ice-capades

Retail price protection applies only to the actual vehicle pricing and does not include protection for vehicle incentives. There is a new program that allows dealers to lock in customer incentives for retail orders.

2012 Taurus Introduction Pricing announcement attached. Note that 2012MY production is for 6 months only in order to start production of the all-new 2013 Taurus series in Q1 2012! 2012 Taurus Introduction Pricing.pdf

Only in the official 2012 Fiesta Order Guide which looks like the 2012 Fiesta is mostly carryover.

2012 Super Duty Order Guide attached. This is the initial release which supersedes the "Draft" version provided earlier and includes information on all the changes for the 2012 Model Year! 2012 Super Duty Pick-Up Order Guide.pdf

Although BMW and other manufacturers have talked publicly about 8-speed transitions, it's good to see that Ford is announcing their intention to engineer and build the new 8-speed transmission in-house. As the upcoming CAFE requirements come up everyone's going to be looking at any any every way to increase the EPA/MPG fuel economy numbers. As we've seen in recent years, the newer automatic transmissions have higher MPG ratings which can only lead one to think about how many manual gears future buyers wil be willing to shift through. Case in point is the future Mustang GT transmission mix as our dealership sells 95% of GT's with the manual transmissions.

Interesting comments here on all the speculation and ideas as to what Ford could do with the Flat Rock plant. The only thing that I can add is that my Dealer was at the recent Presiden't Award meeting and was shown both the 2013 Taurus and the all-new, next generation 2013 Fusion. He was greatly impressed with both. Related to this thread was that attendees were told that Ford anticipates a 50% (!!!) increase in sales for the next generation Fusion and is planning on running 3 shifts to utilize plant capacity. Further adventures to follow but our dealership will take all the inventory we can get right now as we're running out of inventory.

Retail orders have always been price protected back to the pricing in effect at the time that the retail order was placed.

If I remember correctly, Ramp 51 is at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant meaning that your vehicle has been released to the carrier but hasn't left the plant property yet. Unfortunately, your vehicle may be at the plant for a while yet as Ford has been especially cautious in releasing Mustangs for shipment unless it's convinced that there are absolutely no quality concerns. Ford has consistently held Mustang vehicles for additional quality testing as CEO Mulally doesn't want any vehicle reaching dealerships that may require additional work prior to delivery to a customer. The end result is that Ford is ensuring that vehicles being delivered to Dealers and customers have passed all quality tests, etc. While any delays are frustrating, be assured that when your vehicle finally arrives at your dealership it's passed all quality tests. The wait will be well worth it, although frustrating at times!

Ford's allocation system is based on a "Turn & Earn" system... The more you sell the greater the allocation. Most customers want to see, touch and drive the vehicle model they're interested in purchasing and we haven't had a 2011 Explorer in stock for anyone to drive since January. As such, we haven't been able to generate enough sales in order to trigger higher allocation numbers. Within the past 2 days, we've finally received 5 Explorer's for stock and 2 of them are already sold and being delivered today and tomorrow. It's hard to sell what you don't have in stock or show even though customers have been buying the 2011 Explorer sight unseen!

At least in Connecticut (CT) May started out very slow for new vehicle sales but we were able to meet our Ford sales objective which represented a 9% increase compared to last year. Our biggest problem is inventory which we don't have enough of for the 3rd consecutive year going into the summer selling season. We're down to a 30-day supply of vehicles, even less for car models, which just isn't enough to support dealership advertising that we'd like to do. Ford is being far too conservative in its production plans and it's costing our dealership business which is in a market dominated by import brands. We just took a loss on an "X Plan" Ranger that we had to transport via our carrier from 100 miles away so as to not lose the customer to an import model in hopes of keeping the customer within the Ford family.

Perhaps I've missed something but where did you get the idea that Red Candy Metallic Tinted (U6) was being replaced with another Red Candy paint? Kona Blue Metallic (L6) and Lava Red Metallic (UZ) were expected to exhaust or "balance out" available supplies on Thursday's scheduling but there was no mention in the latest weekly Commodity & Restraint Letter about Red Candy Metallic Tinted (U6). The paint availability issues are directly related to the Japan tsunami incident but Ford has mostly restricted availability to retail orders in order to conserve paint inventory. The paint color mostly affected is Tuxedo Black (UH) on other vehicle lines which is being replaced by Ebony Black (UA).

