The only thing I would take issue with is attributing the delays to supply chain issues. The biggest constraint was and continues to be MIC tops. It wasn’t that Webasto didn’t have the resources or manpower to produce tops…….the problem is they spent months making thousands of tops that ended up in the proverbial scrap heap.I agree with all the sentiment on this post and agree that Ford changing the rules in the middle of the game is a really crappy deal.
However, I think we have to remember why there is an issue too, they introduced a brand new, hot vehicle, in the middle of a pandemic. I don’t think Ford could have predicted the supply chain issues, as well as the dealer greed that occurs when they have a chance to exploit that supply chain issue. Hell walk into any car dealership right now and try to buy a car below MSRP, they’ll laugh in your face. Supply chain and inflation is a massive issue across the country.
Now, was the MIC top issue in their control from the get go? Possibly, but this third party vendor in Wabasto was going to fake it until they made it not to disrupt the mother ship until it was too late.
I think at the end of the day, you’re going to see some dealer stock at the big boy dealerships next year, but that won’t prevent ford from going outside the allocation to fulfill reservations. At the end of the day, if Grainger has a 1,000 remaining orders and only got allocated 200, I have serious doubts that Ford won’t go outside that allocation to take care of reservation holders while at the same time getting a couple dealer stocks for the big boys to shut them up.
This could end up being Ford talking out of both sides of their mouth. Tell the big dealers what they want to hear, but meanwhile they just keep producing and shipping reservation orders beyond the allocations. We won’t know for sure until 2022, but people should be holding fast, and not listening to the communications/PR mouth piece in Levine as I don’t think the guy actually has any clue beyond what the public knows as well.
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