FORD Motor Company and me a loyal customer Day 909 today ————

[DocFuller]

If Ford does this to me! I live in Southern California. I will be sure to have as many customers as I can walk away from Ford!

Ford needs to do the Right Thing here.

But this is a crux of the issue. What you think is right and fair, and what someone else thinks is right and fair could be miles apart and is utterly subjective to the individual affected. There isn’t a one size fits all approach, and no matter what they do people will share your sentiment of trying to boycott the company and “hurt them”

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[Maximus3311]

But this is a crux of the issue. What you think is right and fair, and what someone else thinks is right and fair could be miles apart and is utterly subjective to the individual affected. There isn’t a one size fits all approach, and no matter what they do people will share your sentiment of trying to boycott the company and “hurt them”

I don't necessarily disagree. I'm not going to waste my time trying to get people to boycott Ford. Who has the time/energy? That poster is clearly really pissed off...also seems like he was extremely loyal to Ford and is maybe surprised they don't have any loyalty back?

As for me - I'm annoyed but not going on a crusade. All my friends and family have watched this saga with growing amazement and I'm pretty sure none of them are ever going to buy a Ford after this. But that's on them.

I'm not going to buy another Ford ever...but that's a personal decision.

If this falls through (which it likely will) I'll spec out something like a Tacoma TRD PRO or Canyon AT4X or (if it happens) redesigned 4Runner as an overlander and it'll be fine. Onwards and upwards and all that

 

[MellowYellow]

Actually one other thing you said - this stuck out to me: "it sucks, but at this point you have no one but yourself to blame. Pay the ADM, if you want it that badly. Negotiate, compromise. Or give up. And cry about it."

That's not really fair. In one sense you're correct - if a person is willing to take a spec they don't really want and pay too much for...well you're right. But here's the issue:

A lot of us were willing to wait to get exactly what we wanted (and not get taken to the cleaners buying dealer stock).

I was ok to wait. My plan was to keep this Bronco for a really long time (assuming it wasn't a POS) and eventually garage it in Anchorage. I'm looking for land up there to buy and put up a small fishing cabin as a vacation spot. So the Bronco is specced out appropriately for what I plan to eventually use it for. Why should we have to "negotiate/compromise" on an SUV that's going to be $70,000+ out the door? This isn't a customer going onto a used car lot and saying "I have terrible credit and $6,000...what can I get?"

The issue for a lot of us (at least for me) isn't how long it's taken. When I placed my official "order" in Feb 21 I knew it was going to be a long time. Hell when I had to reorder for MY2023 I had a long conversation with my dealer and sales manager about my order and how it looked. "A lot of constraints but your build looks great and from what we've been told by Ford you'll get it by the end of summer".

It would be one thing if Ford had been open from the beginning. But to drop news like we're apparently about to get i.e. Drop the things that most of the outstanding reservations want or else...that's just messed up.

For your part - telling someone "go cry about it" who's (IMO) rightfully pissed off because they feel like they've been led on for years only to have the rug yanked out from under them...not cool.

I'm disappointed because I doubt I get the Bronco I want - but if Ford can't get it to me I'll get something else.

I also don't know if I'd classify a lot of what goes on here as "whining". One of my buddies ordered the exactly same loaded Badlands that I did. He ordered his two week after I did and he's had his since last summer.

It's not "whining" to be annoyed that Ford fucked this rollout but kept dangling the carrot to keep people waiting. Sure - I get that it was maybe "good business" to them to keep people engaged so we didn't go out and buy something else...but it's not whining for a customer who feels like they've gotten the shaft to call it out.

Again - not really pissed with the wait time so much as garbage like telling us to change trims/drop constraints (oh and it appears we're going to have about 4-5 days to make those decisions).

If it bothers you to read posts where people are upset - it's a free country you're welcome to ignore those and stick to the "what did you do with/to your Bronco today?"

i’d be pissed too. I’ve been there with this and other cars, but at the end of the day, I’ve managed to get them. Or in other cases, walked away from something I’d hoped for.

i wanted a sportscar in year the first year of the new model while living in Miami. Dealers there wouldn’t even allow a test drive without a signed sales contract. So I flew across the country to a dealership in MN, had a great test drive, bought the car I wanted, but not the exact color, and drove it home myself.

Later, I wanted a BMW, but was late in the model year and the next gen was a facelift I didn’t want. so I got a different color and skipped a few options. Got the generation I wanted.

