6/20/22 Build Week Gang

[levineds]

The White House got the recommendations for the railworkers contract dispute yesterday, but no word on how the parties are reacting. I previously thought (when this process started in June) that I was safe because railworkers can't strike until Sept 15 and surely my June 25 build would be delivered before then. Now...maybe October or later delivery if things don't go well.

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[WNKent]

Ford needs to develop a plan so that we can go get the car, where it sits a local dealership processing location.

 

[Renton777]

Yes, there were at least 3 damaged Mach Es. Apparently whatever Norfolk Sourthen uses to secure the tires doesn't work well on Mach es. It wasn't the first time but mine was the most beatup they have seen.

Going to talk things over and word was It was all cosmetic, they will repair it all ($13k) estimate and offer full-blown warrenty on everything for 4 or 6 years. I was considering Ford Options for 4 years anyways. I am meeting with them tomorrow to get everything in writing and consider it.

Got to drive the banged up beauty today. Holy smokes the force I felt when I accelerated from 65 to 85 in a blink of an eye was crazy! It really rides nice as well.

Mechanically, felt fine, so that was good. Still working with Ford and the dealer to determine how they will ensure I won't feel like an idiot/fool if I accept this car. Lengthy zero deductible transferable premium care warranty is a start and addressing potential diminished value as well. We shall see where we go.

 

[shereth]

So I thought I'd do a little writeup of my experience with the dealer and the first couple of days with my new MME GT.

Like pretty much everyone here, probably the worst part was just the wait between ordering and arrival. I understand the delays and that stuff happens, but Ford really needs to work on communicating with people who have ordered cars from them - especially if they're serious about moving to a more direct-order focused model for their electric vehicles. Better order tracking, more transparent updates, more frequent updates and giving actual information would have been nice, but it was confusing from start to finish.

Experience with my dealer was mostly painless though it did take a while. I got a call from them when the car finally arrived, but as I was out of town for the week I had to wait a few days. I had thought that would have given them plenty of time to get it ready, but when I got there they still needed to put it on the charger and do some prep. The sales guy I had been dealing with was away so they had another guy step in and assist. He was friendly but not super knowledgeable about the car. Had a lot of back and forth over the value of my trade-in but there was no issues with the pricing on the MME itself, the dealer kept to their promises of no markup and it was as expected.

Dealing with the finance manager was "interesting". I told them up front I wanted to use Ford Options for financing, and they came back with one of their little matrices showing down payment options and how much the monthly payment would be. I said the payment seemed high, and asked to clarify if it included the incentive cash. The guy seemed a little confused, so I said Options had incentive cash and he went back to check, came back a few minutes later with revised numbers that included incentive. I pointed out that he had listed an APR of something like 5.6% which I said was high, please re-check. He came back with the printout from SmartVincent showing incentive cash of $2000 and an APR for the GT of 2.9%. I said that the incentives were better when I ordered and he needed to re-run with the protection date; finally he came back with the proper $2500 incentive cash and 1.4% APR.

After that things were fairly smooth. He went over extended warranty options and some special glass coverage thing and a few other typical add-ons that I declined, he wasn't too pushy with any of them. He did slide in a $299 theft protection package thing without mentioning and I didn't notice it until later, didn't have the energy to argue it at that point but kind of unhappy that it was just added in without a word.

At one point they brought out the GT and let me take it out for a spin. Traffic was kind of bad so it was just a quick around the block kind of thing, but I didn't really need a test drive, was already pretty sold by that time. Can't really imagine going through what we do with the agonizing wait only to say nevermind at the end!

All in all it took a good 3 hours of my day, and it wasn't even fully charged when I took it (had about 60%). A little longer than I'd have liked but was happy to be on my way.

Since then I've used it to drop my mom off at the airport (she was in town visiting) and have put a couple hundred miles on it. All in all I'm pleased and impressed. Everyone is commenting favorably on how much get up and go it has, and I surely can't complain. Kind of a treat to have that much acceleration on tap. It's definitely weird how quiet it is! It's going to take a lot of getting used to in a lot of ways - the giant touch screen system is a little much to dig through at times, and I kind of wish I had a physical manual to just sit back and read. In spite of what I've read about complaints that it's a bouncy ride, I found it to be just fine. No one has complained when I've given them a ride. Like the space for the family, I think it's going to very nicely straddle the line between fun to drive and practical to use. Saying goodbye to the gas pump is going to feel nice, too!

To those of you still waiting, hang in there! I think you'll find it well worth the wait!

 

[machesan]

@LeWe @levineds @WNKent
My railcar number is updated today: TTGX971967 (Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co )
Check yours with ford chat about any update.

 

[WNKent]

Did they give you an expected delivery date? My dealer tells me 9/12...

 

[WNKent]

@LeWe @levineds @WNKent
My railcar number is updated today: TTGX971967 (Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co )
Check yours with ford chat about any update.

I'm on the same train car.. ALLEGEDLY

 

[machesan]

Did they give you an expected delivery date? My dealer tells me 9/12...

Thats the one which is given by ford. Your dealer will tell you the same thing. once you get the railcar number from Kansas city, it usually comes in 2 to 3 weeks.

 

[WNKent]

I'm on the same train car.. ALLEGEDLY

3 weeks from Kansas... It's the SLOW train.

 

[LeWe]

@LeWe @levineds @WNKent
My railcar number is updated today: TTGX971967 (Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co )
Check yours with ford chat about any update.

Mine has not been updated yet.

 

[WNKent]

Thats the one which is given by ford. Your dealer will tell you the same thing. once you get the railcar number from Kansas city, it usually comes in 2 to 3 weeks.

My dealer's GM has always given me a earlier date, he had been giving me 8/19 for the last couple of months.. The left and right hands don't necessarily communicate, but I'll go with your answer. The rail car number is progress!

 

[WNKent]

Mine has not been updated yet.

It would make sense that you would be on the same rail car, being in the same area.

 

[levineds]

I'm on the same train car.. ALLEGEDLY

Nope, still in Richards-Gebaur. Not even at Argentine ramp. I'm expecting people who's cars are built this week to get theirs before me...but I appreciate your optimism and updates, @machesan

 

[shelnian]

When I picked up the California Route 1 on 8/7/2022 I told the salesman if another Mach-E became available to give me a call. He called on 8/15/2022 and said they had an Iced Blue Premium AWD that was available first come first serve. Hopped into our 2015 Camry Hybrid and was there in 15 minutes. Took it for a test drive and loved it. Traded in the Camry Hybrid after quite a bit of back and forth and finally a threat I'd take it home and sell it myself if they didn't give me KBB trade in value. We got the KBB trade in value.
Even though the dealer advertises NO DEALER MARK-UP, which they honored on the CR1, they wanted a $2000 dealer mark-up for the Premium. Pointed out their website advertised this car at MSRP, they said there were others who wanted the car so if I wanted it, that was the price. I was using the Ford Visa for $5000 down payment and getting $2000 cash bonus with the Ford Options plan, as I did with the CR1, we figured we wanted the car more than fighting it at that point. The rest of the deal went fine since we had the same finance guy, who knew about the Options plan and skipped the extras sales pitch. We kept them there until 10:30PM because Biden was signing the new bill on 8/16 and we didn't know what impact this would have to the $7500 tax incentive.
So after buying 2 MMEs, we have received $4000 in Ford Options cash bonuses, a $300 credit on the Ford Visa, and $725 in Ford credits for accessories and service. Thanks to people on this forum for all the help throughout the process.

 

[levineds]

15 days since arriving in MO, still no movement whatsoever...

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