jhorback

Yes, I live in Atlanta and have contacted 3 dealers about ordering a 2009 FEH and each dealer has a different story. The largest of the dealers said they will get an allotment between 15-20 2009's, however, their early allotment is only 2. Another dealer does not even have an early allotment (at least yet) and the third is "working on it". These dealers are initially asking for $2k over MSRP stating that the FEH's are hard to get and demand a premium. I don't plan on paying a dime over MSRP so I am trying to play the dealers off each other to see which one will come down. I've tried the x-plan route with all of them and the standard answer is that they honor the x-plan but probably could not on the hybrid because of it being difficult to get. I'll shop around in the Atlanta area through May but if I cannot find a good deal by then I may have to start shopping out of state.

Thanks for the update. I was concerned when I saw the new Donlen.com dates but knowing Donlen is a fleet management company, I was suspicious of thier dates. -second thought- ice-capades - are your dates for the Hybrid? Donlen shows the same dates for the non-hybrid Escapes, however, they list October for their production start up for the Hybrids.

Update* I just noticed that the source I used for quoting the production dates for the 2009 Hybrids has updated all times for both the Ford and Mercury to TBD. (www.donlen.com/buildstart_trucks_ford.html) Not sure what this means, but it is possible they could moving the dates. I heard a rumor that pre-ordering could begin as soon as the end of March but this was definately not confirmed. Again, if anyone else finds something more accurate, please give an update.

I found this info on another forum about the production dates: 2009 Initial Order Acceptance: 04/17/08 2009 Production Scheduling Begins: 05/15/08 2009 Production Start Up: 06/23/08 Source: www.donlen.com/build_out_start_ups.html If it takes 6-8 weeks from the production start-up then the August time frame seems about right. I welcome any updated or more acurate information as things do change as the dates approach.