After talking to a buddy of mine about the FEH he decided to order one himself. As a Ford stock holder he is elligible for xplan and contacted the dealership he has been using for years. Here is the response to his email.

Seems a bit fishy to me, thinking maybe the dealership doesnt want to sell him a FEH at xplan pricing. But in the back of my mind I'm worried about me not getting mine that was ordered in June until next summer.

 

Sounds more like the dealership is unable to obtain "retail" FEH for their dealership sales until mid-2009. You can order today but the wait period is unknown.

 

Quote:
Unfortunately I was recently informed that there is a shortage of the batteries used in the Excape Hybrids. We will not see our first Hybrid until mid 2009 and pricing is not yet available on the vehicle. I apologize for the inconvenience.

The 09 FEH i saw at santan ford here had complete window sticker on it.

We bought our 08 using x-plan, so there are some dealers that will sell using this plan. Maybe by going thru fleet sales like we did may help also.

 

Doesn't sound fishy at all to me.

There are indeed very very very long waits to order a FEH. That is either at full sticker price, or at X plan.

There has been speculation that the reason Ford can't increase production of the FEH to meet demand, is due to Ford's inability to get the battery vendor to increase deliveries.

 

I agree with BillyK on this one!

Sanyo has a 25,000 battery contract with Ford. There has been no battery delay I've heard of so far. Walt, if you have a link to something different, please post it. From what I've read, Ford did their homework to make sure the 25,000 HV batteries would be available from Sanyo.

Since Ford only started production of the '09 FEH/MMH and all Escapes June 23, my order will be built 7/16. Hardly a long delay! It all depends on dealership allocation and price. The KC Plant will close for vacation on 7/28 and there will be a big delay during that time. Sanyo should keep up with production during that time also. Shipping cost may have increased by big oil and may be a problem also.

GaryG

 

Indeed, in another post of mine, I quote an article that talks about how Ford asked for 25K and got their 25K, which is the number of FEH's they're producing for '09.

 

Well, Gary, just use search here, or google for other websites, and you will find plenty of reports of customers having to wait much longer than 6 weeks for their newly ordered FEH to arrive.

What evidence do you have, that there aren't any such delays? How about links to customers claiming they got their custom ordered FEH in just 6 weeks? Or even 8 weeks?

Let me summarize, the OP was wondering if the delay his dealer was reporting was just because of him wanting to use X-plan. He thought that sounded fishy. I replied that it wasn't fishy, and even full price orders take a long time.

 

I believe California is to recieve the first 5000 non-customer ordered units and this could be one reason for the "delay".

 

Just an update...that dealership is definately playing games with him. I called them yesterday and asked how much and how long for an Escape Hybrid. The salesperson told me 14 - 16 weeks and quoted me 2000.00 above MSRP!!!

 

Exactly! My Broker couldn't believe there are dealerships letting FEH allocations go at X Plan. There are many people who have got X Plan, but the dealers in my area would only go as far as sticker and no other fees back in April. The dealers know there is still a full tax credit of $3,000 on the FWD FEH/MMH and some dealers want that also now.

It's all about supply and demand and Fleet Dealers can't even order till Fall. Once that market opens, good luck getting one at all.

When I saw the release of the changes to the '09 FEH at the DC Auto Show, I decided to sell my '05 FEH and upgrade to the new '09. That's all changed with gas prices over $4 a gallon. Our existing FEH/MMH are going up in value or at lease holding there value now. I had this happen with my '67 GT 500 I paid $1,750 in 1973. The FEH/MMH is still the most fuel efficient SUV on the Planet after 4 years.

GaryG