Bronco production update 8/9: Commodity issues far beyond MIC tops. Chip shortage reaches Bronco supply chain (NO COVID TALK)

[Oceannomad]

Jesus I’m going to have to go another winter with just my Mustang GT.
Strap in boys, we’re about to go sideways!

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[Broncos 4 evah]

I remember this time at band camp...........

 

[DryYourTears]

Imagine if we started making more products in the US instead of outsourcing to other countries

Nobody actually wants that once they realize what that would mean to prices. Customers want things to be cheap, and shareholders want as much profit as possible.

 

[BuzzyBud]

First off, it is good to have @PREMiERdrum back reporting on the Bronco rollout. Does Ross have all the answers? No, and that is OK. Can some of his insights change? Yes, and once again, that is OK.

For many potential owners like myself, we are new to potential Bronco ownership. I want to establish brand loyalty. To establish that loyalty, I value trust and attempts to understand these difficult days. Ross is a prime example of someone who understands the struggles we are feeling and for me his efforts build trust.

At the beginning of this journey, Ford made clear how a reservation is no guarantee of delivery. In an absence of trust with Ford, I have come to internalize my own solution. Perhaps an order is no guarantee of purchase.

 

[LPETTIS4]

glad to have you back! if you have a VIN, build date and order number, is there someone we can contact to find out what the hold up is on our Bronco? or is that info just not available to anyone except MAP employees on the floor?

Following

 

[Jon1drfl]

Maybe if Ford would stop building dealer stock there wouldn't be a shortage on parts.

I don't know what this mysterious dealer stock you speak of is. Our store has only received our Mannequin and three factory orders. The only non-order availability I see will be from people who cancelled their orders

 

[RogueSqdn]

@PREMiERdrum, how do you see this impacting those of us with FE window stickers and build dates for this week? My blend date is 8/11.

 

[PREMiERdrum]

While I have your attention (and while the Band Camp jokes are going strong!)... our program's new Premier drums (example below) are DONE and will leave the factory tomorrow or Wednesday. My company, Musick Limited - Premier USA, is providing these drums at cost and I'm personally covering all the importation fees. However, freight to get them here is clocking in at about $2,400 in the current market... about 3 times what it should be in a normal market.

If any of you would like to help offset some of these costs, please know how much myself, my kids, and our booster club would appreciate it. Contributions can be sent via Paypal to [email protected].

I appreciate being a part of this community!

 

[PREMiERdrum]

@PREMiERdrum, how do you see this impacting those of us with FE window stickers and build dates for this week? My blend date is 8/11.

In all honesty, FE reservation holders are the only ones who should feel super confident about much of anything at this point.

You're good.

 

[Oceannomad]

First off, it is good to have @PREMiERdrum back reporting on the Bronco rollout. Does Ross have all the answers? No, and that is OK. Can some of his insights change? Yes, and once again, that is OK.

For many potential owners like myself, we are new to potential Bronco ownership. I want to establish brand loyalty. To establish that loyalty, I value trust and attempts to understand these difficult days. Ross is a prime example of someone who understands the struggles we are feeling and for me his efforts build trust.

At the beginning of this journey, Ford made clear how a reservation is no guarantee of delivery. In an absence of trust with Ford, I have come to internalize my own solution. Perhaps an order is no guarantee of purchase.

This will be my 10+ Ford (if I ever get it). I’ve had plenty of other manufacturers cars but usually have at least one Ford in my garage. I’ve never had any issues with them. I even pre-ordered a ‘17 and ‘19 Raptor without issue. This is however the first “affordable” mas-market new car rollout (during a global pandemic) Ford that I’ve been a part of and I think they’re in over their head and are currently trying to figure out if they bit off more then they could chew. Doubt they’ll tell us if they did either. It’s a pride thing (not to mention keep the shareholder happy thing).

 

[MattyAg]

Hey guys, I'm alive and well. I taught our band camp last week, 14 hours a day Mon-Fri. I was quite busy.

A blacked out Transit didn't abduct me in the middle of the night or anything.

Things are not great. Commodity issues far beyond the MIC tops have exploded, the chip shortage has finally reached the Bronco supply chain, and nobody really has any good answers at this point. As bad as the issues have been up to this point, this is worse.

Things are so fluid and changing so quickly, by the time I get scraps of new info it's quite likely outdated. If there's one little glimmer of good news, it may just be that the planned volume and availability of the dealer stock 4 door soft top units is quickly trending downward. After all, you can't build the "less desirable" units if you can't build anything at all.

Edit to add: My inbox is crammed with a metric ton of unread messages. If you're waiting on a reply, I'll try to get thru those in the next few days.

@Administrator please add "El Presidente" to @PREMiERdrum profile. He is pretty much the only one on this forum who gives trusted MAP/Ford info. And send him some stickers or something.

 

[Blksn955.o]

Glad to find out Ross is safe and sound. Thanks for the update.

 

[LIKEABOSS]

In all honesty, FE reservation holders are the only ones who should feel super confident about much of anything at this point.

You're good.

Given my First Edition has been built and sitting at MAP for over a month now I'm not feeling real confident about it ever shipping.

 

[RogueSqdn]

In all honesty, FE reservation holders are the only ones who should feel super confident about much of anything at this point.

You're good.

Thanks for the information. I have a beach trip planned the first week of October that is partially Bronco-dependent. This helps.
Glad to hear from you again. Watch out for the blacked out Ram vans.

 

[JoeyD577]

Here's the thing - Ford has tried to string everyone along and keep enthusiasm up in the face of constant delays. At this point, they need to push out a real communication to order holders AND equip dealers with real information to assist their customers. They have been overpromising and underdelivering consistently throughout this process - and maybe all due to factors they have limited control over - but at the end of the day, the product says "Ford" on it (well, or at least "Bronco", which is a Ford product!), so the buck stops with them. Start under promising and then try to over deliver. I feel bad for people who were planning on moving from a lease into their Bronco, or need to upgrade a vehicle and were waiting on this with no end in sight. Many of us, myself included, were buying this as an "extra" vehicle, so while very frustrating, it's not critical for me. If it takes too long, I may just move on to something else and think about it further down the road. But they are terribly mismanaging their customers on this, and as a Ford shareholder, this very well could have a trickle down effect of people walking away from their orders, and possibly not coming back to Ford for future purchases. And it may certainly impact other people considering an order for the launch of the F150 Lightning or other future vehicle - especially with Ford announcing they want to shift more to build to order sales. And I realize these are unique times, but as many of us in various businesses have seen this past year, how you communicate with your stakeholders through a crisis can have tremendous impact on how you emerge from it - and Ford is failing in that category, in my opinion.

At this point, I think Ford should simply say "we are having far greater supply chain and production challenges than we could have anticipated, and we know that we have not done a sufficient job of communicating that with you. At this point, our commitment for 2021 is to deliver all First Edition reservations, and all Broncos that have been built and are waiting on parts or other quality checks. If you have not received notification that your Bronco has been built, you should anticipate a MY 22 build, and we will be releasing the build & price for MY 22 on ____. If you have a Ford vehicle that is end of lease and have a Bronco on order, your dealer has options to extend that lease for you at your current payment until your Bronco is delivered." And then come up with some sort of meaningful financial incentive / discount to get order holders to stay in the queue and not bail on their orders - commit to selling at invoice, guarantee 0% financing, etc. Do something to hold onto as many orders as you can because if people start to bail, you lose so many enthusiasts that would be your initial brand ambassadors, and you the negative comments and coverage will pile up. And then maybe start MY 22 production earlier if they are able to and have cleared the units promised, but stop dragging this shit out and rip the band-aid off already.

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