I ordered a brand new MB, European delivery. Worked with a Sr sales person personally for 6 or more months and took delivery in Stuttgart. A week before production and our trip, our dealer was informed that two of our options were unavailable (it was the first year of the facelift, so new options.). we compromised and had a great trip and have a great car to show for it.

I wanted a porsche with specific options, but orders had a very large lead time and since it was near end of generation i was worried that I wouldn’t get it in time. Ended up seeing one 50 miles away used with 90% of what I wanted and haven’t regretted it once.

but I let plenty get away, as well. I’ve gotten down to signing papers and walked away from idiot dealers or bad terms. Never got the chance to order a V90 since the dealers couldn’t be bothered, test drove a new car I’d lusted after only to find it drove like shit and gave up. It happens. I don’t hang out on the other forums and complain about it though.

like most on here, I compromised many options, and updated my order to try to accommodate Ford’s BS. But to see everyone having issues getting exactly what they want and think, no, That’s not for me, Ford OWES ME. That’s what I’m seeing.

i can look at the other posts, but when every time we refresh the What’s New page there is thread after thread of people acting so entitled to something seems ridiculous.

I’m sorry you guys don’t have your trucks, really. They are great fun. but at this point it has long been clear that Ford doesn’t care and isn’t going to give you your dream bronco. All you can do now is choose if you are willing to compromise something or if you will give up and move on to something else. Keep your reservations until ford cancels them if you want, but my recommendation is to go get yourselves a used or ADM bronco and start having fun.

 

[DocFuller]

You make a lot of good points but I want to just throw in my two cents

We have plenty of skin in the game. It’s not just money - but *time*. I’m one of those people who has stuck with my original order because I was assured, time and time again, that it was coming. No set date and I understood that…but I patiently waited because I was told that would be rewarded. Some people were willing to take something they didn’t really want just have a bronco. “meh good enough” doesn’t work for me.

So a lot of us waited as the value of our current vehicles tanked on the used market while interest rates soared. And we waited because we were told our patience would be rewarded.

So “skin in the game” isn’t just $100 - it’s all the time we lost waiting for what we wanted and ordered (and we were told our patience would be rewarded).

As for the issues not being Ford’s fault - a couple thoughts on that. My grandfather owned a small business and he taught me some important rules he lived by. I think two of them are especially pertinent given what’s currently happening.

(1) Under promise and overdeliver.

(2)The mark of a good business isn’t just how it conducts itself when things are going smoothly. Rather, it’s how a business treats its customers when things go wrong. It’s easy to treat customers well if there aren’t any problems. But when the wheels are falling off - what will a company/business do to take care of their customers?

I think re: the first point you could *almost* somewhat absolve Ford. But the second part has been an utter disaster. To “thank” patient customers (who again *do* have skin in the game) they’ve said “remove the things you wanted that made this vehicle right for you. In exchange we’ll throw you enough money to (for instance) cover half the cost of a MIC top. Don’t like it? Well the *one* thing were doing to try and make this somewhat right (can’t restore time but can at least not penalize you financially for our unanticipated delays)? Yeah we’re going to make that go away.

Thanks for your patience and stay pumped!

That doesn’t work. I’m not compromising on a vehicle that, after taxes and registration is going to cost me in the ballpark of $70,000.

If they can’t build what I’ve been patiently waiting years for and have the decency to at least throw me the price protection bone for 2024 if they, yet again, can’t build my Bronco in 2023? I’ll buy something like the 2024 Tacoma TRD PRO or the GMC Canyon AT4X and I’ll never look at a Ford again.

Oh yeah my grandfather taught me another lesson - don’t ever reward a company for treating you like garbage.

I know Ford won’t miss me. I get it I’m just one person. But there are a lot of people who feel the same way and they’ll lose those customers and their families and a lot of friends (my family and friends have been watching this - and between me and my BIL and a buddy they’re losing 3 sales).

A vehicle like the Bronco is sold one vehicle at a time. Eventually one sale here and two sales there add up.

Pretty good written up reply, thank you for that.

Time is definitely a sort of skin in the game and I’d say Ford has been doing things to try and help out but there is only so much that can be done. I think their “drop these options or get fucked” is kind of messed up. But also if you know you can’t produce those things within reason what is a company to do? What would be your fix from Ford? Not what would placate some and piss of others, but what would you think is the right course of action to rectify the problem?

To your rules on running a business I agree, to an extent. While I’m not sure the size of your grandfathers business but it is significantly easier to take care of the customer and complaints when you service a small number of people. Significantly harder when you’re talking about the scale of a global company servicing millions of people a year.

I’m with you on underpromising and over delivering, I think as mentioned they had lofty goals that just didn’t materialize.