As I wrote in another thread here, our store has had no 2011 Explorers in stock since January as every Explorer received since was a retail order placed for a customer. We finally got all our outstanding 2011 Explorer retail orders scheduled and now have 5 stock orders in transit so that we can finally have units in stock to sell from.

There seem to be a lot of opinions about the exterior styling of the next generation Escape based on the Kuga. Personally, I think that it's about time that the Escape move away from the traditional, boxy look and present a much more contemporary appearance. My boss (Dealer Principal) just came back from the Ford "President's Award" meeting and saw the 2013 Escape that was shown to the President's Award dealers. He was very, very impressed with the 2013 Escape... not just the exterior styling but also what Ford's done to the interior. In his opinion, it can't arrive soon enough!

Ford's CEO has been a real advocate of addressing vehicle quality issues and doesn't want any vehicles arriving at dealerships unless they pass all quality tests. This has been a particular point with Mustang the past few years. Our store has 2 retail Mustang orders that were buit about 6 weeks ago, shipped and arrived at the final rail destination for delivery to the dealership and then sent back to the plant for additional quality inspection. My Ford Zone Manager tells me if they find anything, regardless of how minor, on a vehicle... they'll re-inspect all the vehicles that went through the line that may be suspect even if it means sending them back to the plant before delivery to the dealership. The result shows in Ford vehicles being rated so highly in the quality surveys the past few years. Could Ford's communication with its customers and dealers be better? Absolutely! As others have written in this thread, the wait will be well worth it in the long run. I drive a Mustang every day as my company car and its an absolute delight to drive! Thank you for buying a Ford!

Our store sold its last 2011 Focus last week and we have nowhere enough of the all-new 2012 Focus models to meet demand. The longer gas here stays above $4.00 per gallon ($4.13/Gallon currently) the higher the demand will be for all-new fuel efficient models like the 2012 Focus. So far our best selling 2012 Focus models are the SE 5-Door Hatchback (Automatic, SYNC, Power Moonroof) at around $23,000 and the SEL 5-Door Hatchback (Automatic, Leather, Power Moonroof, Winter Pkg, MyFord Touch & Navigation) priced around $26,000.

It's very doubtful that Ford will offer anything less than the Class III Trailer Tow Package on future Explorers. The manufacturers are always competing for bragging rights on the highest tow capacity and providing a lesser capacity option would probably have a low order rate and only complicate the order process further.

The 2012 Edge Order Guide should be available on or about 06/13/2011 when the Unscheduled Order Bank (USOB) opens. The only Trailer Tow Package option available on the 2012 Explorer is Class III.

There is no separate allocation for retail orders. A Dealer's allocation for a vehicle line applies to all orders regardless of the order type.

