Shipped Mach-Es Arrive at Kansas City Terminal With Deliveries Imminent

[ChasingCoral]

Customs takes time.

They have to check every Frunk to make sure the shrimp aren’t spoiled.

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[machefan]

Detailed location tracking is found in Vehicle Visibility that dealers and others inside Ford have access to. Unfortunately it is not a toll open to the public.

VV is closer but not 100% realtime, I hope they are rethinking customer visibility for cars they sell online (Ford). Granted the dealer is still in the final mix, it's most likely the next phase of car sales. Dealer will be more like a service center which includes local paperwork, delivery and then service. Time will tell and if they start going this way with the F-Series then it's even closer. Yes I know they still need to sell cars off the lot for the must have now buyers. Just in Time "JIT" manufacturing is most likely somewhere in the future, so many areas of manufacturing have moved into that mode. Just a guess, who knows, what I do know is that I want my MME delivered and my dealer as of Friday is showing the same info all week.

 

[AndyS_OSU]

VV is closer but not 100% realtime, I hope they are rethinking customer visibility for cars they sell online (Ford). Granted the dealer is still in the final mix, it's most likely the next phase of car sales. Dealer will be more like a service center which includes local paperwork, delivery and then service. Time will tell and if they start going this way with the F-Series then it's even closer. Yes I know they still need to sell cars off the lot for the must have now buyers. Just in Time "JIT" manufacturing is most likely somewhere in the future, so many areas of manufacturing have moved into that mode. Just a guess, who knows, what I do know is that I want my MME delivered and my dealer as of Friday is showing the same info all week.

Shipped 1/18 and there were zero updates in VV until yesterday when my dealer said it shows up in Missouri. Thats all though. Palsapp still shows null and pending.

 

[SMDJim]

If the quality check shows a problem, what happens to the defective car? Is it a bad part that can only be replaced by trained service personnel in a specially equipped location? Also, why is testing being done in remote locations (like outdoors)?

 

[eastern refugee]

Detailed location tracking is found in Vehicle Visibility that dealers and others inside Ford have access to. Unfortunately it is not a toll open to the public.

What is truly sad is that if Ford made that available to its customers AFTER they put down a deposit they would NEVER need to worry about communication.

Today the baby bronco has to be ordered the same way.

The big bronco has to be ordered the same way

I truly believe that Ford will be using this Tesla like sales model for all new vehicles being sold. Dealers will always exist. They are needed for delivery as well as maintenance. They make the actual possession of the vehicle the beginning of a great ford experience. However the idea of the customer walking up will dwindle to the existing lineup. Sure the will now have MME for test driving but I doubt that they will have them in their inventory. Why?? Because I think within a short time from the time that you order the car to taking possession will be 3 weeks max. Dealers like the rest of the corporate world will save money by not paying interest on inventory. As such salespeople will become order takers like at a drive thru fast food place. Ford creates incredible buzz and then the calls flood the dealers.

I just saw the next BIG thing. The raptor on 2/4 is now going to offer two versions. The regular raptor and the RAPTOR R. Today in SoCal the raptor carries a mark up of $25,000. My guess is that with The models available and eventually the Ranger Raptor that the dealer mark up May disappear. Why? Because you will have to order it on the internet.

Remember Ford gets ZERO DOLLARS on mark ups. However using the internet and the LOSS of X pricing which is what happened with the Bronco Ford can charge more for the vehicle. Today in SoCal a raptor cannot be bought for under $100,000. What I see Ford doing is charging say $85,000. Ford gets to charge a higher price and the customers get it cheaper.

Back on subject. If this INSIDE PORTAL were available to all that put out a deposit it would bring NEW excitement to the car buying process. As a customer you would see your new car being born at the factory and watch the entire delivery process taking all of the stress off of the customer and zero calls and therefore frustration out of both sides of the equation. It would be like picking up your new vehicle virtually. I personally think the experience would be awesome.


