October 26 is apparently NOT when 2022 F-150 Lightning ordering begins (order bank opens)

[gorwell]

I would believe that the order bank will open on the 26th when the reservation date to convert to order has been indicated previously.

Assume a day or two for glitches and remember that reservation timestamp matters, not the day the order is submitted.

May have answered this somewhere, but as a Dealer do you have the ablity to easily look @ the reservations you have and see the "priority" order?

Just wondering if I should ask my dealer

I reserved 18 minutes after they opened up, so I assume I'm pretty early.

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[pstansel]

You'd be better off looking at the list here and making a math guess at how many are in front of you

 

[sotek2345]

Reservations are a marketing tool to generate media coverage. When people stop getting excited over reservation numbers (especially Tesla) manufacturers will stop doing it.

They also help a manufacturer gauge interest. Based on the Lightning reservations, Ford has massively increased their investment into EV production capability. Without that change, we would be looking at ~5k trucks produced in 2022 with a ramp to a maximum rate of 40k/year in 2024. That would have meant a Gen 1 Lightning production total of ~100k units and a lot more unhappy customers who want one and can't get one.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Reservations are a marketing tool to generate media coverage. When people stop getting excited over reservation numbers (especially Tesla) manufacturers will stop doing it.

Don’t forget that it’s also an interest free loan.

 

[Blainestang]

May have answered this somewhere, but as a Dealer do you have the ablity to easily look @ the reservations you have and see the "priority" order?

Just wondering if I should ask my dealer

I reserved 18 minutes after they opened up, so I assume I'm pretty early.

Yes, dealers do have that ability.

Many won't tell you the exact info on how many reservations they have and where you are in line, but they definitely have that info.

 

[metroshot]

Reservations are a marketing tool to generate media coverage. When people stop getting excited over reservation numbers (especially Tesla) manufacturers will stop doing it.

Very well said and true.

It's a great marketing hype for sure.

If it wasn't for the reservation, I wouldn't return to order one if there was no reservation and they were going to be a normal dealer stock.

 

[Diabolical!]

So... no configurator yet.

 

[JTmass]

So... no configurator yet.

I am disappointed

 

[astricklin]

Manufacturers really need to stop with this retarded reservation shit. Or placing orders for shit 2 years+ out.

Just ship to dealers and let them sell them. You either get one or you don’t, or you place an order and wait at that time, whatever weight time is.

and we were making fun of Tesla missing timelines

So you'd rather have to camp out at your local dealership every time a truck comes in?
How else is the manufacturer going to have some idea of demand? They need to have a way to anticipate demand at the different time frames they determined, that's why they had a reservation and then some period of time till actually placing orders. It let them have a rough estimate of how many people were $100 worth committed. Then they'll see how many people are more committed and then what sort of trim mix people are interested in when orders are placed.

 

[Sam James]

So you'd rather have to camp out at your local dealership every time a truck comes in?
How else is the manufacturer going to have some idea of demand? They need to have a way to anticipate demand at the different time frames they determined, that's why they had a reservation and then some period of time till actually placing orders. It let them have a rough estimate of how many people were $100 worth committed. Then they'll see how many people are more committed and then what sort of trim mix people are interested in when orders are placed.

I too would rather have a reservation system. Things like options (and lack of dealer-installed), color, and trim (especially in consideration of EV credit caps) would be out of our control if they just went to lots. And in this market the ADM would be nuts. The reservation system isn't good, but its better than nothing and with improvement would theoretically get more interested buyers their preferred configuration faster and with less hassle.

 

[RickE]

Don’t forget that it’s also an interest free loan.

Yes, 125,000 reservations at $100 is $12,500,000 upfront for 1 to 2 years. Not bad for Ford!

 

[F150ROD]

Thing is "Reservations" is basically the new way of walking into a dealer, not seeing what you want and having to put in a dealer order. The difference now is greedy dealers can see what type of demand there is for vehicles and they can now play their games to make more money.

Tesla works because the car comes directly from the Manufacturer to the Consumer at a set price. Tesla can raise and lower the price of their vehicles while you wait on your build but they will honor the price you originally bought it for.

I see GMC is also going the reservation route with their new Truck. Hopefully they can either go full blown reserve, this is what you pay or just go back to the old way and forget the reservation system.

At the end of the day, it's up to us. Some continue to pay markups fueling this insane practice.

 

[Brian Head Yankee]

Yes, 125,000 reservations at $100 is $12,500,000 upfront for 1 to 2 years. Not bad for Ford!

You and Sarge need to try to keep up. Your $100 is held by the dealer you chose, not by Ford. Don't like the "free loan"? Easy, switch dealers and get your $100 back. The reservation is simply a survey each of us paid $100 to complete. Ford has no obligation to honor the timestamp promise as proven with the Bronco order board.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

You and Sarge need to try to keep up. Your $100 is held by the dealer you chose, not by Ford. Don't like the "free loan"? Easy, switch dealers and get your $100 back. The reservation is simply a survey each of us paid $100 to complete. Ford has no obligation to honor the timestamp promise as proven with the Bronco order board.

Interesting. I was not aware of that.

 

[vandy1981]

The reservation system isn't good, but its better than nothing and with improvement would theoretically get more interested buyers their preferred configuration faster and with less hassle.

They should have just offered a number of reservations that had a realistic possibility of being fulfilled in year one. If the projected availability expanded, they could have offered another round. That would benefit Ford by drumming up more publicity.

I do think the online ordering system benefits the consumer because pricing is more transparent than working with dealer stock. There's still room for games but there's less incentive for the dealer to be slimy because the consumer can take their reservation elsewhere. If Ford had gone the traditional dealer stock order route, it would be almost impossible to find a truck at MSRP or without useless modifications.

Direct to consumer sales would be ideal in my mind, but the lobby is too strong for that to happen anytime soon.

The best case scenario under the current regime is online ordering by consumers with strict manufacturer rules about price gouging. If only Ford could figure out how to take the dealer out of the allocation equation. It makes no sense that I could have a super early time stamp and have to wait longer for my F150L than someone 25 miles away with a later time stamp and identical F150 build, just because their dealer has a better allocation formula.

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