How fair is it, really, to be upset at Ford?

[jfried]

I can understand why you / people are pissed.... but I don't think it's fair.

On the Pro - I completely agree with you that "Starting at $40k" certainly reeks of bait & switch to grab headlines, without ever really having an intent to actually sell the truck at that. This practice in the car industry is "normal", where there's a base model that nobody really wants, and usually, with about 10% more you can get one that is reasonably equipped.

The Maverick at $20k is a great example of this, knowing full well that people probably aren't going to be thrilled with the $20k version, but the $22,000 XLT is more than fine.

With the Lightning, you're $12k up (30%) to get into a truck that somebody should "want to buy".

As for prioritaztion, while the dealers auctioning off slots is obviously not great for PR, it's important to remember that one of the reasons Ford sells as many cars as they do is because of the relationships their dealers keep with their customers.

Putting a dealer in a position where they have to tell a long loyal Ford customer that "there's nothing that they can do" does not reflect positively on either the dealer or Ford -- and they are on the same team.

With respect to some of your other points... I think it's important to remember that the vast majority of the 200k reservation holders are not on this forum, and do not have the time or need to understand that allocating vehicles is slightly more complicated than "first come first served".

Heck, put yourself in Ford's shoes. Granger Ford advertises on this forum for some relative-to-invoice deal. Do you really think that Ford wants Granger delivering 500 of the 2022 Lightnings? Rewarding that type of widespread discounting is not conducive to building the brand.

I think it’s fair. They should have started out with Reservation + Configuration and stopped taking Reservation once they had everything sold out instead of allowing people to keep reserving. Then the whole priority circus.

On the bright side, I believe everyone from now on will have a much better experience ordering and taking delivery of Ford truly intends to make separate EV centers

To be fair, the "reservation bank" opened the day the vehicle was announced. It, and the $100 deposit, were always intended to be more of an "expression of interest" for Ford to see how much adoption this thing would get, versuss, we've announced a new car, and an unrealistic expectation that "we're going to do my deal today".

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[EaglesPDX]

Only thing Ford did wrong was not honoring the reservations.

 

[F150ROD]

I can understand why you / people are pissed.... but I don't think it's fair.

On the Pro - I completely agree with you that "Starting at $40k" certainly reeks of bait & switch to grab headlines, without ever really having an intent to actually sell the truck at that. This practice in the car industry is "normal", where there's a base model that nobody really wants, and usually, with about 10% more you can get one that is reasonably equipped.

The Maverick at $20k is a great example of this, knowing full well that people probably aren't going to be thrilled with the $20k version, but the $22,000 XLT is more than fine.

With the Lightning, you're $12k up (30%) to get into a truck that somebody should "want to buy".

As for prioritaztion, while the dealers auctioning off slots is obviously not great for PR, it's important to remember that one of the reasons Ford sells as many cars as they do is because of the relationships their dealers keep with their customers.

Putting a dealer in a position where they have to tell a long loyal Ford customer that "there's nothing that they can do" does not reflect positively on either the dealer or Ford -- and they are on the same team.

With respect to some of your other points... I think it's important to remember that the vast majority of the 200k reservation holders are not on this forum, and do not have the time or need to understand that allocating vehicles is slightly more complicated than "first come first served".

Heck, put yourself in Ford's shoes. Granger Ford advertises on this forum for some relative-to-invoice deal. Do you really think that Ford wants Granger delivering 500 of the 2022 Lightnings? Rewarding that type of widespread discounting is not conducive to building the brand.




To be fair, the "reservation bank" opened the day the vehicle was announced. It, and the $100 deposit, were always intended to be more of an "expression of interest" for Ford to see how much adoption this thing would get, versuss, we've announced a new car, and an unrealistic expectation that "we're going to do my deal today".

Correct, expression of interest, but having a limit of what they could sale for 2022 would have tempered expectations, no different than what they are doing with the Mach-E right now. They only have 2 options available, everything else is sold out for 22. It really wasn’t that hard but Ford wanted the headlines “200k reservations in x amount of days”

 

[hturnerfamily]

Ford is simply a business that produces a product that it hopes it can sell to dealers. Dealers sell the product, hopefully, to the public. That's it. Ford has NO reason to do ANYTHING to jepordize sales, or their faithful and future customers. But, the world is not perfect, and they live in it.

