This may be a dealer allocation issue.

Would this, by any chance, be from a relatively small town dealer? Is it a standalone Mercury dealer, or a combined Ford-Lincoln-Mercury outlet? Any idea how many MMH units this dealer has sold in the past six months, or how many FEH/MMH units combined?

Until a VIN is assigned, unfortunately it's going nowhere. That really stinks.

Will Ford give you a loyalty extension on your lease? Their customer care center got that done for a friend once, but it was about 5 years ago and I don't know if they still do that.

It helps if there's a calm and open dialogue with them. It's hard not to get frustrated in these suituations, but it is very important that the people you deal with feel empatheetic and compelled to help you. Hopefully the thing about writing to the CEO & stockholders is something said out of frustration and was said here only, and not to them.

 

I don't think it's the case that they never intended to produce vast quantities of them, I think the case is that they never thought the demand for them would be as large as it currently is. They only have two lines producing FEH's and MMH's, and they produce them right in the middle of the regular ones. Also the specialty suppliers of some parts for the hybrids (batteries, cvt's) can only deliver them so fast because they were also assuming an "average" demand, it's not easy for them to quickly ramp up to meet the greater demand - especially if they are coming in from overseas by cargo ship - that's a three to four week process right there.

They are planning on filling the orders, but it's like the water line going into your house - there is a physical limit to how many gallons per minute you can get to go through a certain size pipe. If you try to take a shower, run the dishwasher, water the lawn, fill the swimming pool, and wash the siding of the house all at the exact same time there's no way you can get enough there to fill that demand no matter what if your pipe's not big enough to handle it. Same thing here - the figure I've seen is that they can put out a maximum of 100 FEH/MMH's a day. And the regular FE's and MM's are also selling well right now, so they also have to still keep making those to keep up with that demand.

Now that gas prices have come back down the orders have not been coming in as fast, so it will give them a chance to catch up.

And I'd be surprised if they haven't already assigned your vehicle a VIN yet. It probably has, your dealer either is incompetent and hasn't figured out how to get it or doesn't want to give it to you for some reason.

 

I guess I have never been frustrated with my dealer, it seems like they are doing there best to make something happen.

My lease is currently with Chrysler for a Chrysler product. The dealership already has a buyer for it, so I think I am stuck with turning it in on time...especially since I am not re-leasing another Chrysler.

My Ford dealer is a small town dealer. They sell all the Ford Fleet Vehciles. Mercury and Lincoln also. They have sold two 2007 hybrids, but have not sold any 2008's as of yet.

Would Ford let them know if it was an allocation issue?

 

I finally picked mine up Monday after waiting two days under thirteen weeks! (It was at the dealership a total of 3 hours!)

I understand the commodity issues, but I still think some dealers are better than others and will manipulate the system to their advantage. Go read some of the Mustang stories on blueovalforums.com.

It took my order five weeks to get to the 2nd step of the process where most of the orders I have seen online took around one week. I have a hard time believing it was related to commodity issues. When I ordered mine on May 9th, none of this was going on. I have found several others that were ordered the same day or weeks after, but were still delivered before the plant shutdown!

Don't get me wrong, I'll love my FEH, but there will always be a sour feeling about it for me. And most of that anger will be directed to the dealer when I get the survey. I'm also considering filing a dealer complaint with Ford because they wouldn't honor a $545 rebate that expired on 7/2/07, 8 weeks after I ordered it.

This is, of course, my own simple minded and bad experience opinion....not that I'm bitter about it or anything.

 

The Ford district representative can answer these questions or find the answers. The sales manager should call that person.

OK, it's a small dealer who probably didn't request any back in November when the 2008's were first available for order. If that's so, their allocation would be at the lowest level and that may be the problem.

Unfortunately, KC is now also producing the MTH (Mazda Tribute Hybrid) and they need to make enough of those to supply every California dealer with some by the launch date.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has talked to a Mazda dealer about those. Might be an interesting option and a sportier drive.

 

Quick 08 MTH Article:
http://www.cars.com/go/features/auto...Tribute+Hybrid
To me, looks the same as the FEH or MMH for MY08, just slightly different trim.


I am just hoping that there will not be quality build issues with the plant running at full+ capacity trying to catch up, at least to when they get to mine (7/14 ordered date on last allocation the dealer had at that time).

 

Well enough is enough I cancelled my order today with the dealer. I really liked the style of the 08 but I'll be darn if I will wait any longer 90 days is long enough. I will buy a 07 used and let it go at that. The last thing I was told was that all the Escapes are being built in the order the order was received be it Hybrid or regular model.Then to tack on a "Regional Dealer Mark-up" of $3000. for a Hybrid I don't think so. Good luck to all on their orders. Sgt Tip

 

I emailed my purchasing dealer and asked if they had any left. They had 20 on the lot when I bought mine, supposed to have 20 on order, this was 3 months ago.

He said they got on last Wed, light gray, $33k sticker price.
If anyone's interested it's in Mckinney TX, Bob Tomes Ford, ask for Dan. (If it's still there)

 

That would imply that the problem has nothing to do with an underbuild or the issues of the Hybrid. Its simply a matter of a model changeover. Its the first year of the '08 and supplies will be tighter until the line is fully up to speed.

 

I was just at another dealer. They said they are having issues ordering lots of Ford vehicles. Unless you want something on the lot, he said he wouldnt even take an order anymore.

He said he has had 6 cancelled orders in 1 week on various Ford vehicles.

He blamed all of the layoffs at Ford.