FORD MUSTANG MACH E INSIDER INFO, RUMORS, AND RELEASE DATE

[eager2own]

I was fine buying the car sight unseen, but dealers and service departments not even touching the vehicle is very disconcerting.

I know Ford is rushing to get cars out in 2020 for Wall Street reasons, but I need them to slow the heck down so they don't screw the pooch. I want a fantastic, we'll put together, well supported car. That's the whole dang reason I'm going Ford instead of "the other guy".

I now have reason to pause. Take note Ford!

But let's keep things in perspective. The dealer product training they are talking about is product familiarization for the dealer staff to learn about the car and be able to talk about and sell it to customers. That will be done virtually and, frankly, that doesn't concern me because I'm not depending on them to talk me into buying the car. I wouldn't want them to delay deliveries (especially to those who already have reserved the vehicle) because they want to ensure the dealer staff has learned about the car in person 5 months before deliveries start.
Ford isn't saying that service departments and certified techs won't get training on the E.

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[ChasingCoral]

But let's keep things in perspective. The dealer product training they are talking about is product familiarization for the dealer staff to learn about the car and be able to talk about and sell it to customers. That will be done virtually and, frankly, that doesn't concern me because I'm not depending on them to talk me into buying the car. I wouldn't want them to delay deliveries (especially to those who already have reserved the vehicle) because they want to ensure the dealer staff has learned about the car in person 5 months before deliveries start.
Ford isn't saying that service departments and certified techs won't get training on the E.

@eager2own is right. Remember they have already been prepping their service departments as part of the e-car certification:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...in-service-technicians-on-mach-e-mustang.415/

 

[dbsb3233]

I was fine buying the car sight unseen, but dealers and service departments not even touching the vehicle is very disconcerting.

I know Ford is rushing to get cars out in 2020 for Wall Street reasons, but I need them to slow the heck down so they don't screw the pooch. I want a fantastic, we'll put together, well supported car. That's the whole dang reason I'm going Ford instead of "the other guy".

I now have reason to pause. Take note Ford!

While I'm not too concerned about needing service in the first year (or for that matter, the first 5+ years, which is supposed to be an advantage of BEVs), the rushing and scrambling to make up for all the shutdowns does give me some pause as well. Buying one of the first ones off the line of a brand new model is always a bit risky under orderly circumstances. This mess just compounds it.

I've so far been holding my reservation just in case, but pretty sure I'll be canceling it and will look to buy off the lot like normal next year. I don't think I want an early one. But my res# is fairly late anyway (29xxx). Plus the stock market has rebounded more and faster than I expected, so there's still some temptation. I guess I'll have to make the final decision soon. Not sure what the "use it or lose it" date will be for turning a reservation into an order?

 

[JamieGeek]

So far for the two OEM BEV's I've purchased (Focus Electric, and Bolt) simply being on a forum such as this already means you'll know more about the car than the sales person. On the Focus I explained a bunch of stuff to the sales person about it. In fact when he went to pull it around for me I already had the app sync'ed up with the car and a screen popped up in it--freaked him out big time LOL.

The Bolt they just kind of tossed me the keys and sent me on my way (after having to sit through an OnStar call).

Keep in mind that EVs are far less complicated than any ICE vehicle so there is far less, mechanically, to screw up. It is more likely that there will be software bugs on the earliest cars which the OTA updates should be able to fix (unless the OTA updates also have bugs! LOL Then you'll have to go to the dealer to get the car flashed to fix that--something that Ford has quite a bit of experience doing so that shouldn't be a problem).

 

[dbsb3233]

That's not what I got, based on what he said here and in previous threads. As I understand it the normal procedure would have been for a finite number of trainers to take a finite number of cars "on the road" for onsite training at the dealerships. The trainer and car would be at a given dealership for a short period of time for the purpose of dealership employees to sit in the car, learn about it, etc and then the car and trainer would move on to the next dealer. Neither the cars nor the sessions would be open to the public. Because of the situation, they are not even doing this kind of road training - instead it will all be online and not even the dealers will touch the car.

Yeah, I had to go back and read it more slowly. At first the "would have been last month but now it'll be July" made it sound like some production vehicles would be arriving then. But we knew that couldn't be the case given everything else we've heard. Looks like it just meant virtual training would begin then, not hands-on with a vehicle.

 

[dbsb3233]

So far for the two OEM BEV's I've purchased (Focus Electric, and Bolt) simply being on a forum such as this already means you'll know more about the car than the sales person

That's what I was going to say too. Just about everyone that plunks down a reservation deposit a year in advance for a brand new BEV release is probably already gonna know more about the vehicle than the typical salesperson. And could likely teach them how it works.

And most especially anyone on these forums.

 

[buzznwood]

That's disappointing. (Not that it's a deal breaker, and can't say I need to ever go over 90, but it is nice to have the option to go 150 or more...)

We all know the the range tanks when going at higher speeds in an ev. Volvo have recently capped their vehicles top speed to 112 sure marketing may like to pass that off as for safety reasons, but anyone with a working brain knows it is for in readiness for when they make the switch over to being all electric.

