Ford's communication around this is unbelievably bad

[flip]

I would like to opine on the title of thread from, at least, my POV as a dealer. The Mach E was Ford's first foray into Tesal-esque on-line ordering. There were several issues with implementation and communication between us, the customer and Ford since it was all new. I think Ford leadership thought they would sell out quickly because, well, Tesla had great success so why shouldn't we. The flood of orders never came and from what I can tell, they struggled for a long time to even get half of the projected production spoken for.

Fast forward to Bronco. They planned for something like 120,000 babys and 80,000 full size. From the jump I said that was backwards. Not sure why they didn't focus on the bigs first then bring the babys out since everyone wanted the bigs. Plus the baby is going to compete with the Escape weather they want to admit it or not.

As frustrated as everyone has been with the communication, I can assure you, dealers are right there with you. Say what you will about dealers, there are some crappy ones out there but there are a lot more good and honest ones. Product cadence historically has always come down from Ford to the dealers then we disseminate to customers. At some point the media started getting the info at the same time we got it. Plus, you always had well timed "leaks" to keep people stirred and as an indirect feedback mechanism. So now here we are.

Ford has completely controlled the narrative with this launch, including the mixed messaging and uber poor communication with everyone. I get there are things out of their control due to product shortages but we have never, as dealers, been in such a piss poor position to communicate things. By the time we hear or see it, it's already gone viral on various sites and been disected by everyone claiming to be in the know. Some may be correct some only add more confusion to what can be, at best, wishy-washy press releases. A lot of people are going to disagree with me but a ton of this could have been avoided by not doing the reservation thing and allowing us to do the normal ordering like with every other vehicle line.

Some of you are going to spaz out and say, "well then we would be stuck buying from XYZ dealer instead of being able to move to someone with a better deal". Yes, that might be somewhat true in this unique situation, however you have always been free to buy from any dealer you wanted to prior to this. All this did was highlight and promote dealers that really wanted to move vehicles and were transparent about their pricing. That's the free market kids.

None of this changes the fact Ford was only going to be able to build a set number of '21 vehicles, commodity problems, how many FEs they planned or how they decided to allot production to the various sales markets, regions or zones. Once the order bank is full, it's full. Had we been allowed to order like usual, 75% of conflicting stuff out there could have been avoided by allowing the message to come through the traditional chain. You can agree with me or not, that is fine. Some dealers communication sucks, some are on point. I can tell you for certain this mess that is the Bronco reservation process has made a lot of good dealers look like morons. It's that that we are trying to hide something, but more of an issue of trying to figure out what Ford is saying, then attempting to explain to a customer that has seen 5 different theories on-line, what is or isn't factual, then being labeled, "idiots".

I can't think of any dealers intentionally trying to PO a customer and potentially lose a sale, not to mention being lambasted on the inter webs for public consumption. Do some of them deserve it for being pricks? Yes. A lot of this problem goes back to the title of the thread, poor communication. All I/we can hope is Ford learned from this and is going to not do it again. The information you get is what we are getting in almost real time. There will be more changes, good and bad, before the first retail unit is delivered. Not that I have any inside info, just look at the track record so far. Chill and hope production is higher than anticipated, commodity supply chains open up and we get more units out. Don't flame your dealer if you don't get a '21, it's completely out of our control at this point.

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[JT58Bronc]

There isn't anything we can do about the roll out and communication. It is sad that we will probably see new Broncos for sale on dealer lots even before we receive ours- even despite early reservations. These will be "priority builds" and part of dealer allocations that dealers ordered for themselves and will offer for sale with huge ADM. So they will be out there to buy if you are willing to pay. And it will be a great way to advertise the new Broncos by having a few on the lots to display for people to see when browsing the lot- to place a future order or buy now if they have the cash. I too thought the reservation idea sounded cool and if we reserved right away would get them relatively early. I have diminished this thought completely now and look forward to seeing my first one on the road or on a dealer lot.

 

[Drex]

Seems like we could just wait until the date Ford gave us (in May) before we got ill about anything. I don’t recall them saying they “wouldn’t” do priority orders, only that they would use time stamps as best they could.

What they did tell us was that they would do them in approximate order, not moving 4% of production to the front to make dealers happy or making 3500 lines instead of one with the allocation addition (again, to promote dealer happiness, do not forget, dealers are Ford's actual customers).