I could get on the portal and see ohhh my car just passed Topeka. The next day wow it made it to Oklahoma. Talk about the hype as a person you would have constantly checking the portal to see where it is next. ALL of the frustration aboutvZthe Wait would disappear. Ford woukd in my opinion MORE cars v

 

[SMDJim]

What is truly sad is that if Ford made that available to its customers AFTER they put down a deposit they would NEVER need to worry about communication.

Today the baby bronco has to be ordered the same way.

The big bronco has to be ordered the same way

I truly believe that Ford will be using this Tesla like sales model for all new vehicles being sold. Dealers will always exist. They are needed for delivery as well as maintenance. They make the actual possession of the vehicle the beginning of a great ford experience. However the idea of the customer walking up will dwindle to the existing lineup. Sure the will now have MME for test driving but I doubt that they will have them in their inventory. Why?? Because I think within a short time from the time that you order the car to taking possession will be 3 weeks max. Dealers like the rest of the corporate world will save money by not paying interest on inventory. As such salespeople will become order takers like at a drive thru fast food place. Ford creates incredible buzz and then the calls flood the dealers.

I just saw the next BIG thing. The raptor on 2/4 is now going to offer two versions. The regular raptor and the RAPTOR R. Today in SoCal the raptor carries a mark up of $25,000. My guess is that with The models available and eventually the Ranger Raptor that the dealer mark up May disappear. Why? Because you will have to order it on the internet.

Remember Ford gets ZERO DOLLARS on mark ups. However using the internet and the LOSS of X pricing which is what happened with the Bronco Ford can charge more for the vehicle. Today in SoCal a raptor cannot be bought for under $100,000. What I see Ford doing is charging say $85,000. Ford gets to charge a higher price and the customers get it cheaper.

Back on subject. If this INSIDE PORTAL were available to all that put out a deposit it would bring NEW excitement to the car buying process. As a customer you would see your new car being born at the factory and watch the entire delivery process taking all of the stress off of the customer and zero calls and therefore frustration out of both sides of the equation. It would be like picking up your new vehicle virtually. I personally think the experience would be awesome.


I could get on the portal and see ohhh my car just passed Topeka. The next day wow it made it to Oklahoma. Talk about the hype as a person you would have constantly checking the portal to see where it is next. ALL of the frustration aboutvZthe Wait would disappear. Ford woukd in my opinion MORE cars v

I think the portal should also track manufacturing problems and detail when rework is necessary. Long gaps in the tracking will create alarm, particularly when building cars that can be dangerous if the defects are in the battery systems or propulsion components.

 

[JellyBelly]

SD? San Diego? Which dealer?

Encinitas Ford

 

[RonTCat]

I could get on the portal and see ohhh my car just passed Topeka. The next day wow it made it to Oklahoma. Talk about the hype as a person you would have constantly checking the portal to see where it is next. ALL of the frustration aboutvZthe Wait would disappear. Ford woukd in my opinion MORE cars v

The Vehicle Visibility system has to be made "public friendly". It was designed for someone trained to intepret it... It never had to be intuitive or easy to understand, just efficient and effective.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

I wish this was the case but mine doesn't show it was delivered to Voltz until the 28th. So I'm pretty much in the dark as to where it might be. Hopefully it caught a train and is still not sitting there. Pals of course has not updated to this point (I assume it will update to reflect picking it up in DE)

There is a good chance your car is en-route (not sitting in the yard). My car was also delivered to Voltz on the 27th and loaded on the train. But no new updates happened until Friday when the train passed an intermediate check-point in Decatur, IL (which is how we know the train finally departed). Decatur is (wild guess) 250 miles from KC. The average speed of a Norfolk Southern train is about 25 mph (depending on track conditions, etc.) So that would put the train at around 10 hours in transit ... meaning it probably departed very late on Thursday night or very early of Friday morning. There's a chance your car would have been loaded on that train.

Your dealer can tell you for sure ... when the car is loaded, they'll get an update with the rail car number. When the training is moving they get some updates as the train passes intermediate checkpoints.

