UT_Grandpa

Dealer Prep on my truck was taking all the plastic off, programming some items on the truck with me, demonstrating many of the functions and controls, a complete detail and a full tank of gas.

Hope is on the way! We took our new Superduty on it's longest road trip (260 miles) yesterday and as we were headed back to Utah we passed a UP freight train going east towards Evanston Wyoming with about 200 empty car hauler cars on it. Maybe they are headed to Kentucky? We love the truck and found a few more buttons to push and we need to get more familiar with Apple Carplay and how to switch albums/playlists. We got about 100 feet of dirt roads on the tires on this trip. Put Weathertech floor mats in it and getting ready to move the stuff from our 1999 Dodge Ram Cummins to the new truck. My son "inherited" our old truck and he loves it too. Lot's of life left in that truck. At 190,000 miles the engine is just broken it!

Well folks, the truck in in MY driveway just two weeks short of eight months from order. It took as long to get from Kentucky to Salt Lake City, Utah as it did to go the final mile and a half to the dealer. Makes no sense other than there is a shortage of car haulers and trucks to get the job done. My salesman said they have received permission from Ford in a few cases to go to the rail yard and drive them back to the dealer. The truck is better than I imagined. We got to drive it two days before we closed. Put a whole two miles on it. Sales close was super easy. I reminded them that the truck was ordered before two price increases so they calculated it initially on the current MSRP, not the one last February. Then they forgot to credit my $2000 down payment. Easy fix. No upsales or add-ons. No advertising fees or fees of any kind. Just the $5000 of state sales tax (no surprise but ouch). The truck was sparkly clean and had a full tank of gas. The sales person walked me out to the truck and we activated the Ford Pass and ran through the most common switches, settings, etc. We started putting miles on it to get to the 1000 miles recommended for towing and this truck will not make the hunting seasons this year. I think a son is going to take my 1999 Dodge Ram Cummins truck (I hope he does as there is mothing wrong with it). My driveway looks like a RV, Marine, and car lot right now. I have spent some time watching the YouTube videos on the Synch 4 system but so much to learn. Next steps are a BedRug box liner (look into it - I have had one for 23 years in my Dodge), a Renegade bed cover (also recommend this), some floor mats that will catch the mud, some towing soft shackles, and then start moving stuff from the Dodge over to the new truck. I had a concern that the spare was on an 18" wheel and the rolling stock has 20" wheels. The 18" wheel is a taller tire and makes up for the smaller wheel BUT it doesn't have the same load carrying capacity. I am not worried. I haven't had to change a tire yet on my Dodge. Here are two quick pictures I took. Hang in there folks. You will know very soon if your truck will be built this year.

Insanity! My truck was built after 6 months from order, went across the street to be fitted with wheel well liners and mudflaps, and then sat a couple of days. It was loaded on a railcar that I tracked from Kentucky through Illinois, Nebraska, Wyoming and finally into Utah. It stopped at the rail yard in Salt Lake City and two days later was unloaded AND THERE IT HAS SAT FOR 8 DAYS. I called the dealer and I was told my sales consultant would call back - HE DIDN'T. They said there was a shortage of car haulers. I explained that I have a pre-approved loan that will go up 1/2% next Tuesday if I don't have the truck. This equates to about $1500 more in interest to me. So, If I hear nothing tomorrow, I am going to speak with the Sales Manager and tell him I expect a credit for the shipping charge since they failed to deliver a truck to me. How is it that my truck can go from Kentucky to Utah in less time than from the rail yard a mile and a half to the dealer? For crying out loud, call a tow truck to go get it. I am thinking it was damaged in shipment and they are trying to cover their tracks. Any other things I should try?

If your truck was scheduled for production and you have a VIN but no other information of truck, I ran on this Youtube video of where it might be:

Exactly as above. I have not seen a final invoice/contract but I am on the lookout for ADP (Additional Dealer Profit) which a double bill for the X-plan admin fee would be. Thanks to all for clarifying this for me. No I wonder if the Blue Oval will be missing from my truck?

