ice-capades

I wouldn't be surprised either. If the overall production cuts are as deep as the forecasts for the next 3 months are longer, the first priority will be to supply enough microchips to F-Series production in order to maintain both profits and sales leadership.

How many posts are you going to make bitching and crying and complaining about Ford and the BOF members? Knock it off NOW!

The big jump in demand for computers, consumer electronics, appliances, etc. took up the microchip supply when automotive demand plummeted and now there just isn't enough production available to supply the chips. Add in the fire at a major Japanese plant that supplies microchips to Ford and the mess got only worse until that plant can get back to full production in the next few months.

Someone might be able to help but you need to give us information to work with. Otherwise, all you're doing is complaining.

Have you talked to your Dealer? Probably not.

I tried doing business with a longstanding local business to replace all the kitchen appliances and the experience was horrible. There was no customer service, insisted that they got no status updates from the manufacturer, couldn't track orders and wouldn't know anything until the appliances showed up. Four months later I cancelled the entire order, placed my order with Home Depot and had everything delivered and installed 2.5 weeks later!

These are not normal times thanks to COVID-19 and the microchip shortage which is causing plant shutdowns throughout the industry and interrupting the normal inventory flow. Add to it the pent up demand and low inventory.

Dealers get allocation on a monthly basis with two exceptions. The initial allocation at the beginning of the Model Year is called the "System Fill" allocation and covers a two month period. At the end of the Model Year, the "Balance Out" allocation is also for a two month period. The initial allocation for the 2022MY Super Duty was a month ago so the next allocation won't be for another month. Usually, a vehicle can't get scheduled unless a Dealer has available allocation and it applies to all order types (Stock, Retail, AZXD Plan) except Fleet which are handled through an entirely different process and have no impact on regular stock or retail orders. There are times when a retail order will get expedited scheduling but it's beyond any dealership control and doesn't happen on a routine basis. Should a dealership need to get a retail order scheduled on an expedited basis they can contact their Ford Zone Manager to have the order re-prioritize the order at "01" to expedite scheduling. If the Dealer doesn't have available allocation, the Ford Zone Manager can sometimes get another Dealer in their zone to give up allocation to help out the Dealer needing help. Our dealership had a customer place a retail order back when Mark Fields was the CEO and the customer knew Fields. The regional office called us to place the order, we called them back with the order number, the order was scheduled within an hour and the vehicle was in the plant being built within two weeks!

Just to signify that the scheduling start is TBD.

Ford's Scheduling Toolbox still shows 2022MY Super Duty scheduling start as TBD but I'll know better when the updated FDNB (Fleet Distribution News Bulletin) is released whether the Super Duty schedule is being changed. The FDNB is published every Friday but often isn't released until sometime over the weekend or as late as Monday morning. I'll post an update as soon as I find out anything.

Part of the problem is that Ford provides no information to Dealers about when plants are being shut down due to this microchip situation meaning that Dealers have to rely on media reports for the information. From what I can find, the Kentucky Truck Plant was down the weeks of April 26th & May 3rd. Usually when the plants are closed everything stops and vehicles don't get released for shipping. Unfortunately, there's no way of knowing what they're doing now with the situation in general and/or whether retail ordered vehicles are being parked while waiting for required microchips, etc. One would like to think that retail ordered vehicles are being given the priority they deserve and being built and released for immediate shipping. Once a vehicle is released and loaded on a rail car, the average transit time is 2 weeks before arriving at the dealership.

I'd wait until next week and then ask the Dealer to send you an updated Vehicle Visibility report in PDF format so you can read it clearly instead of a sloppy screen capture. If you're interested, you can ask them for the full report which will show the entire order history with every status update.

Ford Dealers just completed their June wholesale allocation commitments. Let's just say that the inventory situation is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Total allocation for one dealership... 2 Bronco's & 5 Bronco Sports. No allocation for any other vehicle lines! For example... (1) 2021MY Mustang EcoBoost Fastback Premium in stock, (1) unscheduled retail Mustang GT Convertible Premium that will be scheduled for production the week of 07/19/2021 or 07/26/2021. So the store has 1 Mustang in stock and won't see allocation again for a stock unit until August production... there goes the Mustang season! The store would usually have at least 6 Mustangs in stock, mostly GT's and others either scheduled or in transit.