My dealer checked status Friday morning and all he had was rail car number. But he checked again and emailed me around 3pm on Friday afternoon because he noticed it passed the checkpoint.

 

[VegStang]

It would be different if the dealer would respond to a tracking request even. I don't expect them to reply to my email the same day, but even a week later would be nice instead of being ignored. I've been pretty patient with them, not asking for much, only contacting them a few times over the past year or so. Seems like each time I'm handed off to a different salesperson or support rep... a completely different experience from when I ordered an Escape Hybrid from them many years ago.

I know the Bronco is multitudes crazier, but this dealer did have over 80 MME orders when I spoke to them about it last summer.

VV is closer but not 100% realtime, I hope they are rethinking customer visibility for cars they sell online (Ford). Granted the dealer is still in the final mix, it's most likely the next phase of car sales. Dealer will be more like a service center which includes local paperwork, delivery and then service. Time will tell and if they start going this way with the F-Series then it's even closer. Yes I know they still need to sell cars off the lot for the must have now buyers. Just in Time "JIT" manufacturing is most likely somewhere in the future, so many areas of manufacturing have moved into that mode. Just a guess, who knows, what I do know is that I want my MME delivered and my dealer as of Friday is showing the same info all week.

 

[machefan]

It would be different if the dealer would respond to a tracking request even. I don't expect them to reply to my email the same day, but even a week later would be nice instead of being ignored. I've been pretty patient with them, not asking for much, only contacting them a few times over the past year or so. Seems like each time I'm handed off to a different salesperson or support rep... a completely different experience from when I ordered an Escape Hybrid from them many years ago.

I know the Bronco is multitudes crazier, but this dealer did have over 80 MME orders when I spoke to them about it last summer.

Personally I would give them a call, speak with the GM and let him or her know your concerns. If that doesn't work post on twitter tagging Jim Farley and the dealer asking Ford to help you since the dealer is ignoring you. Show that post to the GM, well hopefully you don't have to go that far but they really should be paying attention to the customer. I don't get it, word of mouth is really something a dealer should be concerned about. I don't know, sorry, hopefully it works out.

PS - I won't say who, you will have to find the post on here, but there is someone who can pull VV for you on the forum.

Good luck and sorry...

 

[VegStang]

Thanks for the thoughts, I may just stop by the dealer and see what response I can get in person if nothing changes in another week. Knowing where the car is will not really change anything but like you said they really should be responsive about customer service.

As usual, getting help from the forum is probably quicker and easier than working with the dealer. Now about that VV...

Personally I would give them a call, speak with the GM and let him or her know your concerns. If that doesn't work post on twitter tagging Jim Farley and the dealer asking Ford to help you since the dealer is ignoring you. Show that post to the GM, well hopefully you don't have to go that far but they really should be paying attention to the customer. I don't get it, word of mouth is really something a dealer should be concerned about. I don't know, sorry, hopefully it works out.

PS - I won't say who, you will have to find the post on here, but there is someone who can pull VV for you on the forum.

Good luck and sorry...

 

[ChasingCoral]

If the quality check shows a problem, what happens to the defective car? Is it a bad part that can only be replaced by trained service personnel in a specially equipped location? Also, why is testing being done in remote locations (like outdoors)?

jk

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

It would be different if the dealer would respond to a tracking request even. I don't expect them to reply to my email the same day, but even a week later would be nice instead of being ignored. I've been pretty patient with them, not asking for much, only contacting them a few times over the past year or so. Seems like each time I'm handed off to a different salesperson or support rep... a completely different experience from when I ordered an Escape Hybrid from them many years ago.

I know the Bronco is multitudes crazier, but this dealer did have over 80 MME orders when I spoke to them about it last summer.

Far too many dealers like this. I’d make my usual sarcastic comment about dealers, but it’s no longer funny.

Dealers, Ford and otherwise, need to change. Now.

 

[RonTCat]

jk

Another defective tire pressure sticker, toss it in...

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