.

 

Are they hybrid certified? You'd think they should be because they should be able to get them otherwise but they may be trading other dealers for them.

If they aren't certified that might explain alot. To get certified they have to send a tech to class to learn how to service them and its fairly expensive. A small rural dealership might not have enough demand to want to go to the expense.

There isn't any shortage of them however.

 

TeeSter,

"There isn't any shortage of them however."

"A small rural dealership might not have enough demand to want to go to the expense."

Very interesting! You'd never know there wasn't a shortage around here! You pretty much have to know someone at the dealer to get one.

If the dealers aren't hybrid certified, does that limit their ability to buy -- or does it just mean they aren't interested in ordering?

Whenever they get interviewed in the newspaper, they imply that they can't keep them in stock.

BTW these dealers are not small. They sell tons of non-hybrid SUVs and trucks.

It appears that you can custom order, but they bunch up their orders, so you might have to wait 3-4 months to get one.

 

The story my sales mgr told me was that initially Ford sent at least one FEH to each and every dealer that they could.....turned out that many of the rural/smaller dealers "couldn't" sell them and traded them to dealers in certain larger metropolitan areas that were moving them along. I believe in '06 and '07 Ford started to send them to specific dealerships...more in line with higher volumes to the areas where the market demand was highest...

.....perhaps many of the small rural dealerships no longer see the point in stocking them or being certified to service them. We have certainly heard of some instances of service depts that where not "up to speed" with a few of the minor FEH service bulletins.

 

Glennb, also very interesting.

If I lived in the DC metro area I could find a dealer who could sell me a white FEH with no sun-roof or NAV system, but with leather seats off the lot?

I'm still confused about my dealers, however. We have enough demand that they can sell a used 2-year old FEH for the same price as a new one! (A car that won't even qualify for the gov't tax credit!) But the only new ones available are fully loaded and are gone within a week of arrival.

My seat-of-the-pants estimate is that the DC metro dealers are serving roughly 10 times the population of the dealers in my area. Though we have a higher percentage of truck and SUV owners.

I guess my conclusion is that my local Ford dealers are a bit "old-school" and not interested in the selling new tech. Not so my Toyota dealer.

 

The '08s still seem to be rather scarce in the DC area. I mean they are being sold very quickly when they hit the lot. Ford did a significant upgrade to the convenience/interior features and some like the new sheet metal. (It looks like the hybrid components/software is identical to the 05/06/07 model.)

In my case, I had been watching the dealer's lot from month-to-month for a green '06 with the options I wanted when all-of-a-sudden one showed up. It had been sitting at a (rural)dealer in PA for 5 months, my dealer was hunting them down and trading for them because he was selling every unit he could get his hands on and Ford could not increase his allocation. He showed me the paperwork that detailed his purchase from the other dealer - and we negotiated from there. (He said he was able to swing those kind of deals with dealerships in small/rural locations.)

 

If you are looking for a 2008, I have no idea if there is a shortage of them.... their might be because they havent' been out long. But the earlier model years they didn't sell as many as they'd like so there was no shortage of them.

If they aren't hybrid certified, they aren't supposed to be able to get them from Ford. I'm not sure that prevents them from doing dealer swaps to get one. The dealership my father works for isn't certified because the boss didn't want to spend the money for the equipment and training to have a tech become certified. If they aren't ceritified they can't repair them either (though in reality anybody can change oil, brakes and such).

I have one other *guess* as to why you'd have to special order. I think Ford builds more of the loaded hybrids than the stripped down ones. Its a tactic to wring more money out of people. In their reasoning someone coming in for a hybrid is willing to spend the "hybrid premium" to get a hybrid over a normal Escape so they clearly are upper income, early adopter types who will likely be willing to spend more money for all the features in Ford's estimation. They don't make a whole lot of money on these things, so the extras help them.

This is another thought....Supposedly the vehicles cost about $7000 extra to produce, but they only past about half that on to you... I've always wondered if Ford Corporate cuts the dealer profit and splits the "loss in profit" with the dealer.... I have NO inside info on if thats true, but it would explain why several people have gone into dealers asking about hybrids and the dealer has tried their best to steer them into a normal V6 escape... simply put the dealer would be making more money on the regular escape. Any of those are possibilities as to why a dealer might try to make getting a hybrid "harder" than necessary.

Its stupid... but it wouldn't suprise me.

When I got mine in Chelsea, MI (a small town dealer and a small dealer) they had it for me by dealer trade in a couple of days.... I did have to get a sunroof I didn't want at the time (making it completely loaded). Actually now that I have it I like the sunroof.

 

"Ford could not increase his allocation"

A-ha ... so that can be an issue.

 

It sounds like you know exactly what you want, which is good! I was able to order a FEH last October and get it delivered within 6 weeks. I don't think the lead time would have increased significantly since then. You probably need to avoid retail salespeople and go to a fleet/internet sales person who will be happy to take your order and get you the truck you want. You can also go on the internet and get a X-plan PIN to take the haggle out of pricing your order.
Retail salespeople will do anything to move inventory off their lots now and have little incentive to take orders.

 

You may want to do inventory searches for larger cities in your state. Here's one way to do it: Go to USPS.com and use the ZIP code tool

http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/citytown.jsp

Write down ZIPs for other cities. Then use Ford's inventory search to see what's in stock in those ZIPs. The vehicle you want may be at a dealer now.

Your Ford dealer can do a regional search for you, which is faster and more thorough. But they may only do it if you're serious. If you're not ready to buy, do your own search through Ford's consumer site or through fordpartner.com if you have a company code for X plan. If you're ready to buy, tell your dealer that and see if they'll help!!

Oh, as for Toyota, there are dozens of them on lots in my area. It's a supply/demand thing. There is no shortage of Prius and HH and they are discounting them $2K plus here. The FEH is more in balance with demand right now.