Dealer Allocation and Delivery time

[musselmang]

I've recently ordered a 2012 GT after having lurked in the forums for some time. I have questions, however, that I haven't seen addressed completely.

 

How exactly do dealer allocations work?

Do they play a large role in how long it takes for a retail order to be filled and shipped?

How do you really know if a dealer has allocations (other than taking their word for it!)?

Is a large stock on mustangs on site indicative a having allocations, or is the opposite true?

 

I placed an order on 3 May for a 2012 Black Mustang GT, auto, w/nav.

Have not yet received a VIN, so I am at the dealer's mercy for information and tracking.

 

Thanks for any help and responses!

[blownblu03]

I've recently ordered a 2012 GT after having lurked in the forums for some time. I have questions, however, that I haven't seen addressed completely.

 

How exactly do dealer allocations work?

Do they play a large role in how long it takes for a retail order to be filled and shipped?

How do you really know if a dealer has allocations (other than taking their word for it!)?

Is a large stock on mustangs on site indicative a having allocations, or is the opposite true?

 

I placed an order on 3 May for a 2012 Black Mustang GT, auto, w/nav.

Have not yet received a VIN, so I am at the dealer's mercy for information and tracking.

 

Thanks for any help and responses!

 

Well this is my understanding, if the car was ordered as retail then dealer allocation does not play a role but I am not 100% sure. It also matters what priority they set your car. I ordered my car on January 21st and I was set to recieve it on May 7th and they had put my priorty as a 19 which was the slowest. I was not happy but the shipper wrecked my car so they reordered my a second car last tuesday May 10th and now it is set as a 01 priority and I recieved my VIN yesterday.

 

So to be honest I cant figure out there process LOL

[akirby]

I've recently ordered a 2012 GT after having lurked in the forums for some time. I have questions, however, that I haven't seen addressed completely.

 

How exactly do dealer allocations work?

Do they play a large role in how long it takes for a retail order to be filled and shipped?

How do you really know if a dealer has allocations (other than taking their word for it!)?

Is a large stock on mustangs on site indicative a having allocations, or is the opposite true?

 

I placed an order on 3 May for a 2012 Black Mustang GT, auto, w/nav.

Have not yet received a VIN, so I am at the dealer's mercy for information and tracking.

 

Thanks for any help and responses!

 

Dealers put in orders for both stock and retail vehicles. Retail (sold) get priority 10-19 and stock is 20+. Only Ford can set a priority below 10 (for special circumstances as noted above).

Each dealer is allocated a certain number of vehicles based on how many they've sold in the past. The more they sell the more they get so yes, dealers who have a lot in stock are probably also selling a lot and will have more units allocated in a given period.

 

Once it's verified the vehicle can be built then it goes into the queue. If the dealer is allocated 5 units this week then the 5 with the lowest priority in the queue get scheduled. There also appears to be additional allocations for retail vehicles so even if your dealer doesn't have regular allocation you'll still get yours scheduled within a week or two. But the details on that part are fuzzy.

 

Only the dealer or a Ford employee can see dealer allocation.

[musselmang]

Thanks for the input!

I think that i've done the best that I can do, knowing what I know.

 

I ordered on 3 May 2011, and was given a priority of 10.

Keeping fingers crossed that it won't be weeks longer before I get a VIN and the build scheduled.

[blownblu03]

this car for me my second go around is a priority of 01. What do you think the timeframe is for this car? I got a VIN in under a week so far.

[ice-capades]

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.

[musselmang]

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.

 

Thanks for the insight! Since I have a priority 10, not much I can do but wait.

[blownblu03]

Thank you for the detailed info. MY car is a priority #01 since my first car was destroyed by the shipped and it was ordered back in January. I guess all I can do is wait as well. It has NAV so I wonder if that will create an extended wait time?

[musselmang]

Thank you for the detailed info. MY car is a priority #01 since my first car was destroyed by the shipped and it was ordered back in January. I guess all I can do is wait as well. It has NAV so I wonder if that will create an extended wait time?

 

I posted this in another forum. I have ordered a GT with Nav and this was the response to my email inquiry:

 

Yes, that's true that nav systems are no longer available on stock orders and on very limited supply on sold orders. As soon as I hear back from my email to our Ford rep yesterday, I'll know more. They have been limiting the sold orders on a case by case basis and depending on the model line as different plants have different inventory levels of the nav systems which come from Clarion out of Japan.

Here is a copy paste from our most recent update which was April 19th:

 

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NAVIGATION SYSTEMS

Due to the Clarion navigation systems constraint availability volumes out of Japan, the following actions are being implemented immediately with respect to the scheduling of various vehicle lines until further notice:

 

Only Mustang retail orders with a navigation system will be eligible to schedule (No stock orders with Navigation system will be selected.)

 

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Your order should be fine. I should know more about the exact status once I hear from our regional rep.