So the 111 was no surprise for most of the mach-e models however the 124 for the GT is very low and looks bad compared the telsa performance models, sure it won't impact most people apart from those who can drive on the autobahn but when people start comparing the paper specs of models, they expect a performance model to have actual performance and a similar top speed of 150, even if you can't do it for very long until you are out of juice.

I have always got the impression that the GT was probably a very late addition to the model line up after the decision to mustangify the original design, so there is still plenty of development work left so expect the final numbers to be revised. I could certainly see a case being made for the base GT being limited to 124 (similar limited top speed of the e-tron and i-pace) while the gt performance gets a higher top speed as part of the performance package.

 

[eager2own]

I could certainly see a case being made for the base GT being limited to 124 (similar limited top speed of the e-tron and i-pace) while the gt performance gets a higher top speed as part of the performance package.

This makes sense, and I hope the path that they follow.

 

[timbop]

Not sure what the "use it or lose it" date will be for turning a reservation into an order?

I was wondering the same thing. At first blush based on the schedule we saw months ago, it looked like reservation conversion to orders was to start in the spring, with "vehicle scheduling" beginning in the summer. My interpretation (and gist of conversations here) was that the scheduling would be based on the model and customer's original reservation timestamp - NOT the order date. The reason for the time gap was to allow customers to convert their orders in a leisurely way while still preserving the queue based on reservation timestamps. Extrapolating that, I would assume that orders converted from reservations AFTER the initial scheduling is done would go to the back of the queue regardless of reservation timestamp or model. Since reservations would essentially be worthless after the initial schedule is made, it is possible Ford will cancel any remaining unconverted reservations and refund the deposits.

 

[portlandg]

My theory is that when they open up 'confirm orders' it will be a first come first serve in the build queue. On the UK website FAQ's it says that we will get an email inviting us to confirm our order. It suggests we do this asap as any delay may jeopardise our chosen configuration. I do seem to recall reading somewhere that if we dont confirm our order within 30 days our order will be cancelled but can't remember where I saw it.

 

[ClaudeMach-E]

While I'm not too concerned about needing service in the first year (or for that matter, the first 5+ years, which is supposed to be an advantage of BEVs), the rushing and scrambling to make up for all the shutdowns does give me some pause as well. Buying one of the first ones off the line of a brand new model is always a bit risky under orderly circumstances. This mess just compounds it.

I've so far been holding my reservation just in case, but pretty sure I'll be canceling it and will look to buy off the lot like normal next year. I don't think I want an early one. But my res# is fairly late anyway (29xxx). Plus the stock market has rebounded more and faster than I expected, so there's still some temptation. I guess I'll have to make the final decision soon. Not sure what the "use it or lose it" date will be for turning a reservation into an order?

I have cancel my order for a Kia Niro EV 1 week prior to receive it and got fully reimbourse. So I believe it would be the same thing with Ford, so you can order with confidence to receive full refund of your depoposit untill you have signed on the final sale contract, simply because those EV's are no problem to sale we are waiting for it.

 

[eager2own]

I have cancel my order for a Kia Niro EV 1 week prior to receive it and got fully reimbourse. So I believe it would be the same thing with Ford, so you can order with confidence to receive full refund of your depoposit untill you have signed on the final sale contract, simply because those EV's are no problem to sale we are waiting for it.

At least in the U.S., this will be up to whatever each individual dealer requires for deposit. Of course, you don't have to accept the vehicle and pay for it in full prior to delivery, but the deposit may or may not be fully refundable depending on what the dealer requires when you place the order.

 

[dbsb3233]

Extrapolating that, I would assume that orders converted from reservations AFTER the initial scheduling is done would go to the back of the queue regardless of reservation timestamp or model. Since reservations would essentially be worthless after the initial schedule is made, it is possible Ford will cancel any remaining unconverted reservations and refund the deposits.

That was my assumption too. Since we're still months ahead of actual production, they have time to open and close a reasonable "convert your reservation to an order" window before any are built. If someone fails to convert from res to order within that window, their reservation automatically cancels and deposit refunds.

That would be my guess anyway. If so, who knows on the time window. Maybe something like June 22 to July 15, perhaps?

 

[Redundant]

You misunderstood his meaning: he meant instead of a 12k mile/year lease for X dollars, the lease should have 20k mile/year for the same X dollars because the electric powertrain will last longer.

I totally agree with this. Selfishly I want more yearly mile options on leases because I driver 21k or so yearly, pre COVID. Protection against depreciation. Not sure I will buy if can’t get higher milage lease.

 

[hybrid2bev]

I totally agree with this. Selfishly I want more yearly mile options on leases because I driver 21k or so yearly, pre COVID. Protection against depreciation. Not sure I will buy if can’t get higher milage lease.

The plan for Ford Options (retail balloon note contract) is to offer the same mileage programs as would have been available if Ford was offering the traditional Red Carpet Lease. This means to have 21k miles per year you would select the 19,500 mileage option and buy the remaining 1,500 miles per year upfront.

If memory serves me well the max mileage is 99,999 for the term of the contract. So you should be able to buy as many miles as you need in your example.

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