GearheadGrrrl

You may be right- I suspect the F150 Lightning stuck with the existing F150 body because tooling up a new one was too risky and might delay the whole project. Now that Lightning annual volumes will be well in to 6 figures, Ford can give the Lightning it's own body that takes advantage of the "skateboard" chassis and isn't compromised by a huge front end to cover an IC engine.

Thanks for your updates which kept me from going totally insane during the long wait for my Transit Connect which finally arrived 2 weeks ago!

If you add up F650, F750, stripped chassis, and E-series the volume rivals that of Volvo plus their Mack brand or International. Those manufacturers think it's completely normal to have a cab or three and a selection of powertrains, etc. for those volumes and they're making a profit doing it. Ford needs to think of medium and heavy trucks as a sub-brand like Bronco and give them a new cab every couple decades and add Cummins, Allison, etc. to the options list- With transaction prices of over $100K Ford can turn a profit at these lower volumes and enhance the Ford brand while they're at it.

A bit later Mr. Farley was interviewed by Bloomberg. He said that IC trucks will still be in the Ford lineup for a long time, pointing out that the F150 Lightning isn't up to towing really heavy trailers... So it won't be a Super Duty. Ranger already has a home at Michigan Assembly, same with Transit Electric at Kansas City Assembly. So what trucks remain to be electrified and need a home... Maybe the already announced Transit Custom Electric?

Notable that most of those parked Transits are high roofs- They've always taken longer to get delivered because they can't double stack them on a transport.

Delivered 7 months to the day after order placed. Invoice price minus $1000 Ford rebate, thanks to Herman Ford of Luverne, Minnesota for being an honest dealer in these greedy times. Drives great just like I expected, and thanks to everyone here for all the helpful advice, order guide access, and status updates!

Please, any updates for 2022 Transit Connect wagon NM0GS9E26N1520595 ?

The article comes from the "Heartland Institute", a conservative pro-oil advocacy group... Definitely not an unbiased opinion!

I have Costco to thank for my storage and use the same system- Several of the 24" x 72" x 72" 4 shelf units hooked together end to end with the shelf spacing set to fit the big black and yellow "Costco boxes". Prices have gone up especially on the shelving, but still a good deal!

Detroit Chassis is an asset for Ford- They do the "messy" low volume production for Ford so their plants aren't bogged down with these often customized vehicles. Detroit Chassis is also an innovator- They've built electrified stripped chassis and offer options the fleets demand like galvanized frames.

Engines and other parts are easy, because you can stuff 40 or more in a 40' container. The real problem is finished vehicles because at best you can only get 10 or so current Fords into a railcar or transport. So the best solution is more flexible plants that can build more models closer to the customer. IIRC there are 5 plants currently building F series variants, what if each could build everything from the F150 Lightning electric to an FT950? Then add capability to build the Excursion, stripped chassis, maybe a cabover...

Has 2022 Transit Connect wagon NM0GS9E26N1520595 moved any? Thanks!

Going back to the unusually large Bronco inventory at one small town dealer with of course ADM, I dragged in some more data. I centered the search via cars.com (Ford won't let you search dealer inventory for Broncos) on 56258. That's Marshall, MN, a regional trade center in southwest Minnesota and I expanded the search out 100 miles which takes in the much larger Sioux Falls, SD as well as several other regional trade centers like Marshall. Ford.com shows 34 dealers within that 100 mile radius and cars.com shows Broncos at 13 (there may be a few Ford dealers in this area that don't list on that site). The dealer in the larger Sioux Falls market shows no Broncos, same with nearby dealers in Luverne and Worthington, MN. 0f the 13 dealers offering Broncos, 7 have only 1, 5 show 2 or 3, and only one shows 6. That dealer, Schwieters in Montevideo, MN, has 7 other Ford dealers within a 50 mile radius and Montevideo has a population of ~5000 so they don't have a populous trade area. Their website shows blue (stock) window stickers for 2 of the Broncos and those have dates From May and November of last year, suggesting these were the one every six months demo Broncos dealers were allowed to order. But the other 4 have no window stickers on their website so are they customer ordered Broncos or not? So in a 100 mile radius why does one dealer in one of the smallest markets have 6 of the 27 known new Broncos when they have one of the smallest markets and all 6 have ADM?

While Ford may not be letting dealers "raid" each others inventory, from what I'm told VW dealers can. Seems that VW is very much trying to make inventory going to or at a given dealership their own at least until the invoice gets paid, and to take further control VW pays the salespeople a commission on top of the dealers.

There's a couple of rural low volume dealers in my area who have a half dozen or so Broncos in stock, all priced way over MSRP. How did they get so many... Probably by forcing retail customers to give up their orders by jacking the prices up when they arrived. These dealers will never, ever, get my business!