Back to taking care of the customers, I would ask what’s your solution? Not from a consumers perspective only but also from a business perspective. If you had the keys to the kingdom how would you navigate nearly 100,000 orders that haven’t been fulfilled? I don’t know what price you’re locked into, or what the similarly specked model would cost today but for the sake of argument let’s say it’s a 10,000 difference in price. That’s $1,000,000,000 in loss. I don’t know about you but it would be a hard pill to swallow as a business in lost revenue.

The loss in trade in value and interest rates honestly don’t factor for me. It’s all cyclical and out of anyone’s control. If the interest rates were a big determining factor then you would have made a move one way or the other. Ford can’t be blamed for historically low interest rates not staying around. Same for the used car market falling back to where it was before the crazy pandemic.

I think the biggest thing for me in seeing post after post about this is how many people will write off a company because they fell short of expectations. Especially for people not affected by it to throw in with F that place. Which happens all the time to all companies for sure but it’s always surprised me.

I do support you wanting to not compromise on an expensive vehicle, but there are consequences to that. Not being willing to bend on the options or features means plainly they can’t build your vehicle in a timely enough manner. They can’t just have X number of people “99’ing” their orders forever. They need to do something from a business perspective to clear the backlog. And if, for you, price protection (that you currently have) and money off for certain features that Ford can’t produce (for better or worse right or wrong) then theyre telling you flat out, they can’t make them and you won’t have a reservation anymore as they can’t make those vehicles.

They are trying to offer something, which is better than nothing, and if it doesn’t go far enough for you then I would say yes it is unfortunate you’ve waited so long for at this point what amounts to nothing.

Circle back in a couple years and see where they’re at, and the latest and greatest and maybe buy one then or don’t.

I’m not trying to discount the pain and annoyance of waiting this long, but I can’t get on board with the F that company I’m owed X. I point back to my original point of you don’t have any skin in the game. You have time invested waiting for something yes, and that should be worth something and Ford said it’s worth (price protection 10k?) and another $2500 to remove certain options. They have said your patience is worth $12,500 in this example which is about 1/5 the cost of the vehicle so I’m pretty sure that’s pretty good.

Best of luck though and hopefully you get the build email!

 

[2fast4u]

i’d be pissed too. I’ve been there with this and other cars, but at the end of the day, I’ve managed to get them. Or in other cases, walked away from something I’d hoped for.

i wanted a sportscar in year the first year of the new model while living in Miami. Dealers there wouldn’t even allow a test drive without a signed sales contract. So I flew across the country to a dealership in MN, had a great test drive, bought the car I wanted, but not the exact color, and drove it home myself.

Later, I wanted a BMW, but was late in the model year and the next gen was a facelift I didn’t want. so I got a different color and skipped a few options. Got the generation I wanted.

I ordered a brand new MB, European delivery. Worked with a Sr sales person personally for 6 or more months and took delivery in Stuttgart. A week before production and our trip, our dealer was informed that two of our options were unavailable (it was the first year of the facelift, so new options.). we compromised and had a great trip and have a great car to show for it.

I wanted a porsche with specific options, but orders had a very large lead time and since it was near end of generation i was worried that I wouldn’t get it in time. Ended up seeing one 50 miles away used with 90% of what I wanted and haven’t regretted it once.

but I let plenty get away, as well. I’ve gotten down to signing papers and walked away from idiot dealers or bad terms. Never got the chance to order a V90 since the dealers couldn’t be bothered, test drove a new car I’d lusted after only to find it drove like shit and gave up. It happens. I don’t hang out on the other forums and complain about it though.

like most on here, I compromised many options, and updated my order to try to accommodate Ford’s BS. But to see everyone having issues getting exactly what they want and think, no, That’s not for me, Ford OWES ME. That’s what I’m seeing.

i can look at the other posts, but when every time we refresh the What’s New page there is thread after thread of people acting so entitled to something seems ridiculous.

I’m sorry you guys don’t have your trucks, really. They are great fun. but at this point it has long been clear that Ford doesn’t care and isn’t going to give you your dream bronco. All you can do now is choose if you are willing to compromise something or if you will give up and move on to something else. Keep your reservations until ford cancels them if you want, but my recommendation is to go get yourselves a used or ADM bronco and start having fun.

Yeah, I guess it’s just a principles thing to me. I’m not gonna pay an ATM for a common mass produced vehicle in a spec that’s not my first choice.

I didn’t pay a ADM on my new Shelby GT500 months ago, which is actually a limited production high-performance vehicle.