Your position that it is unreasonable to expect Ford to keep its written promise because they did not specifically list the 45 quadrillion ways they might break those promises is unfathomable to me, but hey...Wendy's never said they wouldn't spit in your chili, so you should not be surprised or unhappy if they do, right?

 

[Dads_bronze_bronco]

I can't think of any dealers intentionally trying to PO a customer and potentially lose a sale, not to mention being lambasted on the inter webs for public consumption. Do some of them deserve it for being pricks? Yes. A lot of this problem goes back to the title of the thread, poor communication. All I/we can hope is Ford learned from this and is going to not do it again. The information you get is what we are getting in almost real time. There will be more changes, good and bad, before the first retail unit is delivered. Not that I have any inside info, just look at the track record so far. Chill and hope production is higher than anticipated, commodity supply chains open up and we get more units out. Don't flame your dealer if you don't get a '21, it's completely out of our control at this point.

I think none of the upset would have happened if there hadn’t been priority bump ups. If the only people we heard from on Thursday were FEs, 1st or second in line at their dealers, and lower trim models in the first quarter of their dealer allotments, most would have been like “awe shucks, maybe next week”.

It’s the months later similar builds (and there is one of these that is almost exact to mine), from (what better be) priority pull aheads that feel way outside what has been expected. Many - like me - knew there were 3000 lucky pull aheads, and thus were prepared to see it. I guess some were either unaware, or not emotionally prepared (and maybe don’t understand the time stamp by dealer allocation impact either).

Either way, the priority thing was not communicated / kept quiet, and not even mentioned in the Ford communications about the Thursday process since. Once those 3000 get scheduled, unless Ford does some other “priority” bullshit, we should see things move more like commonly expected, with the biggest frustration points being commodity based delays.

 

[flip]

I think none of the upset would have happened if there hadn’t been priority bump ups. If the only people we heard from on Thursday were FEs, 1st or second in line at their dealers, and lower trim models in the first quarter of their dealer allotments, most would have been like “awe shucks, maybe next week”.

It’s the months later similar builds (and there is one of these that is almost exact to mine), from (what better be) priority pull aheads that feel way outside what has been expected. Many - like me - knew there were 3000 lucky pull aheads, and thus were prepared to see it. I guess some were either unaware, or not emotionally prepared (and maybe don’t understand the time stamp by dealer allocation impact either).

Either way, the priority thing was not communicated / kept quiet, and not even mentioned in the Ford communications about the Thursday process since. Once those 3000 get scheduled, unless Ford does some other “priority” bullshit, we should see things move more like commonly expected, with the biggest frustration points being commodity based delays.

I agree to some extent. Some dealers opted to use it and get one built sooner rather than later but it didn't change the fact if it had a non-buildable configuration, it probably wasn't going to get pushed. At least that is the understanding I have from my rep.

There are probably a few dealers that didn't use it because they didn't want to get flack about, "why didn't you bump me" from their customers. Also, it's not like we know for sure if the priority actually bumped anyone from the first round of builds. Like my previous post said, we have 0 control what they are going to build and when. I'm sure everyone can speculate the merits of the priority or if someone on the bubble is going to now be on the outside. We just don't know.

The priority is the only say they have given us as dealers in this process unless you count building and submitting the order in WBDO. The optics stink and goes back to the whole communication debacle. I'm not on dealer council but would say it's probably a good bet they pushed Ford to give us something. You may not believe me but there are some customers that have waaaaaaaay too much disposable income and don't understand the words "no" and "you have to wait like everyone else". I think we as a dealer have been pretty clear about this and have customers that fit into this category. Most have elected to wait for the build they want, some are rolling the dice they get a '21. None of them got the priority, in fact, our priority was used on an employee that is numerically near the top of our allocation window and had a clean build.

Again, the optics and communication are not the greatest but we are in the same boat.

 

[Efthreeoh]

I would like to opine on the title of thread from, at least, my POV as a dealer. The Mach E was Ford's first foray into Tesal-esque on-line ordering. There were several issues with implementation and communication between us, the customer and Ford since it was all new. I think Ford leadership thought they would sell out quickly because, well, Tesla had great success so why shouldn't we. The flood of orders never came and from what I can tell, they struggled for a long time to even get half of the projected production spoken for.

Fast forward to Bronco. They planned for something like 120,000 babys and 80,000 full size. From the jump I said that was backwards. Not sure why they didn't focus on the bigs first then bring the babys out since everyone wanted the bigs. Plus the baby is going to compete with the Escape weather they want to admit it or not.

