What are your dealers saying about Lightning?

[GreasyLightning47]

Hey everybody, long time no post. I just heard from my dealer that the order banks open Oct. 26th which most of us know by now. I am meeting with my dealer to place my order even though I'm probably at around 100k mark on the reservation list. I also inquired about allocation and my dealer said that they were set to get some lightnings in 2022. He said the number of allocation per dealer is projected by state/region and past EV sales. I'm taking everything with a grain of salt and don't expect delivery until 2023 hopefully. However, lets say my dealer is allocated 2 lightnings and I am the only one who reserved with that dealer. Despite my reservation number or time stamp, would I get my lightning in 22? I am just curious to hear what everyone's been told

Sponsored

 

[Losi]

I was told the following by Granger Motors on Monday (unsolicited btw, I never emailed them).

“We have no insight on allocation at this point.

Next Step: When Ford opens ordering for 2022MY, we will reach back out to you for Build & Price and permission to convert your reservation to an order.

If you have any questions, please reach out and we will help where we can”.

My largely uniformed impression is that many dealers don’t even know exactly what is going on and the rest of us are left withering in social media-generated hearsay and speculation.

 

[jeffcrum]

Most dealers know less than you guys do. Just saying.

 

[metroshot]

Most dealers know less than you guys do. Just saying.

Agreed - my dealer promptly emails back and says "we don't know the details yet" but you are on our list....

 

[F150ROD]

An Allocation just means a dealer can order for their own stock. Your Reservation is a guaranteed Lightning to a Dealer of your choice on top of whatever Allocation they have been granted. It’s just a matter of knowing where you fall in line.

Dealer Allocation and your Reservation are not the same

 

[vandy1981]

An Allocation just means a dealer can order for their own stock. Your Reservation is a guaranteed Lightning to a Dealer of your choice on top of whatever Allocation they have been granted. It’s just a matter of knowing where you fall in line.

Dealer Allocation and your Reservation are not the same

I've read elsewhere on this forum that each dealer will have a different priority for order builds, depending on sales volume, order conversion rates and local market factors. If that's true, your place in line would be valid at an individual dealer but not necessarily across dealers. You would also have to factor in trim/option availability so someone that orders a Platinum may have to wait longer than an XLT with an later reservation time stamp.

 

[Fordskeptic]

An Allocation just means a dealer can order for their own stock. Your Reservation is a guaranteed Lightning to a Dealer of your choice on top of whatever Allocation they have been granted. It’s just a matter of knowing where you fall in line.

Dealer Allocation and your Reservation are not the same

My understanding is initially dealers will be allowed to order for dealer stock, so initially allocations are for reservation holders. Hence the incentive for dealers to put ADM and add ons and generally be scumbags. So when a retail customer refuses delivery because the price is not what was agreed, the dealer can then take that unit as stock and sell for whatever the market will bear.

 

[Fordskeptic]

My understanding is initially dealers will be allowed to order for dealer stock, so initially allocations are for reservation holders. Hence the incentive for dealers to put ADM and add ons and generally be scumbags. So when a retail customer refuses delivery because the price is not what was agreed, the dealer can then take that unit as stock and sell for whatever the market will bear.

Dealers will NOT be allowed to order for stock, I meant to type.

 

[bboy_72]

Called my dealer yesterday. They had no idea bout order banks opening 10.26. Not sure if that is the real date for opening or if they are just clueless.

 

[snowy_91]

I haven't talked to my salesman yet, but I did tag him in a Facebook post so he knows I'm coming. Life is different in a small city in South Dakota, The dealer is locally owned and I went to high school with him, the salesman used to be my neighbor. When I do an order like this on I find I have more info than he does. If ford releases any info you can bet that it will be on a forum like this within hours.

 

[F150ROD]

I've read elsewhere on this forum that each dealer will have a different priority for order builds, depending on sales volume, order conversion rates and local market factors. If that's true, your place in line would be valid at an individual dealer but not necessarily across dealers. You would also have to factor in trim/option availability so someone that orders a Platinum may have to wait longer than an XLT with an later reservation time stamp.

This is the case for regular orders that do not require reservation as I understand. When you order a vehicle through a dealer the dealer that has the most sales usually has more allocations and they get priority for builds. In this case if they are going by time stamp of your reservation then it shouldn’t matter what dealer you choose as you will get your truck at the same time regardless where you place your order. Maybe someone can clarify this.

 

[metroshot]

Dealers will NOT be allowed to order for stock, I meant to type.

If this is true, then dealers will try to mark up the price of YOUR reservation and force you to either pay their extortion fee or give it up to someone else that will pay more than MSRP.

I don't like that idea at all - I hope Ford will allow dealers to order their own inventory (albeit very little) not to impact the reservation holders....

 

[sotek2345]

If this is true, then dealers will try to mark up the price of YOUR reservation and force you to either pay their extortion fee or give it up to someone else that will pay more than MSRP.

I don't like that idea at all - I hope Ford will allow dealers to order their own inventory (albeit very little) not to impact the reservation holders....

Yes, this is true. that is why there has been so much focus on what dealers on not charging ADM on orders. Note: For the Mach-e Ford corporate has been putting pressure on dealers to sell at MSRP and helping some folks out.

 

[shutterbug]

Yes, this is true.

Not completely. Dealers could still order a small number of demo MMEs. There were also plenty of people who legitimately abandoned their orders. Lots of people lost jobs in 2020 and couldn't afford to drop $40-60K on a new car. Also lots of people lost patience or decided that MME didn't fit their needs. All those became stock. Some dealers tried to extract ADM, and some got it, but with a little patience and perseverance it was possible to purchase stock MME at MSRP or even with X-Plan discount applied.

The Lightning is a bit different situation in that I think Ford never said that MME was sold out for 2 years, and for the first few months of 2021 it was possible to order MME and receive it by now.

 

[F150ROD]

The problem for dealers wanting to add a market adjustment to the Lightning will be that most already have a truck and at that point they’ll just walk.

Sponsored