This is more or less a reply to Gary's last comment above, but I'm open to other folks thoughts.

First off, I'm sorry to hear that your dealer played games with you with regard to that fee. That is just bad business in my mind from what you describe above.

>>This may or may not be the case in your situation, but I'd be demanding answers
>>from your dealer. If they know nothing, I would be out of there because their
>>playing games for sure if you ordered in early June.

Since I also ordered on June 2 and have a receipt date of June 3 on my dora, I have had this same thought for some time now. But like I said above, I want to believe (do I sound like fox mulder?) in what the dealer is telling me. The latest word from them yesterday is that I shouild be the next order to be scheduled for their dealership. that is also the same story I got for the last 2 weeks. I'm giving them until this Thursday when they said they would have the next update from the rep.

Am I being to trusting? Am I being stupid? I gotta wonder how many other folks are in the same time frame as I am, without any news on a build or schedule date. There is a big part of me that wants to walk away from this and move on. Then the other side of the brain says I'm being too impatient and to just sit and chill. I honestly don't know which side of the fence to jump off on. I'm not really in a hurry to have a car payment again, but it sure seems like I've done my fair share of waiting.

I do have something else in the works as of this weekend. I hope to know more on that today. But if that works, i would not get the other vehicle until early November, but at least it would have everything my current order does, and more.

I'm open to everyone's constructive advice. Jump ship? or ride the storm?

 

I jumped ship and went with a dealer that has one on a lot. The dealer I originally ordered from agreed to reimburse my deposit, so that took care of that. I encourage you to do what I've done. Use cars.com and autotrader.com, together with the Ford website to check actual dealer inventory. All 3 sites can be wrong though, so it's best to get a list and call around. I called probably 10 dealers yesterday until I found the deal I wanted. Good luck.

 

thanks for the info. I could not figure out how to do a 2009 escape hybrid on cars.com. 2008, yea, not 2009. Autotrader didn't show anything in 500 miles. appreciate the help though. I wish you good luck. I would be right there with you if I can find something in-stock. Still hope to hear from my backup plan sometime today.

 

I also looked on autotrader, Ford, and Cars and could not find anything in my state. There are a few within a few hours of me, but I would prefer and wait if I can get my vehicle exactly how I want it. I still think certain states get very low priority due to what they have sold in the past and the market for the future.

 

It took me a while to get both cars.com and autotrader.com to work for me, but once I massaged the options the right way it worked. Personally I found cars.com to be the most helpful. Start out by building a new car, choosing the FEH and Limited, if I remember correctly. Don't choose any other options though, even though they are there. If the dealer/seller doesn't use these options, then you won't find the vehicle even if it really does have that option. Just use the keyword search feature, and put in things like "2009 black" or something like that. Using that, I narrowed my list down to about 30, of which 10 or so were bogus.

 

well, I bought a mariner off a lot in Dallas. I emailed my dealer where I had the order and told them to cancel the order for me and to give me a buzz. I've not had time to do anything with the new car really except to drive it home and to work today. Will start playing and learning over the next few days.

Hopefully the dealer where i had the order placed and I will touch base. I'm sure they can sell the vehicle to someone right after it comes in. But finding what I want, 3 hours away, was just too hard to pass up.

 

Smart move and congrads!

GaryG

 

And if we were talking about F-150 pickups, that would be true. Unfortunately it's not how the FEH orders work. Dealers in _most_ regions are actually not allowed to order 'stock'. The consumer orders have to be checked to ensure Ford believes it's a genuine retail order and not just a dealer submitting a stock order as a retail order in order to get a vehicle on their lot.

What most of you are failing to realize is that there's a "dealer" allocation game WITHIN the region, and then there's a "region" allocation game controlled by Ford corporate.

I'm peeved about the regional allocation. No dealer in my region can get these... big town, small town, high sales, etc. doesn't matter.

 

I ordered my '09 FEH on July 28th, so about 7 weeks ago. I'm in St Louis, MO. I called the dealer today just to touch base & check to see if there's a vin # yet. Nope, not yet, but he will call me when he gets it. I asked about the DORA and if I could get a copy of it. He said they don't give out copies of it until the vin comes through. Is that true or is he blowing smoke? My order was part of this dealerships allocation of 4 FEH, I got the last one.

 

I don't know if your dealer will have better luck than mine, but my dealer also said they have an allocation of 4 FEH's. I had the first order which I placed on May 13th and got my VIN on 8/28. From what the dealer told me back in July was that they could get mine in before the end of the year but the other 3 people after me would most likely be sometime into 2009. However, now that I have mine maybe the next person will get theirs by the end of the year. This is in Western NY so I don't know if your region can get more allocations where they can get to your order quicker but just a heads up being 4th in line.