I feel like I've answered this same allocation and scheduling question a hundred times over the years but I'll give you a quick rundown here again. FYI... Although my primary role at the Dealership is Advertising Manager, I've now managed the Dealership's new vehicle inventory for nearly 25 years and I'm the one that deals with all the related issues. Ford determines on a monthly basis, based on existing inventory, sales rate and "Days Supply" how many of each vehicle line will be produced for the following production month. Once that number is determined, Dearborn determines the allocation for each Region which eventually gets down to determining the allocation for each Dealer. It's a simple "Turn & Earn" system where the more vehicles sold, the greater the allocation. Unless there is a special "Retail Order Verification" program in effect, all orders are subject to a Dealer's allocation for scheduling regardless of whether the orders are for stock or retail customers. The Retail Order Verification program has been in effect in the past only for certain models, primarily Hybrid models. The benefit of the Retail Order Verification programs was that retail customer orders were scheduled on an expedited basis regardless of whether the Dealer had allocation. I know that many of you will ask why Ford doesn't offer expedited scheduling of retail orders for all vehicle lines which is a subject that Ive discussed often with our Ford Zone Manager. I'm told that Ford simply will not even consider offering on a regular basis because it would disrupt the production plans. I disagree but if enough dealers asked/demanded it maybe there's a chance in the future. Vehicle scheduling is usually done on Thursday mornings. Each week Ford generates preview reports that tell a Dealer what their allocation is for the scheduling week along with commodity issues for each vehicle line. It is common for certain options to have limited availability due to supplier issues or other factors such as the tsunami in Japan which has impacted the availability of certain paint colors. For example... Some paints and recently the navigation option have been restricted to retail orders while supplies last. Ford updates its Dealers several times a week on the commodity issues so that Dealers know what vehicles can get scheduled on Thursday morning and have buidable orders in the Order Bank. OK... Now to address the issue of priority codes. Retail orders are now restricted to codes 10-19 and stock orders to 20-80. Orders with the lowest priority code are given the highest scheduling priority. The lower the priority code, the better the chances are that the vehicle will get scheduled in the week that the Dealer has allocation for that vehicle line subject to commodity restrictions in place for that week. The fact that a store has a lot of Mustangs in stock doesn't necessarily mean that they're selling a lot of Mustangs and therefore have bigger allocation available. It depends on a lot of factors including the actual models in stock and previous sales history, etc. That store might have had a real strong month a few months ago which earned them extra allocation when they had few if any retail orders to fill resulting in a bunch of stock orders getting built for them. If those vehicles don't sell quickly enough because they ordered the wrong mix or just that their customers were looking for something other than what was in stock, their allocation could fall to zero because their "Days Supply" didn't generate new allocation. In placing retail orders for any vehicle line, my priority is to get them scheduled in the order in which they were received. If I have no unscheduled Mustang orders in the Unscheduled Order Bank (USOB) I place the next retail order in the USOB at priority code 10. If we sell another vehicle the next week I put the next retail order in at priority code 11 and the next order in at 13, etc. Doing it this way ensures that for any week that I have Mustang allocation, the retail Mustang order with the lowest priority code will get scheduled as long as that week's commodity restrictions don't interfere. Even then, Ford often will try to make exceptions, when possible, in order to schedule a retail order that wouldn't get scheduled otherwise because of commodity issues. As such, a retail order in the system with a priority code of 19 might not be an issue if there were a number of retail orders in the USOB for that Dealer. The only thing that matters is whether there are other retail orders in the USOB with lower priority codes for that Dealership. Even so, retail orders will lower priority codes may not get scheduled due to commodity issues that Ford can't make exceptions for. The priority code system I use has worked consistently for years and is what all Dealers should use based on my experience. I think that this covers everything related to this message thread. If anyone has additional questions please post a reply and I'll do my best to address them here. In the meantime, I hope that the information I've provided here answers the questions raised about allocation and scheduling issues.

2012 Taurus Order Guide 2012 Taurus Order Guide.pdf

2012 Explorer Order Guide 2012 Explorer 4-Door Order Guide.pdf

2012 Fiesta Order Guide 2012 Fiesta Order Guide.pdf

I wouldn't expect to see Tuxedo Black Metallic to be offerred on the Mustang for some time as its availability has been greatly restricted due to a plant situation in Japan. On most vehicle lines where the color is offerred, the paint has been restricted to retail orders in order to meet retail customer demand while supplies last. It was just announced last week that the plant in Japan has resumed production but it will take some time to restore the supply chain and paint availability on vehicle lines where the paint is already offerred. In any event, it's more likely that Tuxedo Black Metallic won't be offerred until the debut of the 2014 MY Mustang introduction as it's very unusual for Ford to offer new paint colors in the last year of a model series (2013 Mustang) just before a major model overhaul.

Ford constantly monitors vehicle sales and inventory in all regions and zones and adjusts incentives accordingly. While I understand and appreciate their efforts, the constant and/or regularly adjusting og incentives is a constant source of frustration at the dealership level as staff have to constantly check the "Vincent" incentive program in order to make sure that the most recent/current incentives are provided to customers. Ford's inventory management focuses on "Days Supply" which is an industry standard based on the current sales rate. Unfortunately, while I understand Ford being conservative in its inventory management, as Ford continues to do better and better in both vehicle sales and profitability, the conservative inventory management in many cases is costing business as Dealers are constantly trying to "grow" their businesses. Production planning is obviously a very complex issue involving many outside suppliers and vendors that have to be coordinated. Ford has become a victim of its own success under CEO Mulally and now experiencing growing pains affecting both Dealers and customers alike. Just my thoughts for consideration related to this thread topic.

I'm not sure if my original information was posted with errors or not but here is the latest information available per Friday's Fleet Distrution News Bulletin. 05/27/2011 - 2011 MY Final Order Due Date 08/19/2011 - 2011 MY Job Last Date 06/13/2011 - 2012 MY Order Bank Open Date 07/21/2011 - 2012 MY Scheduling Begins 08/22/2011 - 2012 MY Job #1 Date Per standard practice, the 2012 Expedition Order Guide will be released to dealers on or about the time that the Order Bank opens. I'll post the Order Guide as soon as it's available.