I figured I was giving in the fact that I was willing to wait for Ford to get their stuff together and be patient. Said they aren’t willing to do the same in stand by their customers.

That being said yesterday I was driving on the 210 freeway here in Southern California yesterday and saw 9 Broncos within one hour. Every one of them was cactus, gray or Area 51 people need to get a little bit of color in their life

 

[Maximus3311]

Pretty good written up reply, thank you for that.

Time is definitely a sort of skin in the game and I’d say Ford has been doing things to try and help out but there is only so much that can be done. I think their “drop these options or get fucked” is kind of messed up. But also if you know you can’t produce those things within reason what is a company to do? What would be your fix from Ford? Not what would placate some and piss of others, but what would you think is the right course of action to rectify the problem?

To your rules on running a business I agree, to an extent. While I’m not sure the size of your grandfathers business but it is significantly easier to take care of the customer and complaints when you service a small number of people. Significantly harder when you’re talking about the scale of a global company servicing millions of people a year.

I’m with you on underpromising and over delivering, I think as mentioned they had lofty goals that just didn’t materialize.

Back to taking care of the customers, I would ask what’s your solution? Not from a consumers perspective only but also from a business perspective. If you had the keys to the kingdom how would you navigate nearly 100,000 orders that haven’t been fulfilled? I don’t know what price you’re locked into, or what the similarly specked model would cost today but for the sake of argument let’s say it’s a 10,000 difference in price. That’s $1,000,000,000 in loss. I don’t know about you but it would be a hard pill to swallow as a business in lost revenue.

The loss in trade in value and interest rates honestly don’t factor for me. It’s all cyclical and out of anyone’s control. If the interest rates were a big determining factor then you would have made a move one way or the other. Ford can’t be blamed for historically low interest rates not staying around. Same for the used car market falling back to where it was before the crazy pandemic.

I think the biggest thing for me in seeing post after post about this is how many people will write off a company because they fell short of expectations. Especially for people not affected by it to throw in with F that place. Which happens all the time to all companies for sure but it’s always surprised me.

I do support you wanting to not compromise on an expensive vehicle, but there are consequences to that. Not being willing to bend on the options or features means plainly they can’t build your vehicle in a timely enough manner. They can’t just have X number of people “99’ing” their orders forever. They need to do something from a business perspective to clear the backlog. And if, for you, price protection (that you currently have) and money off for certain features that Ford can’t produce (for better or worse right or wrong) then theyre telling you flat out, they can’t make them and you won’t have a reservation anymore as they can’t make those vehicles.

They are trying to offer something, which is better than nothing, and if it doesn’t go far enough for you then I would say yes it is unfortunate you’ve waited so long for at this point what amounts to nothing.

Circle back in a couple years and see where they’re at, and the latest and greatest and maybe buy one then or don’t.

I’m not trying to discount the pain and annoyance of waiting this long, but I can’t get on board with the F that company I’m owed X. I point back to my original point of you don’t have any skin in the game. You have time invested waiting for something yes, and that should be worth something and Ford said it’s worth (price protection 10k?) and another $2500 to remove certain options. They have said your patience is worth $12,500 in this example which is about 1/5 the cost of the vehicle so I’m pretty sure that’s pretty good.

Best of luck though and hopefully you get the build email!

None of that is really unreasonable - I think (for *me* - because I can't speak to anyone else) it really comes down to a few things.

I would agree - interest rates/used car prices/etc. - *Completely* out of Ford's control.

It all comes back around to Ford putting out two seemingly complementary messages when it came to orders:

(1) If you want your Bronco more quickly here's what things to remove
(2) If you don't want to drop any of x options it'll take longer.

Seems fair, right? They gave us a binary choice and people were free to make their decisions based on that. If we chose to wait while we saw interest rates going up (based on information provided by Ford that our orders were, in fact, coming) that's on us. We made that decision based on information Ford gave us. If they'd shared this message 6 months ago I think the reaction, while still negative, would have been different. But this whole time it's been - ok be patient, be patient, be patient....OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION RIGHT NOW OR ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!

Where things fall apart is what we're (apparently) about to be told: Remove x options or we probably won't be able to build your car this year. Also you're going to lose price protection if we don't build it. Also you have 4 days to decide.

It's a real "FU" to everyone who's waited patiently and believed Ford was sharing information appropriately/operating in good faith.

