Dealer can't tell me my place in line?

[cdubculvy]

As many have reported that their dealer has told them their place in line (example, 5th out of 40 reservations), I asked my dealer if they could tell me. Their reply was that they have no visibility to this. Sounds like they don't know what they're doing. Should all dealers be able to see this info?

I haven't bought a car in a while, but in my many many experiences before, I've learned that when a dealer says something, they're either 1. Lying or 2. Incorrect. It almost never fails. Ugh, here we go again with this song and dance...

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[RavenYZF-R6]

Yep, they should be able to see it. Ignorance or intentional.

 

[Kev12345]

Here's the response I got.

"As to your spot in the reservation order, you will be contacted based on when you reserved, and your build will be prioritized based on the trim, options/features. Note: that the Lariat trim level will likely be of the highest priority/percentage in the first build cycle. "

 

[SmoothJ]

Sounds like they either don’t know how to look, or don’t want to be bothered to look.

 

[GreaseLightning]

I placed my order on 5-19 within 5 minutes of the reservation system opening and have a low reservation number.

After not hearing back by phone call or email for the past 2 months (my first time trying to contact the dealer since 5/19), I finally was able to get in touch with someone last week who told me they didn’t know my place in line and that only Ford knew. They said they would have “employee name” (person in charge call of Lightning orders) call me. He never did. I emailed him directly and he told me I was 11 out of 65. I asked how that was possible because I ordered within 5 minutes of the reservation system opening, he never emailed me back.

I’ve only owned Ford Trucks for 10 years now and just bought a Platinum F150 from this dealer a couple years ago. Apparently that doesn’t matter for a priority list because I’m not on it.

Terrible model by Ford. If you want to let people skip the line it should have been limited to only moving up 5-10 spots or make the list every other based on time stamp and dealer priority.

I was planning on purchasing a 2022 Expedition as well, but now have a sour taste in my mouth and debating how to proceed. Not like it matters to the dealers right now because they can’t keep cars on the lot, but this supply/demand imbalance wont last forever. Their reputation however, will last forever.

 

[SmoothJ]

It is possible mainly cause you were either “beat” by other people, or the dealership put in place the priority slot and pushed you up/down.

Having these slots are great, and I get and understand why they are doing it. However if you only have ~2000 dealerships that are BEV certified, and you only going to produce a certain number for the 22MY at least tell us or cut us off at that number. This way we are not expecting a 22MY.

 

[RavenYZF-R6]

I placed my order on 5-19 within 5 minutes of the reservation system opening and have a low reservation number.

After not hearing back by phone call or email for the past 2 months (my first time trying to contact the dealer since 5/19), I finally was able to get in touch with someone last week who told me they didn’t know my place in line and that only Ford knew. They said they would have “employee name” (person in charge call of Lightning orders) call me. He never did. I emailed him directly and he told me I was 11 out of 65. I asked how that was possible because I ordered within 5 minutes of the reservation system opening, he never emailed me back.

I’ve only owned Ford Trucks for 10 years now and just bought a Platinum F150 from this dealer a couple years ago. Apparently that doesn’t matter for a priority list because I’m not on it.

Terrible model by Ford. If you want to let people skip the line it should have been limited to only moving up 5-10 spots or make the list every other based on time stamp and dealer priority.

I was planning on purchasing a 2022 Expedition as well, but now have a sour taste in my mouth and debating how to proceed. Not like it matters to the dealers right now because they can’t keep cars on the lot, but this supply/demand imbalance wont last forever. Their reputation however, will last forever.

It is very plausible that every one of those people ordered before you. They could have ordered within 30 seconds of each other right after reservations opened.

 

[Nick Gerteis]

It is very plausible that every one of those people ordered before you. They could have ordered within 30 seconds of each other right after reservations opened.

Not quite. 11 out of 65 would mean that roughly 1 in 6 out of all reservations were placed in the first 30 seconds. Extrapolated nationwide that would mean 33K out of a total of 200K reservations would have been placed in the first 30 seconds. Clearly that’s not the case, 20K were placed in the first 24 hours. It’s possible that some of the people that ordered at his dealership have faster fingers than the national average, but probably not by orders of magnitude. Prioritization did it and the dealer just doesn’t want to fess up.

 

[F150ROD]

I don’t think they know, I was told the same thing when I inquired and then just week was contacted that I was 4th in line. At first I was told only Ford knew, so did Ford send out information to dealers as to who in their reservation system would be in the first waves?

Edit: I forgot to mention that my salesman told me they had 30 allocations, I'm not sure if that is for the entire year or just MY22

 

[cdubculvy]

I just spoke with the General Manager and made it clear that I was just interested in knowing 1. Their allocation for the year and 2. My position amoung their assigned reservations based on my timestamp. He was straightforward and just kept saying "I have no idea, Ford hasn't told us anything". So it sounds like this dealership hasn't been proactive with these, they're taking a wait and see approach. I'll probably call a few other dealers and see what they say.

 

[SmoothJ]

I just spoke with the General Manager and made it clear that I was just interested in knowing 1. Their allocation for the year and 2. My position amoung their assigned reservations based on my timestamp. He was straightforward and just kept saying "I have no idea, Ford hasn't told us anything". So it sounds like this dealership hasn't been proactive with these, they're taking a wait and see approach. I'll probably call a few other dealers and see what they say.

They know your position in line, and they know how many reservations they have.

I do agree though with the amount of allocations though. Thats based on a formula of past sales, and etc.

 

[cdubculvy]

Just spoke with a friendly salesman at another dealer (who is pretty active on youtube about the Lightning) within far but still driving distance to me. He was unable to tell me as well. Hmmm

 

[SmoothJ]

Just spoke with a friendly salesman at another dealer (who is pretty active on youtube about the Lightning) within far but still driving distance to me. He was unable to tell me as well. Hmmm

One dealer can't see the allocation or reservations from another dealer.

 

[cdubculvy]

One dealer can't see the allocation or reservations from another dealer.

I was asking them what my position in line would be at their dealership.

 

[bmwhitetx]

I have the same experience with my sales guy. He has been clueless and waiting on info from Ford. I told him about wave 1 and offered to come down and show him the playbook and how to look things up. He was all for that. I think this is a new process and they just haven't read the memos. I'll meet with him and the GSM Monday and show them where to look.

When you think about it they may only get 10-15 this year and they probably sell that many other vehicles in a few days or a week so this just isn't moving the needle for them. He was surprised when I told him price, deposit, etc. were all finalized online. I think a lot of $0 ADM and $500 deposits are because the dealer never went in to change those defaults.

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