2023 Ford Escapes and Lincoln Corsairs in Production?

[1984Poke]

I completely missed (until this morning) this bit of news, on Ford Authority, about Ford closing the order banks for 2023 PHEV Escapes in late January. 

 

https://fordauthority.com/2023/01/2023-ford-escape-phev-retail-order-banks-to-close-next-week/

 

I presume that the order I placed on 10 January 2023 for a 2023 PHEV Escape is unaffected by this development.  I received an email from Ford that same day saying it had received my order.

[Harley Lover]

UPDATE: 

Quote

Ford Motor Co. has extended the temporary closure of its Louisville Assembly Plant for another week as the company continues to deal with a software issue on its freshened Escape and Lincoln Corsair crossovers.

The plant will be down through Feb. 24, according to a note to employees confirmed by Ford. The company previously planned to re-open the plant Feb. 20.

 

https://www.autonews.com/manufacturing/ford-extends-downtime-louisville-assembly-over-escape-software-issue

Edited February 18, 2023 by Harley Lover

[Harley Lover]

Louisville closure extended to March 6, 4th consecutive week; good news is that software issue with instrument cluster is solved:

  

Quote

Ford has again extended the temporary closure of its Louisville Assembly Plant for another week as it battles a software issue on the refreshed Escape and Lincoln Corsair crossovers.

The plant's building chairman, Brandon Reisinger, informed employees Thursday the downtime will now last until March 6, which Ford confirmed to Automotive News.

Next week will mark the fourth-consecutive week the plant has been down.

Reisinger, however, noted the company appears to have solved the problem.

"We do have a new re-flash to address the programming issue we have with the clusters," he told employees. "This re-flash does appear to be good. In all of the testing, they've had no issues so far. I think they finally have their issue resolved."

 

https://www.autonews.com/automakers-suppliers/ford-extends-downtime-louisville-assembly-until-march-6?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20230224&utm_content=article3-headline

[akirby]

As frustrating as this is for those with orders, this is a good sign that Farley is serious about making changes.  In the past this would have been a fix it later situation.

[gbank14]

2 hours ago, akirby said:

As frustrating as this is for those with orders, this is a good sign that Farley is serious about making changes.  In the past this would have been a fix it later situation.

Extremely frustrating. Hopefully they get some serious production in starting 3/13.

[jasonj80]

Also wonder if all the units that were on chip hold hitting dealers now is playing into this as well. They can fix the quality issue and not have to worry about fixing them later and they have inventory to fill lots with and they won't have to discount the 2022 as much as the 2023's come to the lots later. There are some demand issue in some parts of the market currently. GM suspended production in Ft Wayne for 2 weeks to clear inventory and dealers (all makes) I've seen around Michigan/Ohio/Indiana have more vehicles that I have seen in over 18 months. The big dealers in Metro Detroit overflow lots are starting to fill up again. The price increases,  high lease prices, higher interest rates and falling resale values are having demand impact. 

[1984Poke]

If I remember correctly, today (Monday, 6 March 2023) is the day the Louisville Assembly Plant was to start (resume?) production of 2023 Ford Escapes and Lincoln Corsairs.

 

Can anyone confirm whether that is happening?  Or am I mistaken about the date?  Thank you in advance.

Edited March 6, 2023 by 1984Poke

[1984Poke]

Well, according to the Ford Authority web site, the Louisville Assembly Plant resumed production of 2023 MY Escapes and Corsairs earlier this week, doing so after concluding that the instrument cluster software issue that had bedeviled them had been resolved finally.

 

The article said that about 4,400 pre-production Escapes (and about 400 Corsairs) had been built in January and February before production was halted while they worked to resolve problems.

 

My question for someone in the know about such things:  Just out of curiosity, what are "pre-production" vehicles and what happens to them?

 

I presume some are used for testing (to get EPA mileage numbers, for IIHS crash testing, etc.), yes?  What happens to the rest?  Are they modified (if/as needed) and then sold?  Are they destroyed (if so, that seems like a whole lot of vehicles to destroy)?  I really don't know so I'm asking those of you who do know.  Thanks.

 

 

Edited March 10, 2023 by 1984Poke

[jasonj80]

1 hour ago, 1984Poke said:

Well, according to the Ford Authority web site, the Louisville Assembly Plant resumed production of 2023 MY Escapes and Corsairs earlier this week, doing so after concluding that the instrument cluster software issue that had bedeviled them had been resolved finally.

 

The article said that about 4,400 pre-production Escapes (and about 400 Corsairs) had been built in January and February before production was halted while they worked to resolve problems.

 

My question for someone in the know about such things:  Just out of curiosity, what are "pre-production" vehicles and what happens to them?

 

I presume some are used for testing (to get EPA mileage numbers, for IIHS crash testing, etc.), yes?  What happens to the rest?  Are they modified (if/as needed) and then sold?  Are they destroyed (if so, that seems like a whole lot of vehicles to destroy)?  I really don't know so I'm asking those of you who do know.  Thanks.

 

 

Depends on what exactly the issue was and where they were originally going. Many early production vehicles are Ford employee lease vehicles as well as test vehicles, it allows the company to see early problems and respond accordingly. They may be updated and fixed and sent to the dealer they were originally ordered from, they may be parted out and crushed if the fix is so expensive/impossible (This is normally a structural issue, or wiring/fire issue)

[jasonj80]

Looks like the okay to ship has been given, seeing car haulers full of 2023 Escapes on 69 and 65 on the way to Nashville. 

[1984Poke]

52 minutes ago, jasonj80 said:

Looks like the okay to ship has been given, seeing car haulers full of 2023 Escapes on 69 and 65 on the way to Nashville. 

That's great news.  Maybe I'll get mine by May or June . . . .  ?

[silvrsvt]

48 minutes ago, 1984Poke said:

That's great news.  Maybe I'll get mine by May or June . . . .  ?

Depending on where your located-it took less then two weeks to get my Bronco last May. 
 

I had my SHO show up in a few days back 2013 from Chicago to where I used to live in Maryland. 

[1984Poke]

1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:

Depending on where your located-it took less then two weeks to get my Bronco last May. 
 

I had my SHO show up in a few days back 2013 from Chicago to where I used to live in Maryland. 

I ordered a PHEV Escape on 10 January 2023, and I presume there are a lot of orders in line ahead of mine, thus I presume it will be a while before I get mine, but I'm always hopeful!! 

[Rangers09]

50 minutes ago, 1984Poke said:

I ordered a PHEV Escape on 10 January 2023, and I presume there are a lot of orders in line ahead of mine, thus I presume it will be a while before I get mine, but I'm always hopeful!! 

 

Affirmative, they reportedly received a significant number of PHEV orders in the first month of the order bank opening. We ordered on day 1, received a VIN at end of January, but the build date is pushed back to 20th April.