Ordering vs. Purchasing From Dealer Stock

MailGuy

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Since receiving the eMail last night telling me my finished Mach E would be sitting somewhere between Kansas City and my dealer for an additional two months, I've spent much of the day stewing and regretting my purchase. I've also vowed not to even bother reading the forum to avoid speculation for answers we will likely never know. While I undoubtedly dislike the dealership purchase model, after ordering my last three cars, I can honestly say that hasn't been any more satisfying. That's not a dig against Ford as I've now ordered three different cars from three different manufacturers. None of them were able to meet commitments made. All have suffered from being able to be transparent about the process, though I credit my Mini salesperson for doing the best job of the three.

When I think about the previous three cars that I bought off the lot, my overall satisfaction with the car was improved because it didn't come with missed expectations from the start. It earned those all on its own over the lifecycle I owned it. So for me, the MME will probably be the last car I ever order. If a dealer doesn't have what I want in stock, then it's not meant to be. I'll hate the negotiation and purchase process, but at least I can control the duration of the ride.

Time to get off the roller coaster.
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GoGoGadgetMachE

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I've ordered a car once, because the dealer didn't have the full set of options on the lot, and told me that they never ordered the car I wanted fully optioned. Otherwise, it's always been based on what's on the lot, usually somewhat driven by impulse rather than need.

I don't believe my personal expectations were impacted in either case - generally, once I have the car, how I got the car quickly is a rear-view mirror thing, as it were.

This is another case of "personal take" though.
 

ChasingCoral

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Since receiving the eMail last night telling me my finished Mach E would be sitting somewhere between Kansas City and my dealer for an additional two months, I've spent much of the day stewing and regretting my purchase. I've also vowed not to even bother reading the forum to avoid speculation for answers we will likely never know. While I undoubtedly dislike the dealership purchase model, after ordering my last three cars, I can honestly say that hasn't been any more satisfying. That's not a dig against Ford as I've now ordered three different cars from three different manufacturers. None of them were able to meet commitments made. All have suffered from being able to be transparent about the process, though I credit my Mini salesperson for doing the best job of the three.

When I think about the previous three cars that I bought off the lot, my overall satisfaction with the car was improved because it didn't come with missed expectations from the start. It earned those all on its own over the lifecycle I owned it. So for me, the MME will probably be the last car I ever order. If a dealer doesn't have what I want in stock, then it's not meant to be. I'll hate the negotiation and purchase process, but at least I can control the duration of the ride.

Time to get off the roller coaster.
As long as you don't want a Mach E until 2022, stock may be your answer.
 

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Since receiving the eMail last night telling me my finished Mach E would be sitting somewhere between Kansas City and my dealer for an additional two months, I've spent much of the day stewing and regretting my purchase. I've also vowed not to even bother reading the forum to avoid speculation for answers we will likely never know. While I undoubtedly dislike the dealership purchase model, after ordering my last three cars, I can honestly say that hasn't been any more satisfying. That's not a dig against Ford as I've now ordered three different cars from three different manufacturers. None of them were able to meet commitments made. All have suffered from being able to be transparent about the process, though I credit my Mini salesperson for doing the best job of the three.

When I think about the previous three cars that I bought off the lot, my overall satisfaction with the car was improved because it didn't come with missed expectations from the start. It earned those all on its own over the lifecycle I owned it. So for me, the MME will probably be the last car I ever order. If a dealer doesn't have what I want in stock, then it's not meant to be. I'll hate the negotiation and purchase process, but at least I can control the duration of the ride.

Time to get off the roller coaster.
This is exactly the first car either my wife or I have ever ordered. Between the 2 of us my Mach E will be the 16th car we've bought.
 

BlueMach

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This is a pretty new area for the industry in terms of the online ordering, but on all models the order bank opens before production. In theory there are people waiting for their 2021 EcoSports too (though I doubt many). The EV world does seem to put an awful lot of emphasis on getting people "locked in" with these orders long before production, but now we see Bronco is going through this too with huge waits looking likely.

It's not my first time ordering a new Ford, but the last time it took exactly 30 days from order to delivery, so this is definitely a new experience waiting this long.
 


