You might have a supply and demand issue here. Many posters are reporting of waiting like 4-6 months for their vehicle. I understood it as workers at the Kansas City Plant were doing overtime on Saturday during the Summer months in an attempt to catch up with demand. It doesn't look like they have caught up.

 

Out here in So. Cal you can buy FEH buy the gross. I think it is up to the dealers to order for their inventory and smaller ones don't

 

Out here in So. Cal you can buy FEH buy the gross. I think it is up to the dealers to order for their inventory and smaller ones don't.

 

I think that seems to be a problem. I've seen an overabundance of FEH inventory on the West coast and NONE on the East coast. I think Canada is short inventory too. Overtime or not, maybe FORD should load up a few haulers full of CA stock and relocate it elsewhere.

Ford dealers know that the average Joe isn't willing to wait 12-16 weeks for a vehicle they want to buy today and they don't want to fill up their order system with those delayed vehicles as well. They would rather special order for the few die-hards that really want an a FEH/MMH than deal with that mess. The other buyers that aren't die-hards will be "encouraged" to buy the non-hybrids. We've seen this type of encouragement time and time again with bogus prices, maintenance tech issues and skewed "pay-back" comparisons.

Maybe 2008 will be the year Ford gets it's act together on their hybrid production numbers since they will be introducing even more models. I hope so...

 

I know that Ford has a radio campaign with the FEH here in So. Cal. land so they must see a need or value to run it either due to inventory or a desire to feature the FEH.

I bought ours the same day using X plan and the dealer discounted $500 off of X plan to boot. This surprised me as I was under the assumption that X plan and others were non negotiable. I don't like to haggle so there was very little of this and the deal was done in about 2 hours.

There were about 10-15 on this dealers lot and in their holding area.

I bought it for my wife and while she was a little taken aback she has been driving it for a couple of months now and is seeing double the MPG's of the car it replaced. She really likes it and so do I. It fits our needs well and can get a solid 30+ mpg if babied a bit.

Funny thing is when I drive it I get much better FE then she does so now I am on a campaign to get her FE up. It will be a slow process but I think that once she gets it she will be excited.

 

Same here, when we first got it, her FE was lower, albeit 2-3mpg or so. But We started a "game" to see who could park it with the highest avg mpg showing! Soon we were equal, sometimes she'll win even!

 

Everything you guys are saying is what I've seen as I'm shopping as far as salesmen, supply etc...I've been told the need for hybrids in NYC for taxicabs is what's killing supply east of the mississippi, no idea if that's true, but it looks like I'll be getting mine when it's plenty warm outside.

 

Just a question about the FEH oversupply in CA. Are there separate California and 49 state versions of the FEH or are they all the same?

 

All FEH/MMH are built 100% the same.

However, the ones shipped to CA are labeled differently and have a special VIN number that indicates it meets California's strict emissions standards for AT-PZEV status. A car with a CA VIN number gets the longer 10yr/150,000 mile warranty also, but, you need to have the car registered in the state of California (or any "green state") at the time you need the service performed.

I purchased mine in CA, way back in 2005, since there was a relative surplus of them in the Los Angeles area, and drove it back to Colorado.
You can get ( 5 day or 7 day, can't remember ) "transporter tags" to move a vehicle without plates or any temporary tags across state lines.

Also, you don't pay any sales tax to the state you got your car from.
You pay sales tax to the state/county you first register the car in.

I got my pick of the litter ( of 15 to choose from ) off a dealer's lot, with no waiting, and saved 2% on sales tax to boot!

 

I don't think the FEH was taken very seriously at first among the usual suspects who would buy a hybrid. In fact, I remember reading that Ford was actually offering the same incentives on the Hybrid as the gas version for a while. Thanks to early adopters like you, the FEH has proven to be a good car and the demand has increased (plus gas is $3.00/g ). Also, I see more FEH advertisements on national TV than any other Ford product which has got to play a factor in demand. Now if Sanyo would just increase their battery production so they could make more FEH/MMHs.

K (was lucky enough to find one on the lot and not have to wait)