Bronco order date / bank now opening January? Per dealer

[Zap74]

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[Dads_bronze_bronco]

It is possible your dealer wants to focus on 4th quarter sales of existing inventory in December, and then invite the time consuming Bronco order crowd in after the quarter ends.

In the end, why would you want to order early in the window, when more information is due out before the window closes anyway?

 

[North7]

Just because they haven't taken your order doesn't mean squat. Frankly, its not in the critical path to delivery.

Basic Project Management critical path analysis takes all major milestones into account. You can't produce and deliver a vehicle if you don't know what the customer is ordering.

 

[TigerBronco]

I don't think people are super upset with the delays I think everyone understands the situation. I think the problem is the lack of communication from Ford about anything.

Exactly this.

 

[Beachin 74]

Really !?! Because I heard from my nephew's 3rd cousin's neighbor's cat that Ford decided to cancel the Bronco entirely. Just wasn't worth listening to all the griping.

I think my cat heard the same thing. I caught him changing the oil on my 74' to keep it running longer.

 

[Trilifter7]

Yeah my dealer says they won't even know invoice pricing until March. (He's full of shit and avoiding committing.)

My dealer told me the same

 

[Kos]

Basic Project Management critical path analysis takes all major milestones into account. You can't produce and deliver a vehicle if you don't know what the customer is ordering.

Yes, but you don't need an order in December to build it in May (or later). My point is that taking the order can probably be delayed to March if not later and not impact vehicle delivery. Thus it's not currently on the critical path. To be on the critical path, a 1 day delay in the milestone would have to delay delivery by 1 day.

 

[Boxer4]

Ok, that said, this is the worst I've seen for changing information and lack of clarity before ordering. Part of it is Ford trying to please consumers, I think the opening up the changing dealers thing till January messed up part of the timeline since now the early allocation estimates are meaningless.

Could an order book delay be caused by extending the dealer changes to Jan 31st? Maybe, but how will early allocations be made? Couldn't 50 % of each dealers allocations be known now? The remaining 50% would be infilled as dealers make conversions.
My dealer has my build and here is what they stated for the process going forward:

"This build will be used by our Bronco team to place your order in the system as soon as your reservation number is allocated by Ford Motor Company. This will not only ensure you get your Bronco built to your specifications, but it will also expedite the timetable for delivery. "

So maybe its an orderly allocation process based on your timestamp and not so much on a hard fast date. More like Ford's own published words " Order conversion process will begin in December and run thru January 31, 2021."

 

[Boxer4]

Exactly this.

Keep in mind you are not buying from Ford but your dealer. Don't the dealers have a responsibility to keep you informed? One thing I learned from this forum is that dealers know alot more than they let on.

 

[XCR440]

Could an order book delay be caused by extending the dealer changes to Jan 31st? Maybe, but how will early allocations be made? Couldn't 50 % of each dealers allocations be known now? The remaining 50% would be infilled as dealers make conversions.
My dealer has my build and here is what they stated for the process going forward:

"This build will be used by our Bronco team to place your order in the system as soon as your reservation number is allocated by Ford Motor Company. This will not only ensure you get your Bronco built to your specifications, but it will also expedite the timetable for delivery. "

So maybe its an orderly allocation process based on your timestamp and not so much on a hard fast date. More like Ford's own published words " Order conversion process will begin in December and run thru January 31, 2021."

Yes, things could still be on time, I've seen nothing either way from Ford, I've asked, but no answer yet. As to the allocation, no reason they couldn't open ordering with out it. Also no reason they couldn't still provide it, just what it means is very limited vs when the reservations were locked in. What I mean by that is now if someone moves in or out of your reservation bank, we really don't know what that will do to our total, will it increase/decrease by one, it'll all be math and rounding so it can vary. Also I was excited by this estimate before since I could tell customers "based on our allocation estimates, we should get X allocations 2nd quarter, yours is X of our total so it should get built then. Now that isn't going to have the same meaning. Granted it could have changed the old way, but less likely to have made as much of a swing as is possible now. I'm not saying this is a bad change, just that it does have consequences.

As to the timestamp, based on past meanings, I believe that will only be an issue within the dealership, but as we've seen many times already, that can change at any minute, so who knows. I really expected to have answers and things pretty well nailed down first of December, so I'm at a loss with the lack of info since October build and price (and September was last update to dealers from Ford)

 

[TigerBronco]

Keep in mind you are not buying from Ford but your dealer. Don't the dealers have a responsibility to keep you informed? One thing I learned from this forum is that dealers know alot more than they let on.

Very true. I don't think Ford or (many of) the dealers come off looking good in this whole roll-out.

That being said, I'll be hanging in there as long as it takes. Bronco looks to be the real deal and I'm in for the long haul. Just wish all those in the loop would do a better job communicating with their customers.

 

[North7]

Yes, but you don't need an order in December to build it in May (or later). My point is that taking the order can probably be delayed to March if not later and not impact vehicle delivery. Thus it's not currently on the critical path. To be on the critical path, a 1 day delay in the milestone would have to delay delivery by 1 day.

Your correct that ordering is not on the critical path, if you have not properly linked your tasks up in MS Project. If they are not linked then ordering is not critical path until you get to the point of delivery, and management gets another surprise, and you do not survive as a Project Manager. If your tasks have been properly linked in MS Project, then a delay in ordering is a delay in delivery. If that happens, then you have to start looking for workarounds and overtime or communicate to the customer you will be late.

It is all in how you look at critical path and what industry you are in. In aerospace, we take every possible event into account, if our systems are not delivered and installed when the aircraft is ready to fly we are facing huge penalties.

 

[Ecunningham78]

I am a Sales Manager at a Ford dealership here in AZ and have my own reservation in queue. I was just speaking with my GM yesterday about this. He was on a call with the regional rep from Ford yesterday afternoon and there has been no information shared with us regarding when we can start taking orders, in fact we were commenting on how frustrated we are as a dealer group from the lack of communication from Ford in this whole process. There are many on this forum that have been privy to more information than dealers themselves. My fear is Ford is meddling too much in the process that dealers are responsible to handle and turn around and hand it off to dealers to fix.

 

[Boxer4]

Yes, things could still be on time, I've seen nothing either way from Ford, I've asked, but no answer yet. As to the allocation, no reason they couldn't open ordering with out it. Also no reason they couldn't still provide it, just what it means is very limited vs when the reservations were locked in. What I mean by that is now if someone moves in or out of your reservation bank, we really don't know what that will do to our total, will it increase/decrease by one, it'll all be math and rounding so it can vary. Also I was excited by this estimate before since I could tell customers "based on our allocation estimates, we should get X allocations 2nd quarter, yours is X of our total so it should get built then. Now that isn't going to have the same meaning. Granted it could have changed the old way, but less likely to have made as much of a swing as is possible now. I'm not saying this is a bad change, just that it does have consequences.

As to the timestamp, based on past meanings, I believe that will only be an issue within the dealership, but as we've seen many times already, that can change at any minute, so who knows. I really expected to have answers and things pretty well nailed down first of December, so I'm at a loss with the lack of info since October build and price (and September was last update to dealers from Ford)

Thanks for the Transparency

 

[PDiddy]

Probably due to everyone complaining about colors of hard tops and interiors. Thanks alot guys ;p

sorry, it was me...

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