Good news for me!! My truck came in this afternoon on the train. I suspect it will be unloaded next week and moved to the dealer a mile and a half away. Ordertrack never showed any transport information so I contacted my salesman and he told me it was in Illinois and he gave me the car # on 9/22. Over the past two days I followed it using the CSX phone number through Nebraska, Wyoming, and into Utah. The CSX tracker worked really well. The UPRR tracker, not so well. My first delivery date was 9/12-9/19 and then was moved to 10/13-10/20 and then was moved forward to 9/26-10/2 so the estimated delivery dates do change as things get shipped. Now to navigate through the dealer fee maze. It is my understanding that Dealer Prep has been paid by Ford to the dealer. All I should owe them beyond the X-plan invoice is a $100 doc fee, a $275 X-plan fee, and a whole pile of sales tax. Am I missing something here? Thanks to all for the support in the past 7 months. I will continue to "lurk" here.

FYI: ordertrack.app has been down all morning. Hope nothing serious has happened.

The saga continues.... My truck has been built and released for shipment and the first arrival date has passed but I got an email from Ford that still had the bogus dates in it. For a brief moment I thought that a FEDEX freighter was going to deliver my truck to get it here by the estimated delivery date. Not so. The estimated delivery date has been pushed back another week but with no rail car number, I think this new date range is bogus also. I saw a nice ad on TV today about the 182,000 Ford employees that are working hard to bring a quality product to their customers. It spoke well of the company. Now if a few people can get my truck on a rail car, my "complete satisfaction" would come earlier..

Thanks for the shipping info. My truck was built and ready for shipping on August 23, which was three weeks before being released to "In Transit". My dealer is 1.5 miles from the railyard. I would hope they would take the 5 minutes to just drive it over rather than wait weeks for a car hauler to drive it 5 minutes to the dealer. But logic almost always loses to tradition (or contract). In the past 10 months the interest rate on loans has doubled. I do have a HELOC that I can use to pay for it if needed. Another poster said not to use ordertrack for shipping. My final railroad is Union Pacific so the car will be transferred mid country. Maybe my dealer is the best to tell me where it is when it starts to move? Thanks to all

Well, my truck is now "In Transit" now, for whatever that means. No railcar assigned and I don't know how long from "In Transit" to moving on a train takes. The email I received from Ford last night is very humorous. Note the expected delivery date to my dealer. Since today is September 16, my truck must be coming via Fedex Air transport! Actually the dates are from my first email after build, not after the delivery date was pushed a month. Is there anybody at Ford aware of what is going on? Again, attention to reality is not one of their strong points.

What was the source for your hoses, connectors, valves, etc? Really nice and clean installation

I hope the convoy truck has a better day than a car hauler did yesterday on our interstate. Traffic slowed up and a loaded car hauler slammed on the brakes and hit multiple cars which in turn hit multiple cars. A six year old boy was killed and his mom and sister were critically injured. It happened in front of my wife. She is still shaken up. I believe my car hauler experience for my truck is about 1.5 miles from the rail yard. They will probably just drive them over.

There was a discussion yesterday on one of the talk radio stations and they noted what aKirby said. My garage is wired for 230V because I have a welder. If your garage isn't wired figure on $1500-2000 to bring a circuit in and then add the cost of the charger, maybe another grand or so. Then double this if you have two cars. If you want a turbo charger then the sky is the limit because many homes have only a 100 Amp or 200 Amp service. In our state, you may have to upgrade all the panel and wiring if you go over a certain amount of changes - add another ten grand or so. He did point out that you can charge your car from a 110V outlet if you have three days to kill. Our power company quietly charges for EV infrastructure on the second page of the bill. I don't have an EV and the cleaner air they help preserve is clogged with forest fire smoke from California, Idaho, and Montana - in fact today is a stay inside day. EVs won't help this at all. As has been mentioned, BEVs will serve a purpose for some if you can rationalize using natural gas or coal for recharging. I have a neighbor with a Leaf and he loves it but he also has a Volvo SUV and a Cummins powered motor home for when he needs to get serious.

Scheduled gets you a VIN and not much else. Getting built does not get you a truck. After a few months of ensuring your satisfaction you get scheduled to ship, then that gets pushed, and if it gets shipped doesn't mean it is on a railcar or truck. If it is on a railcar it could still take months to get you your railyard and then maybe a few months to get it on a car hauler to get to your dealer who will want full payment yesterday.