dbmstng
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Posts posted by dbmstng
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When they hold cars for the initial build until they get the OK to buy order, they stack them in parking lots. When it's time to ship, they pull them out of the parking lot in reverse order - last one in, first one out - fix them and ship them. They do not cherry pick through the vehicles or group them by destination. They can't afford to. Every vehicle produced is sold - either to a customer or to a dealership and every dealership wants their vehicles as fast as possible. So they fix them and ship them out as fast as possible - in whatever order they happen to be in.
In normal production they roll 1000 cars off the line every day and they ship those out directly so shipping these out would be no different and would not require some new process to "group" them for shipping. Grouping them or cherry picking vehicles to fix would actually SLOW DOWN the process. Doing them last in first out is the fastest and simplest way to get the job done. Anything else would take longer and require more work. Again - these aren't parts you can simply move from box to box.
But if it makes you feel better to think you know more about this than Ford does then be my guest.
So Ford puts cars going to California, New York, Florida, and Montana all on the same rail car? Really?
And I highly doubt that a company that is ISO certified would not be tracking cars during a quality issue. ISO is all about documenting every little detail!
You say they can't find a specific vin in a parking lot, now you say they are stacked as you say, wouldn't that be after production and quality inspections? Wouldn't that happen in sequential production order? If they know the build vin order, and they know how they were "stacked", they would be able to find a specific vin based on the order.
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I'm surprised your getting over 30MPG....I'm getting around 20...
A few things I've noticed. Open loop (engine warm up) burns a heck of a lot more gas than when the car is in closed loop (warmed up engine). There seems to be at least a 6mpg difference. I always knew cars did this, just never realized how big of a difference until I had real time tracking. Once in closed loop, I have no problem getting 30-33mpg on a flat road while cruising anywhere from 45 to 65.
This car really likes to coast. Moreso than any car i have driven. So I let off the gas way early before coming to a stop and really dont lose much speed in the process. The readout jumps to 40mpg in a hurry. Going from gas pedal to break pedal is a waste of energy.
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I found a white titanium with 19" rims, moonroof, driver assist and navi and jumped all over it. Got it late last night. I was iffy on the drivers assist and didn't care to spend $800 on navi, but at this point I'll take what I can get. I averaged a hair over 30mpg on my way to work this morning. Not too shabby for only having 33 miles on the car. I had my salesman do a dealer trade for it. 2.84% financing is pretty darn good!
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My issue with Ford customer service is that try play dumb. I know they only can relay whatever info Ford allows them, but "we don't know what the issue is and we don't know when it will get fixed" is a piss poor answer. Especially when they insist on calling you every week just to tell you the still don't know shit.
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It's the same argument whether they can find your car or not. And it's not an assumption about the cars being packed in - that came from an employee.
You're the one making assumptions about what information Ford has about your vehicle and their ability to get to it.
Ok, you are right, Ford is blindly placing cars here and there despite the logistical nightmare that it is causing and they have kept no information. Because that all makes soooo much sense. A company that has invested millions into these cars surely wouldn't want to do anything intelligently in order to speed up the solution to the problem.
/sarcasm
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However when there are an additional 20k or more cars, it probably devolved into "oh crap where are we gonna fit all these things?" long ago. I liken this to the other lots at Hertz/Avis near airports where there are hundreds of cars and each one are bumper-to-bumper in order to make use of every foot of real estate. So when thinking of a gaggle of cars of that magnitude, it's probably far more difficult (if not impossible) to go get car X that is blocked in by a row of 400 cars and try to expedite that particular one.
There is another thread here somewhere about the Hermosillo factory, I posted the latitude/longitude and have looked at it on google earth -- it looks like a big plant with an adequate staging area for pre-shipment, but I don't see how 20k or more cars are going to stage in that area. This is why I wonder if the status of "sent to offsite" or "returned from offsite" refers to a facility to make the necessary adjustments to the cars, or simply a large offsite parking area to hold for later actions.
There are 30k cars devided between at least 2 locations. Plus they are supposedly shipping 1000 per week.
It would be a logistical nightmare not to have them in order. Can you imagine trying to ship cars? They all would go to random places, you wouldn't be able to fill rail cars. What is going to happen with a rail car that has cars going all over the U.S.? Where does it go? That would be incredibly stupid. They have to be either ordered by vin and able to be pulled, or they are ordered in destination so that they can fill rail cars appropriately.
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I live in northern Ohio and only have a supercharged Mustang to drive until I get a new car. The Mustang is less than useless in snow. Had the car arrived anywhere near its original ETA, it wouldn't have been a problem. I can't wait until the end of December for Ford to get their crap straight.
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These vehicles aren't parked in a parking lot where you can just go get whichever car you want whenever you want it. They pack these things in to the point that you can only get to the first row. When they do this at the plant for launch they have to fix them last in first out for just that reason. You're severely underestimating the logistical difficulties here.
And they can give you a window - somewhere between 2 and 12 weeks. Happy now? Of course not.
The answer - as I've already stated and so has Ford apparently - is to just reorder any retail orders so the clients aren't stuck in a waiting game. If your dealer isn't doing that for you then shame on them.