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_2021-05-10.pdf

Next-Gen Ford Ranger Raptor to Feature 3.0L EcoBoost V6 https://fordauthority.com/2021/05/next-gen-ford-ranger-raptor-to-feature-3-0l-ecoboost-v6-exclusive/

Hardly expected so soon considering the Job #1 Date was only 4 days ago!

If you're willing to accept what the Dealer is telling you based on information that's old then I won't care either. It could be sitting in a lot waiting for a chip installation and you'll never know and you'll rely on the old ETA information the Dealer is telling you!

It's hard to know since the last status update was about two weeks ago. There would normally be at least one other update showing that the vehicle had been returned from the offsite location and then released for shipping.

Well at least you have more information with this. That status was last updated on 04/25 still showing an "In Production" status. The vehicle was invoiced on 04/12/2021. The Window Sticker shows that the order includes the Tough Bed Spray-In Bedliner which would cause the vehicle to be "Sent Offsite". Based on this information, there's no way to expect the vehicle to arrive at the dealership by the 05/14 ETA considering that it hasn't been released from the plant yet. Koon's Ford is a pretty large operation and I would have expected better from them! 1FT8W3BN5MED87066_WS.pdf

You missed the whole point of my recommending you have the Dealer send you a copy of the Vehicle Visibility report for your vehicle. Without seeing the actual vehicle status and location, the Dealer telling you the ETA is 05/14 is useless with all the plant issues this year caused by the microchip shortage. Sorry for being direct but I get annoyed with all the "Half Ass" Dealers that will only tell customers what they think the customer wants to hear!

FYI... My comment regarding OEM or replacement costs was in reference to LED headlamp or taillight assemblies, not bulbs.

The system is supposed to use the order dates but quite frankly Ford can't be trusted to accurately follow that process. I've seen it happen all too frequently over the years. The system often follows the path of least resistance regarding commodity issues and will schedule the order that is the easiest to schedule and least requiring commodity exceptions to be made and thereby ignore the order date. It's also why, depending on the vehicle line, where there are certain commodity restrictions, it's best if the Dealer has the Regional Office or Regional Scheduler re-prioritize the retail order at an "01" Priority Code. Doing so forces the system to make every attempt to make a commodity or other exception (allocation) and expedite the order's scheduling. Unless it's a high volume dealership with more than 10 retail orders in the USOB (Unscheduled Order Bank) for a vehicle line, it's better for the dealership to use separate priority codes for each retail order... 10 for the 1st order, 11 for the 2nd order, etc. In the WBDO (Web Based Dealer Ordering) system, retail orders default to Priority Code "19" requiring the Dealer to manually assign a lower priority code. Having multiple orders in the USOB with the same priority code tells the system to treat all those orders equally. The order priority code is the most important. Having multiple orders tells the system that the Dealer doesn't care which of those orders gets scheduled which is why the system will schedule the easiest order commodity wise. Technically the system is supposed to consider the order date but there are too many other factors involved and the order date is often ignored.

Not necessarily. In larger markets or larger dealerships, they could have other retail orders that were placed ahead of yours and those other orders have priority codes 10-13.

It's all about the $$$! Not just the initial cost... the replacement costs are outrageous.

The dealership ETA isn't worth a whole lot, especially with all the production delays, and doesn't tell you anything about the actual vehicle status. Your Dealer has 24/7 access to the Vehicle Visibility system which provides information on all status changes and updates regarding the order history, scheduling, production and transportation. In addition, the Vehicle Visibility system provides more timely and complete updates compared to the consumer facing tracking site. I'd recommend asking your Dealer for a copy of the Vehicle Visibility report for your vehicle so that you'll know the actual vehicle status.