 

[hturnerfamily]

of course, this is all easy for me to say as I now have a Lightning PRO scheduled for production.

I will admit, though, that after the long wait of watching others with Lariats and Platinums getting scheduled for several weeks ahead of me, my patience was wearing thin. Actually, it wore so thin, that I had made myself realize that I might not get one at all. I drove 750 miles to Ohio to pick up a 1/2 electric 'hybrid' 22 Kia SOrento PHEV for my wife, which can drive in pure EV mode for most all of her needs. When I arrived back home with it, I had my 'scheduled for production' lightning notification. What a day.

I get that those who will not get a build in 22 are annoyed, aggravated, and down right mad, but it's really just our inpatience that is getting the best of us. This also reveals the actual hit and importance of this game-changing vehicle. We all want to be one of those 'first' owners, it's human.

 

[jfried]

Correct, expression of interest, but having a limit of what they could sale for 2022 would have tempered expectations, no different than what they are doing with the Mach-E right now. They only have 2 options available, everything else is sold out for 22. It really wasn’t that hard but Ford wanted the headlines “200k reservations in x amount of days”

Personally, I think people should have tempered their own expectations given that they gave a $100 refundable deposit.

Ford wanted to know how many people were legitimately interested in this truck, as well as plant the seed in customers minds that this is a truck they'll eventually buy.

I'd also suggest that if they only limited it to 10k reservations or so, it would become the wild west for getting one after that. This way, they have a somewhat orderly process to allocate them for the first couple years.

 

[LightningShow]

I have an order but I wouldn't have blamed Ford if I didn't get one. Part of my job is deciding which customers won't get what they want so I'm sympathetic to the business decisions that Ford made. I don't think anything they did was unreasonable and, really, it all went pretty smoothly. There were 10 times as many reservations as trucks. There were more reservations in the first 24 hrs than they were going to make in 2022MY trucks. There were going to be disappointed people no matter what. They've doubled 2024 production targets twice and committed 10s of billions of additional investment to their EV plans. Those are pretty big moves they've made for customers who want EV trucks. Not really much to complain about.

 

[jb56]

Good time for Ford to send me an email with a subject line that says "Make Room for your New Ford F150 Lightning!" Haha. Dorks.

 

[Ryan091]

I'm pissed at Ford. But is it fair? Do I just need to be patient and happy? First, I want to lay out the excuses for Ford.

Global pandemic, duh!
Supply chain problems
Demand was way more than they expected
There are too many unknowns for Ford to be much more transparent without causing more problems
This is a first generation, and there are always hiccups
Pretty much all car companies are struggling to deliver vehicles and communicate clearly about it.

Here are some things I think Ford screwed up.

Not being clear about when reservations would go live.
Only requiring a $100 dollar deposit even after the Bronco s#!+ show.
Doing reservations as a whole and not segmenting into trim levels at all (I know this can go both ways, but I think it blew up in their face)
Providing no early feedback on how many reservations would be fulfilled into orders in the first year
Allowing rampant reporting of 15,000 Lightnings being manufactured for MY 2022
Not explaining what percentage of the MY 2022 orders would go to reservation holders
Not being clear early on that some states would get preferences (ZEV)
Not being clear early on that some dealers would get a tiny allocation, despite a huge number of reservations
Playing games with dealer prioritizations without any clarity (especially when some dealers got 25 prioritizations but were only allocated 4 or 5 trucks)
Not addressing added dealer markup from the beginning. (Allowing ADM provides incentives for dealers to screw around)
Providing vague communications that suggest reservation holders will be getting a lightning in the near future.
XLT ER pricing being a joke
Platinum pricing making very little sense (to me, at least)

(Just FYI, my reservation email came 18 minutes after the presentation started. Somehow I was 14/700+ reservations at my dealer. I will not be getting a 2022)

To me, my top list of excuses doesn't really excuse anything in my bottom list. Had Ford told me a month after I reserved that I was likely in line for a 2023, I wouldn't be bugged at them at all.

Dealer is screwing you, I reserved mine a couple months after you and I am getting a 2022, your dealer for sure bumped others ahead of you lol

 

[jb56]

Dealer is screwing you, I reserved mine a couple months after you and I am getting a 2022, your dealer for sure bumped others ahead of you lol

I'm in Utah, so we aren't getting the EV preference, but my dealer insists that they were only allocated 6 MY2022 truck orders on 730+ reservations.