As frustrated as everyone has been with the communication, I can assure you, dealers are right there with you. Say what you will about dealers, there are some crappy ones out there but there are a lot more good and honest ones. Product cadence historically has always come down from Ford to the dealers then we disseminate to customers. At some point the media started getting the info at the same time we got it. Plus, you always had well timed "leaks" to keep people stirred and as an indirect feedback mechanism. So now here we are.

Ford has completely controlled the narrative with this launch, including the mixed messaging and uber poor communication with everyone. I get there are things out of their control due to product shortages but we have never, as dealers, been in such a piss poor position to communicate things. By the time we hear or see it, it's already gone viral on various sites and been disected by everyone claiming to be in the know. Some may be correct some only add more confusion to what can be, at best, wishy-washy press releases. A lot of people are going to disagree with me but a ton of this could have been avoided by not doing the reservation thing and allowing us to do the normal ordering like with every other vehicle line.

Some of you are going to spaz out and say, "well then we would be stuck buying from XYZ dealer instead of being able to move to someone with a better deal". Yes, that might be somewhat true in this unique situation, however you have always been free to buy from any dealer you wanted to prior to this. All this did was highlight and promote dealers that really wanted to move vehicles and were transparent about their pricing. That's the free market kids.

None of this changes the fact Ford was only going to be able to build a set number of '21 vehicles, commodity problems, how many FEs they planned or how they decided to allot production to the various sales markets, regions or zones. Once the order bank is full, it's full. Had we been allowed to order like usual, 75% of conflicting stuff out there could have been avoided by allowing the message to come through the traditional chain. You can agree with me or not, that is fine. Some dealers communication sucks, some are on point. I can tell you for certain this mess that is the Bronco reservation process has made a lot of good dealers look like morons. It's that that we are trying to hide something, but more of an issue of trying to figure out what Ford is saying, then attempting to explain to a customer that has seen 5 different theories on-line, what is or isn't factual, then being labeled, "idiots".

I can't think of any dealers intentionally trying to PO a customer and potentially lose a sale, not to mention being lambasted on the inter webs for public consumption. Do some of them deserve it for being pricks? Yes. A lot of this problem goes back to the title of the thread, poor communication. All I/we can hope is Ford learned from this and is going to not do it again. The information you get is what we are getting in almost real time. There will be more changes, good and bad, before the first retail unit is delivered. Not that I have any inside info, just look at the track record so far. Chill and hope production is higher than anticipated, commodity supply chains open up and we get more units out. Don't flame your dealer if you don't get a '21, it's completely out of our control at this point.

Excellent post. Someone on this thread keeps harping back to the states laws regarding "auto dealership franchising" as the issue. I think he is half right. The problem Ford dealerships are having is Ford is trying to launch the E-Stang and now Bronco using the Tesla internet launch model, which works for Tesla because there are no franchised Tesla dealerships and Tesla controls all the narrative. You are correct to state that this puts dealerships in a bad position because the Customer is getting information from both Ford Corporate and from his dealership of choice. This is unfair to dealerships IMO. I do not think it is possible to execute an internet vehicle launch by the Manufacturer that uses franchises to distribute the product. Add in the sausage-making curve ball COVID has infused into the process and it becomes a cluster-F.

I've realized this from the start (of my fourray into Bronco - Sept. 2020) and have just let it play out. At this point, Ford should let the Dealerships take over now that the MY'21 order banks are closed.

And still the easy fix to all this is just declare all current Bronco orders, even the Code 99 orders, as MY'21 production. Per Federal Code, a Manufacturer has up to 24 months to build a designated model-year production run.

 

[Bronco wannabe]

And still the easy fix to all this is just declare all current Bronco orders, even the Code 99 orders, as MY'21 production. Per Federal Code, a Manufacturer has up to 24 months to build a designated model-year production run.

I spoke to the head of the Bronco team in Dearborn last week and asked him what we were going to do with all the orders that we coded 99 priority with 22MY WAIT. In a nutshell, he said we were going to have to do them all over from scratch. His words were "re-consultation" since there would be new options and all for 2022. My jaw almost dropped when he told me that since I can also read between the lines and the same will likely have to be done for all the current 19 priorities that don't make the cut for 2021 model year. I asked him about that and he wouldn't answer me directly, but since option codes and all will be changing, I'd bet we have to redo all of those too. I can't even begin to describe the frustration from this side when that takes place.