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This is exactly the first car either my wife or I have ever ordered. Between the 2 of us my Mach E will be the 16th car we've bought.
Ditto. First car we've ordered.
 

generaltso

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I’ve ordered several cars over the years. In the cases that I bought cars off the lot, I usually found the combination of options I wanted at dealers within a day’s drive and made the trip. If I’m spending a big chunk of change on a car, I’m not going to settle for something that happens to be on my local dealer’s lot if it’s not the exact color and options that I want. If I can drive a couple hundred miles to get that, I do. If not, I special order.
 

ARK

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I’ve never ordered a vehicle either aside from the MME. Previously assumed you likely won’t be able to negotiate off the MSRP by much if at all, at least compared to something already in the dealer’s stock.

I actually might be more open to doing this in the future now that I have done it once. Even if ordering is slightly more expensive, seems like almost every single dealer car has some option you have absolutely no interest in that was included and you must obviously still pay for (best example being satellite radio).
 

Keyk4

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My Mach-E will be my 4th ordered car. All of previous ones took a few months to receive:

2001 Explorer Sport Trac
2004 Volvo S60 AWD (Overseas Delivery Program - which was awesome)
2011 Volvo C30 R-Design
 

weave

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Getting from stock to me always means compromising on what I want, as far as color and options. Also, dealers so far have been horrible at keeping EV and PHEV cars charged. They can sit on lots with 0% charge for months in blazing heat or extreme cold -- which can shorten the battery life.

Obviously MEs will not sit on lots like that until the initial demand wanes -- but if it gets to the point where there's enough stock on hand to have several cars to choose from, it also probably means they've been on the lot for a while too.
 

Illinibird

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This is the first car I've ever ordered and will be the last (I've bought close to 20 new cars). The experience has not met the expectations the dealer told me I'd have when I ordered the car. He said I should receive it in January 2021 at the latest (I ordered 10-12-2020). I learned better on this forum. I did not realize at the time of ordering that people had reserved/ordered a long time before I did. I truly feel sorry for those on the forum who had their hopes dashed when they thought they would receive their cars in January only to be told it could take weeks or in some cases months longer. I myself have heard nothing from Ford since I received an e-mail from them saying they received my order last October and this shouldn't be. The dealer has had radio silence on my order as well. I, too, would like an idea of where I am in line to have my car produced so I have an idea of when it might be delivered.
 
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This is the first car I've ever ordered and will be the last (I've bought close to 20 new cars).
?

Thunderbird Birth Cert.jpeg


The experience has not met the expectations the dealer told me I'd have when I ordered the car. He said I should receive it in January 2021 at the latest (I ordered 10-12-2020).
That's an overly optimistic dealer! Wow.

I placed my online reservation on November 18, 2019 and have received AT LEAST 25 emails from Ford since then.

You may be feeling left out because of your very recent order and that you made it through a dealer instead of online. So Ford expects all of your communications, in this case, to be between you and your dealer, as that is where you are handling this deal.

But don't feel left out. @Mach-E VLOG has put together a tremendous recap of all of the important information we've learned from Ford over the last 14 months or so, over at his namesake:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MachEVLOG/videos
 

shutterbug

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This is the first car I've ever ordered and will be the last (I've bought close to 20 new cars). The experience has not met the expectations the dealer told me I'd have when I ordered the car. He said I should receive it in January 2021 at the latest (I ordered 10-12-2020). I learned better on this forum. I did not realize at the time of ordering that people had reserved/ordered a long time before I did. I truly feel sorry for those on the forum who had their hopes dashed when they thought they would receive their cars in January only to be told it could take weeks or in some cases months longer. I myself have heard nothing from Ford since I received an e-mail from them saying they received my order last October and this shouldn't be. The dealer has had radio silence on my order as well. I, too, would like an idea of where I am in line to have my car produced so I have an idea of when it might be delivered.
Back when I converted my reservation to an order (7/1/2020), my dealer called and said that the car would likely be ready in January or February. So your dealer is incompetent or a liar. Probably both.
 

Illinibird

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Back when I converted my reservation to an order (7/1/2020), my dealer called and said that the car would likely be ready in January or February. So your dealer is incompetent or a liar. Probably both.
He's definitely not a liar and I think he was just not informed on how popular the cars are. He's actually a really nice guy (General Manager of the dealership) and a personal friend of my neighbor who referred me to him. He treated my wife and I very well and it was one of the most pleasant experiences I've had to date with a new car dealer. He also honored the Ford X-Plan which my previous dealer of 18 years would not do.
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