 

[jb56]

No kidding, Ford

 

[Nick Gerteis]

I believe there are two points that are fair to be upset about:

(1) Pro availability .
(2) Priority Slots


(1) Ford advertised the $40K price and every single news outlet advertised the $40K starting price. But, Ford did not want to sell a $40K EV, so it limited the availability beyond what most would have expected. I would 100% not expect the Pro to start at $40K for MY23 or not even be offered to consumers. If they retain that $40K, probably trimming out the bed and seats to achieve that price

(2) Priority Slots were unnecessary and as close to "evil" as possible. Every dealer was given an option to prioritize their entire allotment (and beyond), pretty much ignoring all reservation timestamps. Given the limited quantity and allotments, there should have been zero priority slots.

All other complaints are just people thinking they were warranted a truck because they placed a non-binding reservation.

Pretty much spot on. Only thing I’d add is ZEV state preference, and (to us) unknowable dealer allocation as factors. These things are not necessarily wrong, but weren’t communicated properly, leading to unnecessary customer frustration.

 

[thegangler]

Personally, I think people should have tempered their own expectations given that they gave a $100 refundable deposit.

Ford wanted to know how many people were legitimately interested in this truck, as well as plant the seed in customers minds that this is a truck they'll eventually buy.

I'd also suggest that if they only limited it to 10k reservations or so, it would become the wild west for getting one after that. This way, they have a somewhat orderly process to allocate them for the first couple years.

If only that was the world we live in. Pandemic, supply chain, potential WW3 be damned, I PAID MY MONEY I DESERVE MY TRUCK! Sorry folks, everyone these days is doing the best they can, what do you get by getting so angry about it? Cancel your reservation and move on.

 

[jb56]

If only that was the world we live in. Pandemic, supply chain, potential WW3 be damned, I PAID MY MONEY I DESERVE MY TRUCK! Sorry folks, everyone these days is doing the best they can, what do you get by getting so angry about it? Cancel your reservation and move on.

a lot of ford apologists around here. Nobody is saying that they shouldn’t have to be patient. I’m not angry that I’m still waiting. I’m angry about the list of things I put in my OP, which you apologists all seem to completely ignoee.
Ford is going to fulfill less than 1% of reservations at my dealership in 2022. Ford have no indication until January of 2022 (7 months after reservations) that fulfillment would be so low. I’m fact, they subtly allowed information to be distributed without correction that would suggest they would fulfill 5%+. And now, a Lot of people who reserved later than me are getting trucks. Had I know this in swtember, I could have made other plans. It’s the lack of transparency, not the wait, that is irritating.

they kept as many people on the hook as possible and provide terrible communication.

and you guys are all like “they are doing the best they can!” If that is true, then they suck.. I don’t think they are doing the best they can. I think they are pretending to do the best they can while focusing on the most profit possible for ford. Hopefully they’ll send me a hammock or desk calendar to make up for it!

But hey, at least they sent an email in error to me today acting like I would be getting a truck soon.
The best they can. Totally. .

 

[thegangler]

a lot of ford apologists around here. Nobody is saying that they shouldn’t have to be patient. I’m not angry that I’m still waiting. I’m angry about the list of things I put in my OP, which you apologists all seem to completely ignoee.
Ford is going to fulfill less than 1% of reservations at my dealership in 2022. Ford have no indication until January of 2022 (7 months after reservations) that fulfillment would be so low. I’m fact, they subtly allowed information to be distributed without correction that would suggest they would fulfill 5%+. And now, a Lot of people who reserved later than me are getting trucks. Had I know this in swtember, I could have made other plans. It’s the lack of transparency, not the wait, that is irritating.

they kept as many people on the hook as possible and provide terrible communication.

and you guys are all like “they are doing the best they can!” If that is true, then they suck.. I don’t think they are doing the best they can. I think they are pretending to do the best they can while focusing on the most profit possible for ford. Hopefully they’ll send me a hammock or desk calendar to make up for it!

But hey, at least they sent an email in error to me today acting like I would be getting a truck soon.
The best they can. Totally. .

Way to prove my point by labeling anyone you don’t agree with as a “Ford apologist”. We get it, you didn’t make the cut to get a truck this year but damn, lots of folks with real problems in the world right now.

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