 

[Cpops]

What happened yesterday should cost several people their jobs, what a cluster. None of us know what is going on, the dealers don't know what is going on, and nothing is communicated. I've seen several dealers, including mine, that didn't have anything schedule yesterday. Also what a joke that they made such a huge deal out of your reservation timestamp only to piss all over that on day 1 of scheduling. I've seen several people with my exact build post build dates and their reservations are days and even weeks behind mine. If their goal is to piss people off, they are on a great track.

From what I've found, it wasn't a "Ford" error but rather a dealership error. If the dealer didn't track orders properly, thier customers were negatively impacted. My dealer told me that some customers who put in early reservations aren't getting thier Broncos at all! I cannot imagine and am so thankful for the service provided by the dealership I went though!

 

[RandyStewart]

From what I've found, it wasn't a "Ford" error but rather a dealership error. If the dealer didn't track orders properly, thier customers were negatively impacted. My dealer told me that some customers who put in early reservations aren't getting thier Broncos at all! I cannot imagine and am so thankful for the service provided by the dealership I went though!

Can you expand on this? Apologies if this has been covered

 

[Efthreeoh]

I spoke to the head of the Bronco team in Dearborn last week and asked him what we were going to do with all the orders that we coded 99 priority with 22MY WAIT. In a nutshell, he said we were going to have to do them all over from scratch. His words were "re-consultation" since there would be new options and all for 2022. My jaw almost dropped when he told me that since I can also read between the lines and the same will likely have to be done for all the current 19 priorities that don't make the cut for 2021 model year. I asked him about that and he wouldn't answer me directly, but since option codes and all will be changing, I'd bet we have to redo all of those too. I can't even begin to describe the frustration from this side when that takes place.

Well Ford stated all MY'22 hold overs (bumps) will have MY'21 locked in pricing, so that sounds like a headache. Production changes do not need a model-year change for introduction. Build content configuration management is done at the VIN level, not at the model-year level. Model Year is just a change in the 10th digit of the VIN. There's nothing magic about it.

 

[Cpops]

Can you expand on this? Apologies if this has been covered

I'm not an expert but only passing along what I was told by my dealer. From what I understand the people who are upset right now put in their reservations with dealers who did not handle the reservation process properly. Essentially when they submitted orders, they didn't put them in the right order and some people who put in early reservations were at the end of the list rather than the intended beginning. Some of these folks won't be getting a bronco this year or next.

 

[ZackDanger]

I'm not an expert but only passing along what I was told by my dealer. From what I understand the people who are upset right now put in their reservations with dealers who did not handle the reservation process properly. Essentially when they submitted orders, they didn't put them in the right order and some people who put in early reservations were at the end of the list rather than the intended beginning. Some of these folks won't be getting a bronco this year or next.

I think maybe what they are talking about is incorrect coding people a 99... (or, leaving it 99 when they should have updated it)... but other than that... I'm not sure your dealer was sharing the full nuance, or there was something lost in translation.

It didn't matter what order reservations were input in, or what time... they just had to be in by a certain date because that's when Ford started the scheduling... and they based build order (GENERALLY SPEAKING) on timestamp.

Basically they reached into the submitted order bin, grabbed everything that was in there, and then ranked them by timestamp.

To your final point... LOTS of people wont be getting a Bronco this year... because there's more orders than production capacity within MY21... that's why this whole allocation thing exists.

There should be plenty of production capacity however to fulfill all remaining orders within MY22... potentially within the first 6 months.

 

[Bronco wannabe]

Well Ford stated all MY'22 hold overs (bumps) will have MY'21 locked in pricing, so that sounds like a headache. Production changes do not need a model-year change for introduction. Build content configuration management is done at the VIN level, not at the model-year level. Model Year is just a change in the 10th digit of the VIN. There's nothing magic about it.

Vin doesn't equate all the options, especially order codes. If you've ever ordered a vehicle from Ford, using the system we're using to order Broncos(WBDO), you'd know what I'm talking about. It's going to be a nightmare to redo them all.

They knew what I was getting at when I asked the question. They dodged it the best they could when I asked them how all the orders that wouldn't get built would push over to 22 MY. They won't.

 

[Hemisfear]

I usually don’t associate myself with such infantile behaviour (EPIC Whining) but I’ve become strangely attracted, and now appreciate the humour in it all!
Thanks for the entertainment...

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