It doesn't matter where or how closely parked the cars are. They are parked in some type of order. I bet they have a excel sheet that lists every vin and its location on the lot. Again, shipping would be a nightmare otherwise. Once again you change your argument. This time from Ford couldn't find my car in a see of 30,000 to oh, they are so tightly packed... Which you are basing solely on your own assumption.
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Part of it is damage control, but consider this. If you had a warehouse full of 30,000 vehicle parts that were waiting to be fixed before being shipped out and each one had a unique serial number and it was going to take weeks to get them all fixed - do you honestly think you'd be able to tell every customer who had a unique serial number exactly when that part would be fixed and shipped out? No way. You may know how many you can fix each week and approximately how long it will take to get them all fixed but there is no way you can know exactly when each and every individual part will actually be fixed and shipped out.
Ford said only 100 retail orders were affected. Not sure if that's accurate or not. But again - given a sea of 30000 vehicles how would you find those 100?
I believe Ford instructed dealers to reorder customer vehicles to avoid longer waits. That's the answer here whether Ford told them to do it or the dealer just did it on their own.
All of it is damage control. Your own argument defeats your logic. It would be incredibly stupid for ford not to organize the 30,000 cars in some manor, otherwise it would be a huge pain in the ass to ship them out when the time comes. Can you imagine trying to ship cars where each individual vin goes to a different location? Yea, not so smart to not have them organized. So if there are only 100 (highly doubtful) orders affected, then they should be easy to find and prioritize. Even with 3000, like I said before, they should be able to give a window.
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You start with a parking lot full of 30K vehicles needing to be shipped elsewhere and repaired, then take one VIN number and figure out when that specific vehicle will be fixed. I don't see how any company could give an accurate answer under those circumstances.
I would give more detailed info including a window for delivery. Ford should have a pretty good idea by now. Any supplier issues should be resolved to the point where they can calculate when 30,000 will be repaired. I work for a automotive supplier. If there is an issue, a detailed plan is formed within a day to correct any issues. We can then alter production and give our customer a realistic time frame to work with.
Customer orders should get priority over dealership inventory. How many customer orders can there be? A few thousand? Ford is making this harder than it is.
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Ford should rename their "customer service" division to "apology service" because that's all I'm getting from them other than please wait an unspecified time while we correct an unspecified problem with your car.
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If my status hasn't changed, I'm gonna have to look for a different car ASAP. May I please have another update?
Vin: 3FA6P0K99DR147544
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Wow, way to ramble on... Lol
I'm guessing it is at least partially that Toyota hybrid owners have probably had hybrids previously whereas the Fusion would attract the non typical hybrid driver. Driver style probably has something to do with it. Are Fusion hybrid owners reporting how the care is grading their driving style along with their mpg?
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Too close to be a coincidence in my opinion. Ford did unveil the new Fusion quite a while ago.
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My salesman says his regional manager told him Ford has 30,000 Fusions TBD'd right now.
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Hrm, just heard back this morning from Natasha on Facebook on a track status I sent her a few days ago, before I fired one off for cyberdman. She informs me the car is built and on it's way to the dealership, with a tentative ETA of Dec. 2nd. (Subject to change). Hrm :D
How do you get in contact with Natasha? I can't seem to find that FB page. When I click a link in another thread, it just takes me to my page. Maybe because I'm on my iPhone?
Never mind. I finally was able to find it.
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Yea, it is odd that you can't add the spoiler separately as a stand alone option from the factory. Maybe Ford doesn't think the spoiler indicates "luxury".
That was part of the reason I went Titanium over SE hybrid.
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How do you know it is no longer on a hold?
I'm not on dbmaven's list and I don't have a TBD anymore. Just awaiting shipment as of 11/12 from Hemosillo.
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dbmstng, Are absolutely positive that it went from Flat Rock to Hermasillo? cyberdman only tells you the latest status. It would be best to contact your dealer to give you a complete Vehicle Visibility report.
The Status updates have shown Hermosillo - Flat Rock - Hermosillo. My dealership says the same thing. Unless Ford is misrepresenting the vehicle location... If it was shipped from Flat Rock to my dealership, it would have been here by now. It's a 1 day shipment from Flat Rock.
Also my car is no longer on hold.
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Interesting - yours was built 2 days after mine.
Did you do a custom order at the dealer or select one from a list that they'd already ordered ?
Custom ordered on 8/29
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IF (big IF) they're shipping the cars to Flat Rock and then back to Hermosillo
There is no "if". It did happen. My car...
Built 10/19
In transit to Flat Rock 10/31
Arrived at Flat Rock 11/5
Back at Hermosillo awaiting shipment 11/12
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The 12T08 is a firmware update for MFT.
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I have the whole print out of my vehicle visibility and mine did the same thing. The loaded it on a rail car, then returned it to the plant. Fixed something I would assume then put it right back on the same rail car. Mine was built on the 18th and is part of those 332.
Do you have a new ETA?
Ford Customer Relations sucks - don't count on Ford
in Fusion Forum
Posted
Easy, Ford could simply allow them to say what he issue is other than some vague statement.
I know issues arise, I work in the automotive industry. My complaint is that "durr, we don't know nothin'" is not an acceptable answer to their consumers. If anyone does accept that, they have a really low standard of customer service. What's the point of customer service if they don't tell you anything you don't already know, which is nothing at all?