As for what *I* would do? Well hell if I had those kind of answers I'd probably be working for a car company and maybe a lot richer. But I can tell you what I wouldn't do - and that's pretty much exactly what they're doing. I don't know that your math checks out...from what I can tell my price protection is @ $2500ish with this potential $2500 on top...(unfortunately I can't roll with the soft top - and since I'm an airline pilot and gone a lot I don't have time to mess around with selling my top and waiting for a hard top I paid out the ass for...gotta have the car arrive in at least acceptable condition for me - and I do realize that's a *me* thing).

But as far as price protection - well hell I mean if I *had* to make a determination about that...maybe halve the price protection but add credit to spend on Ford parts? Or hell even 50% off Ford parts/accessories up to $x amount?

For someone like me (and again - that's a "me" thing) it's less about the money and more about the principle. Could I afford to wait till 2024 and lose my price protection and have the cost on my Bronco go up $4000-$5000? Yeah I'm lucky that I could take the hit. Heck I'm looking at trucks that are close to $70,000 MSRP.

But again it's the principle. Ford screwed this up pretty badly and this final FU is pretty damn disappointing.

 

[MellowYellow]

Yeah, I guess it’s just a principles thing to me. I’m not gonna pay an ATM for a common mass produced vehicle in a spec that’s not my first choice.

I didn’t pay a ADM on my new Shelby GT500 months ago, which is actually a limited production high-performance vehicle.

I figured I was giving in the fact that I was willing to wait for Ford to get their stuff together and be patient. Said they aren’t willing to do the same in stand by their customers.

That being said yesterday I was driving on the 210 freeway here in Southern California yesterday and saw 9 Broncos within one hour. Every one of them was cactus, gray or Area 51 people need to get a little bit of color in their life

Nice job on not paying ADM on the mustang.

I fully agree on the color choices as well. So many boring colors out on the road that you want to add some cheer.

But a wrap can fix that pretty easily these days.

I guess I’d just rather see the folks here see that you’re only hurting yourselves with this stuff. Ford doesn’t care if you stick to your principles. They do suck. they’ve been changing the rules this whole time. But, Sometimes you just have to take yourself out of the bad situation.

I’m gonna leave this be for nowI Hope you guys get “a” bronco. But you pretty much already knew it wasn’t gonna be “your dream Bronco” for a long time now.

 

[2fast4u]

Nice job on not paying ADM on the mustang.

I fully agree on the color choices as well. So many boring colors out on the road that you want to add some cheer.

But a wrap can fix that pretty easily these days.

I guess I’d just rather see the folks here see that you’re only hurting yourselves with this stuff. Ford doesn’t care if you stick to your principles. They do suck. they’ve been changing the rules this whole time. But, Sometimes you just have to take yourself out of the bad situation.

I’m gonna leave this be for nowI Hope you guys get “a” bronco. But you pretty much already knew it wasn’t gonna be “your dream Bronco” for a long time now.

My Number 1 pick for color was Cyber Orange and lost that getting bumped to MY23.

 

[rtazz17]

Nice job on not paying ADM on the mustang.

I fully agree on the color choices as well. So many boring colors out on the road that you want to add some cheer.

But a wrap can fix that pretty easily these days.

I guess I’d just rather see the folks here see that you’re only hurting yourselves with this stuff. Ford doesn’t care if you stick to your principles. They do suck. they’ve been changing the rules this whole time. But, Sometimes you just have to take yourself out of the bad situation.

I’m gonna leave this be for nowI Hope you guys get “a” bronco. But you pretty much already knew it wasn’t gonna be “your dream Bronco” for a long time now.

Yes but a wrap will cost roughly 7k……. If money is no issue I suppose

 

[2fast4u]

Yep this is not good.

today is day 911

 

[cyberfalco]

Don't cancel your reservation. Don't settle for something you don't want. It's your money. You should get what you want.

This was my philosophy. I guess I just got lucky with my combo. I was prepared to wait for what I wanted and if it never came, it never came. I did not need a new car.

 

[cyberfalco]

Don't cancel your reservation. Don't settle for something you don't want. It's your money. You should get what you want.

This was my philosophy. I guess I just got lucky with my combo. I was prepared to wait for what I wanted and if it never came, it never came. I did not need a new car.

My only change would have been if I could have gotten a Raptor.

 

[JuztQu3zt]

this whole situation is confusing now. i have a ob lux sas mic ordered, im priority 10 clean (think priority codes are out the window now). do i wait or go find it somewhere else in stock?

 

[2fast4u]

O think I’m holding on with my Wildtrak order.

I’m the #3 priority, while track order at the dealership I have mine ordered with. With a order date stamp of 7/21/20.

so I would hope in the scope of things I should not miss out on my build as I would think I would be in at least the top half of the wildtrak orders remaining????

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