md3184

There are a ton of early builds sitting in Flat Rock now awaiting procesing, final inspection and delivery...maybe that's what your dealer is referring too. There are also 100 MKZ's sitting at the final rail yard in michigan awaiting delivery, or so I assume. The bulletin I posted only made reference to weeks 1/28 - 2/25 being diverted to Flat Rock for final quality inspection. They are considering doing the final quality inspection in Mexico for pre-orders as I excerpted from the memo in this thread. Not sure where that leaves me being a 1/14 build. My car is among the 100 sitting at the rail yard not more than 100 miles from me. There hasnt been any movement for 2 days now, nor has there been on any vehicles at the rail yard. Seems like a logistical nightmare or some sort of bottleneck. I am hoping my car is offloaded soon ...if it heads to Flat Rock, I would be really frusturated.

In the MKZ build thread someone posted their sales rep informed them vehicles are being routed to Flat Rock. I was quick to reply the most up-to-date information (dealer bulletin dated Jan 16) indicated only early builds were re-routed to Flat Rock, and current productions models including future pre-orders were not scheduled to be re-routed (at least the bulletin did not indicate). Well, the latest bulletin dated Jan 25 seems to introduce the possiblity that all cars in production will be re-routed. An excerpt of the bulletin is below: "...our strategy is to divert the next five weeks of Lincoln production (week of 1/28 through week of 2/25) to Flat Rock for the final quality inspection. This plan will allow us to get caught up on all of the remaining units being held in Hermosillo in a shorter period of time. For retail orders scheduled for the weeks of 2/4 and 2/11, we are considering doing the final inspection in Hermosillo to minimize wait time for your clients. We will update you on our plan as soon as it is finalized". I will post any additional information when it becomes available.

This thread has gone a bit off topic...the original thread related to the Lincoln Ad. Today's edition of Automotive News mentioned that Lincoln has elected to split their 60 second Super Bowl spot into two 30 second ads. What was formerly a 60 second spot titled "steer the script", which were user submitted ideas for a commercial curated by Jimmy Fallon, has not been split into two spots, one of which is the Phoenix spot shown in the thread. interesting...

Dealer stock converted to a pre-order. Black on black hybrid - reserve pkg...just what i wanted. build date jan 14th. On a rail car 200 miles away. Should be here beg / middle of next week!

I verified the information contained in the bulletin (no flat rock re-routing for current production) by tracking a handful of MKZ's that were bound for Arizona/California, that were build Jan 4 and beyond. All of them went straight from Mexico to their destination...none were re-routed to Flat Rock.

Your dealer only has part of the information regarding Flat Rock and I still cant figure out why so many salesman are misinformed. The bulletin I read was posted directly on the sales homepage of the dealer portal, which all dealers have access too. When I contacted my dealer last week on the 18th, he said he didnt have any information on the delays (at the time I was reading rumors on this forum about additional roof leaks causing further delays). I spent some time browing the dealer portal at work and found rather quickly a dealer "launch update" dated the 16th. Now why my dealer wasnt aware of this bulletin...or others who have been given partial or incorrect information in this thread - e.g. Flat rock routing...escapes me entirely. As a refresher, the information I provided in the previos post is as follows: Some of the vehicles that dealers were expecting initially, lets call them early builds (built in Dec for example) were re-routed to Flat rock for a final quality inspection. None of the Jan builds are being re-routed to Flat Rock nor are there any plans to do such a thing for current MKZ's in production or any pre-orders. There are no further delays. period. Sucks our dealers are so technologically inept; they dont even know how to access their own website and obtain information that all of us are so desperatly seeking.

Within the next two weeks, Lincoln, on behalf of all dealers nationwide, will be sending a $100 Visa gift card to all pre-order MKZ customers. Kudos to Lincoln for trying to create goodwill after a less than successful launch with multiple delays.

To those that ordered before 2012 came to a close, have you decided which makers program gift you are going to elect? It appears the program has an approx cash value of about $700. I think I am going to take a nice road trip in my new MKZ and select a night a the Ritz Carlton, or two nights at a Marriot property and have a nice dinner on Lincoln (this option includes a amex pre-paid card for dining).

Try using a search engine like google for instance. The query "ETIS" returns the Ford website as the 1st result.

My VIN generated a window sticker so the website is functioning.

Maybe my comments were made too quickly and now seem overly dramatic. I am sure it did not take any time to forward the message to someone who could make things happen.

You emailed the CEO of a fortune 10 company to express a grievance about your car order? Those actions seem to lack basic situational awareness; you should be more respectful of such a distinguished corporate executive's time. In the future ask your dealer to contact their Ford Zone manager for problem resolution.

Thanks! a really excellent primer.

Last week my hybrid was built, released, and shipped...it's on a rail car at the moment. I would say this is sound evidence there are not any production or quality issues any longer. The information i provided in this thread is the most up-to-date! The bulletin was dated the 16th. Some of the cars that dealers expected to initially receive...lets call them early builds ( built circa mid december) were in fact sent to a plant in michigan for a final quality inspection. According to the update bulletin the goal is to "inspect, process, and ship..." those cars asap. The pre-orders (mostly beg feb builds) are being " built and shipped without delay". Pre orders are not heading to dearborn...i would imagine this memo would have made mention of this if it were true b/c it provided very specific details.

Working on a masters too but already have A-plan pricing which is a stellar deal (the two are not compatible). congrats on graduating I have a long way to go...what did you study if you dont mind me asking?

There are not any further delays I just confirmed. I was browsing the company intranet and found a recent bulletin sent out to dealers. Many of the dealer orders that were early builds are going through a final quality inspection before reaching their final destination. The bulletin also mentioned that many of the retail orders scheduled to build in early Feb are going to built and shipped without delay.

I just researched the glossary of terms a bit more and being "sent offsite" is not neccessarily indicative of a quality issue but can be just a temporary storage location because of transportation delays.

I am going to remain optimistic until my car is sent offsite and remains there for longer than 1 week, at which point I may reconsider....

I dont think so, not here in metro-detroit. A handful of orders for local dealers have arrived in Michigan, but are sitting at a plant in Flat Rock. Not sure why, but they have not been received by the dealers according to the tracker. Also, the stock orders ...some of which began production in early Jan have not left Mexico!! For whatever reason, many of them either read..."sent offsite", "returned from offsite", "awaiting shipment"...not a single car that has been built recently for detroit dealers has been released and is on a rail car and in transit. So frusterating! My car was built three days ago -- I expected it to arrive the 28th but unless it gets moving soon, I dont anticpate that happening.

802530 I must be the winner!! dont feel like one...

Try and get an X-plan PIN from someone... It would save you 1,800 off MSRP.

There has to be another delay of some sorts...I do not think a single vehicle is in transit or has left Mexico. . This has to be because of another fix as Stanking mentions maybe a roof leak. My car is built but I am not anticipating it will be shipped anytime soon but rather sent offsite. I have edited this post to remove certain comments. I keep forgetting that tracking information is considered confidential by Ford.

If you are driving a competitor vehicle or have terminated a lease within the past 30 days you are considered a "conquest" and eligible for a 1K rebate.

There is a 1,000 cash conquest incentive listed on the website in the metro-detroit area.

I just realized the info on the ford intranet with tracking information is confidential, so...please pretend as if I didnt reveal the status of your car! (just kidding)...however, most of your dealers have access to the same network, and if cyberdman is available to help too.