ice-capades

Understood but think that saying it's all smoke and mirrors is a bit extreme. Ford is in the business to design, engineer, produce and sell vehicles that customers want to buy. Unless they can deliver the product, Ford doesn't get paid. No question, Ford has been hard hit with the microchip shortage but doing everything they can to get production back to normal levels and prioritizing retail orders as best they can. They're communicating with their retail Bronco customers to provide them with updates, even when some commodity and supplier issues are causing delays longer than anticipated. In some cases, Ford's providing additional incentives to compensate retail customers for the additional and/or extended delays and providing retail order incentives to assist customers that can't find the vehicles they want in stock.

From what I'm seeing at the local level, based on both inventory levels and the latest internal 30-day sales reports, the June sales are going to take a big hit across most if not all vehicle lines. I run 30-day sales rate reports that are updated every 10 days and I'm seeing a minimum 25% drop from May's numbers. With available inventory in general now about 25% of the usual sales rate, the sales numbers can only drop sharply. And even though Ford's started to increase production schedules for July and August, it's going to take time for that new inventory to get scheduled, produced, shipped and arrive at the dealerships.

Agreed. Perhaps someone else can provide information on applicable price gouging laws. Unfortunate, of course, that even a few dealerships that practice what most would consider price gouging can do a lot of damage to all dealership reputations, etc.

The WBDO (Web Based Dealer Ordering) system is what Dealers use to submit orders to the USOB (Unscheduled Order Bank). WBDO is a natural language-based system and the successor to the outdated CONCEPS system that required entering order codes for all the specifications. The DORA (Dealer Order Receipt Acknowledgement) is based on the order information submitted via WBDO and is sent to the dealership's terminal but is available in print form only. The order specifications at Ford should be the same across all Ford systems as all the vehicle specifications are sourced from WBDO. As akirby stated, you need to address any discrepancies with your Dealer. A scheduled order can be spec changed (limitations apply, such as Body Code, Powertrain, etc.) but requested changes have to comply with existing commodity restrictions. The changes are submitted to the plant for approval with a response within 48 hours. If approved, the vehicle's scheduled production is updated, usually with a one-week adjustment to the scheduled production week. Once the actual production date is assigned, the order is "locked in" and no further changes can be made.

Ford has very specific rules and regulations regarding Mustang Mach-E pricing and advertising that Dealers must comply with or be subject to penalties. The details are lengthy but do not prohibit a Dealer from selling a Mustang Mach-E above MSRP. The whole issue of addendums is controversial but generally accepted in the sale of limited production vehicles, in particular Shelby GT350/500 models. The addendums in such cases are generally accepted, and still negotiable, whereby excessive addendums ($50,000) are considered price gouging and damage the Dealer's reputation and perceived business practices in general. Ford's ability to control pricing in general is limited by the longstanding franchise laws.

I think akirby may have misunderstood your post or perhaps I did but I'll try to address it. Yes, only a Ford regional office or Ford corporate can assign an "01" priority code which is usually done by the Regional Scheduler. It can originate with a request from the Dealer or other factors in order to expedite scheduling. It's often done in order to get the Ford scheduling system to make an exception to commodity issues. The process has nothing to do with a vehicle having problems, crash testing or anything else.

Initial scheduling provides the VIN number and the scheduled production week. The actual production date is assigned later in the process.

Ford always tries to make exceptions to commodity issues in order to schedule retail orders but it's also possible that the recent SYNC 4 hold has been resolved. Unless I see an update from Ford, there's no way of knowing what the SYNC 4 availability is for unscheduled orders.

Once again... The weekly commodity restraints apply to unscheduled orders only!

SCHEDULING TOOLBOX - SCHEDULING PLAN This is the tentative scheduling plan for the production period. This is just a guide for scheduling. This information is tentative and may change at any time. THIS INFORMATION APPLIES TO UNSCHEDULED ORDERS ONLY. Blue Oval Forums_Production Week Scheduling_2021-06-28.pdf

That's not going to happen! The Vehicle Visibility reporting system is for use by Ford and its Dealers only. If you want or need status updates on your retail order, hold your Dealer accountable and make them do their job.

Last week Ford sent out the usual weekly commodity report stating that SYNC 4 orders would not be selected for scheduling until further notice. This week, there's no mention about the SYNC 4 status for 2022 Super Duty orders. So, at this point, it's anyone's guess as to what the SYNC 4 situation is!

No! If the order doesn't meet all the commodity restrictions in place it doesn't get scheduled and no VIN number is generated. Period!

The Ford vehicle ordering systems (WBDO - Web Based Dealer Ordering & CONCEPS) are restricted to Ford and its Dealers.

VIN numbers are generated at the same time an order is scheduled. If you have a VIN number your order is scheduled. Without a VIN number the order is not scheduled with the exception of vehicles scheduled for export and several vehicle lines (foreign plants) that don't get VIN numbers until shortly before production.

Last week Ford sent out the usual weekly commodity report stating that SYNC 4 orders would not be selected for scheduling until further notice. This week, there's no mention about the SYNC 4 status for 2022 Super Duty orders. So, at this point, it's anyone's guess as to what the SYNC 4 situation is!

If you have a VIN number your vehicle is scheduled.

Ford retail factory orders are identified by green Window Stickers but do not include customer names.

A number one allocation at your dealership doesn't mean anything if there are commodity issues that prevent your order from being scheduled. Now, if your order was re-prioritized at "01" by the regional office, that would mean that your order had been flagged and prioritized for expedited scheduling which is a different subject.

There's no incentive for Ford to offer X Plan incentives for the Bronco until the demand/supply situation settles down.

Understood and appreciate your feedback but I wasn't even referring to those posting vehicle tracking requests in the "Vehicle Locator by Ford Employee" forum.

Because members keep creating new topics asking the same questions that have been answered over and over in multiple threads.

I'll do anything I can to provide assistance, as will the other moderators and members that have been active for many years, and understand your frustration. Quite frankly, there are a lot of new members in the past few months and few have bothered to read the information and resources available. Doing so would answer most questions but instead many create topic after topic and the same questions over and over. Ford is doing its best to address the microchip situation and deliver vehicles but provides no information to Dealers other than identifying the affected vehicles in the Vehicle Visibility reporting system. The constant posts with the same questions that have been answered in multiple threads is just wasting a lot of time for some of us and not contributing anything positive to the discussions. As a further example... look at some of the threads and the posts asking or sharing the same questions. When did you order your vehicle? What is your priority code? Why is my priority code 19? When did you make your reservation? How come other orders are getting scheduled before mine? If you look at the members making these posts, that just repeat the same questions posted previously, you'll find that it's almost always from new members. And these are all questions that have been answered time after time. Yes, I'm venting here and it's not intended personally but only as an example of the time wasted addressing the same questions and issues all too frequently these days. I spend a lot of time providing information and resources to assist the community here but don't have unlimited time to spend here when there are other priorities.

Below is the order bank, scheduling and production timetable for the 2022 Maverick. 06/08/2021 - 2022MY Order Bank Open Date 07/15/2021 - 2022MY Scheduling Begins 08/16/2021 - 2022MY Job #1 Date Attached is the 2022 Maverick Order Guide. 2022 Maverick Order Guide.pdf