Has Ford been holding completed rigs to pad CY23 sales figures?

[Seatmandan]

There's currently a bunch of fully built Broncos that were completed in late November/early December that have been sitting at MAP for 30+ days and are just now getting loaded onto rail cars.

Again, these are 100% completed rigs. No chip holds, active modules.

The main reason I can think of for Ford to sit on built rigs is that they hit Q4 '22 sales targets and are manipulating deliveries, dealership allocations and sales figures for stock manipulation. Yes, yes, I get it that Ford's stock performance has been horrific, but they have proven time and again with Bronco that the end-user is not the concern.

Curious as to other people's takes on the matter.

So what if they are? They still own the vehicles at this point, LOL. They can do what they want with their assets. They could run them all through a vehicle shredder if they wanted to.

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[markpilip]

Whew… we’re getting tin foil hat now.

In my opinion, no.

December—and Q4 sales in general—are the most important time of the year for automotive sales. December is typically when new model year vehicles go on sale, and December sales set the trend for the entire year. Poor sales performance of new model year vehicles could indicate that model isn’t a hit, or perhaps the competition have caught up, or perhaps they are having production issues. Analysts and investors are looking at that data to make their investment decisions, and if they don’t like what they see… they may pull back.

It doesn’t make sense in my mind to sacrifice the most important month of the year, to try to boost Q1 sales.

Look to Occam's adage and you will find the answer. As always.

 

[choppersean]

Like Occam.........solution is the simplest one...........so NO. No way.

 

[cbrenthus]

As other's have said - there is no way. You don't sit on inventory, it costs money.

 

[BDBroncoMT]

Mine was built 12/5, shipped 12/10, still waiting. Seems like more of a combination of weather/ rail issues

 

[OuterJersey]

Mine was built 12/9 and got to my dealership 12/26. It was riding on CSX to the east coast.

 

[Rusty Sheckelford]

It’s a conspiracy I tell ya

You think it has to be a "conspiracy" that a massive corporation might be manipulating the books to make their numbers look better?

 

[Bugkillah]

Mine was built in early December, status updated to shipped, no update since and ford chat acts like they’ve never even heard of a bronco, much less mine. Waiting for a rail car at MAP I guess…

 

[RBF 1401]

@Rick Astley you have it all wrong...

Ford Motor Company 100% was holding back YOUR Bronco just for spite. They held back a few others along with it as a ruse so that you might think it was about 2023 Q1 profits when it was strictly a maneuver to aggravate you.

 

[Jayhawker]

There's currently a bunch of fully built Broncos that were completed in late November/early December that have been sitting at MAP for 30+ days and are just now getting loaded onto rail cars.

Again, these are 100% completed rigs. No chip holds, active modules.

The main reason I can think of for Ford to sit on built rigs is that they hit Q4 '22 sales targets and are manipulating deliveries, dealership allocations and sales figures for stock manipulation. Yes, yes, I get it that Ford's stock performance has been horrific, but they have proven time and again with Bronco that the end-user is not the concern.

Curious as to other people's takes on the matter.

No. Not even close.

 

[Rjacks258]

You think it has to be a "conspiracy" that a massive corporation might be manipulating the books to make their numbers look better?

It’s a conspiracy I tell ya

 

[BlueBronco]

I thought it was understood that there's a railcar shortage. These units are only waiting for train cars.

That's exactly what they want you to believe.

 

[OuterJersey]

Well…unions have a lot a power in this country with votes for sale. Anything is possible nowadays but I doubt Ford would hold vehicles.

 

[C00TER]

So what if they are? They still own the vehicles at this point, LOL. They can do what they want with their assets. They could run them all through a vehicle shredder if they wanted to.

Now
that’s good business ethics

 

[OuterJersey]

Now
that’s good business ethics

business ethics. Let alone business ethics, I wouldn’t say ethics are generally on the upswing in this country.

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