Ford email confirms F-150 Lightning orders starting at “beginning of the new year”

[BennyTheBeaver]

Their loop hole is most likely making one of the reservation holders pay Market Adjustment and if they refuse they will offer it to the OP.

Doesn't seem like a trustworthy dealer which is what he's claiming...

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[techguydave]

For the last time I reserved a Lightning in September with my dealer not the internet. I don't think anyone had gone to my dealer to inquire or reserve one up until that time. I made every effort to have my dealer reserve me one to order and I didn't want to confuse the system by trying to reserve another one on line. Ford was saying work with a dealer to place an order so that is what I did.

Dealers were not allowed to make reservations for anyone. You don't seem to be reading what we're telling you. There's a massive possibility your dealer is lying to you. If you think buying things from them for the last 30 years means they won't somehow screw you over on the hottest vehicle launch in their brand for ages, I've got a bridge to sell you.

There's multiple people on this forum who work at dealerships in various capacity, as well as at least one person who works for Ford itself. If there was a way for dealerships to put orders in I'm 99% certain they would have piped up about it.

Good luck. I look forward to seeing you post about the deal you got only paying $20k markup.

 

[Duckwrangler]

Dealers were not allowed to make reservations for anyone. You don't seem to be reading what we're telling you. There's a massive possibility your dealer is lying to you. If you think buying things from them for the last 30 years means they won't somehow screw you over on the hottest vehicle launch in their brand for ages, I've got a bridge to sell you.

There's multiple people on this forum who work at dealerships in various capacity, as well as at least one person who works for Ford itself. If there was a way for dealerships to put orders in I'm 99% certain they would have piped up about it.

Good luck. I look forward to seeing you post about the deal you got only paying $20k markup.

Of course dealers weren't "allowed" to make reservations for anyone, but you don't think if a long time loyal customer walked through the door and basically told him to reserve a truck for him, that dealer wouldn't go online, set up an account for him, and make his reservation? He'd just say, nope, go home and get on this website, and good luck? I doubt it.

There are a couple of scenarios I see this happening. One is for the customer who just can't or doesn't want to navigate the internet, for whatever reason.

Another scenario - a wealthy customer sees the ad, wants the truck, and calls their dealer and tells them to reserve one. I'm talking about the kind of wealthy person who is used to telling people what they want and getting it. Do you think that dealer would tell that sure sale of a high end model to hang up and go do it themself on the website? I don't.

I think there's a good possibility that Garry's dealer put a reservation in for him in September and then bumped him up on the priority list in December. I'm not sure why people think this couldn't possibly have happened.

 

[Bill from King Ranch]

I think there's a good possibility that Garry's dealer put a reservation in for him in September and then bumped him up on the priority list in December. I'm not sure why people think this couldn't possibly have happened.

Totally agree. Pull a Benjamin out of petty cash, use someone's personal GMail account, insert Gary's name, address, etc and Bob's your uncle.

 

[EVTruckGuy]

Of course dealers weren't "allowed" to make reservations for anyone, but you don't think if a long time loyal customer walked through the door and basically told him to reserve a truck for him, that dealer wouldn't go online, set up an account for him, and make his reservation? He'd just say, nope, go home and get on this website, and good luck? I doubt it.

Possibly, but it would not be easy to do that without the customer having a confirmed reservation through Ford by email.

I bought a MME which was a nearly identical process minus the prioritization.

Once I paid my deposit and submitted my pre-order through Ford, that car was immediately attached to my personal Ford account. I got emails all along. The reservation was viewable online throughout the process. Once the car was scheduled for build, it was already visible in my Ford Pass app. Once the car was delivered, it was long established through my Ford account to be my car.

If his dealer reserved a truck in his name using his email address... He would know. He would have received emails by now confirming it, and the reservation would show up in his account. I highly doubt a dealer reserved a truck using his Ford account without him noticing.

The other possibility is that the dealer made a reservation on his behalf using a different email address. Perhaps the salesman's email address. If the dealer created a reservation for him using a different email address, that would violate Ford's own rules. Ford was already aware of the possibility of dealerships reserving and ordering vehicles such as the MME, Bronco, and Lightning using fake customer accounts in order to have extra vehicles to sell off the lot with crazy markups. Ford wanted to avoid this, which is why dealerships are not supposed to place reservations on behalf of customers with verbal agreements. Dealers aren't allowed to do this because there would be nothing stopping them from putting in hundreds of reservations using fake customer names just so they could sell them off the lot once they arrive.

If his dealer is in fact logging on to the Ford website placing reservations under other people's names using fake email addresses and fake Ford accounts, I'm quite sure Ford would have a big problem with it.

 

[Duckwrangler]

If his dealer is in fact logging on to the Ford website placing reservations under other people's names using fake email addresses and fake Ford accounts, I'm quite sure Ford would have a big problem with it.

I definitely didn't mean to imply that the dealer was just making up email addresses out of thin air. Of course he would need the customer's own email address. But that's easy - the dealer just says "Sure, I'll take care if that for you - is your email address the one we have on file?"

That said, without reading the whole saga all over again, has Garry specifically said if he went and checked for emails from Ford back in September? I don't remember that he said if he did that, but it would be one piece of the puzzle. Not everyone is in their email regularly, and real messages can get buried in spam, especially if you aren't looking for them.

Obviously I'm just speculating on the situation as is everyone else. But given the long relationship with his dealer and some personal/social connections, I'm not totally buying the idea that dealer doesn't know what he's doing, is shady, is lying, etc. I think there could be several reasonable explanations, but we didn't witness the conversation in September to really know what was said and how.

If I were Garry, I'd just call the dealer and ask for my reservation number and go from there.

 

[Gary Gattis]

I definitely didn't mean to imply that the dealer was just making up email addresses out of thin air. Of course he would need the customer's own email address. But that's easy - the dealer just says "Sure, I'll take care if that for you - is your email address the one we have on file?"

That said, without reading the whole saga all over again, has Garry specifically said if he went and checked for emails from Ford back in September? I don't remember that he said if he did that, but it would be one piece of the puzzle. Not everyone is in their email regularly, and real messages can get buried in spam, especially if you aren't looking for them.

Obviously I'm just speculating on the situation as is everyone else. But given the long relationship with his dealer and some personal/social connections, I'm not totally buying the idea that dealer doesn't know what he's doing, is shady, is lying, etc. I think there could be several reasonable explanations, but we didn't witness the conversation in September to really know what was said and how.

If I were Garry, I'd just call the dealer and ask for my reservation number and go from there.

Great suggestion! I plan to make a call Monday and say I'm ready to order when you can order a Lightning for me. I understand I may not have a reservation now from this forum, can you clear that up for me? All I need from my salesman is when I can order. If he tells me I must wait too long, I will look for alternatives during the wait. I made every effort to reserve and order a Lightning as soon as I found out while looking for a future vehicle to replace the '17 Explorer that I tow my Whaler with. I think my dealer and salesman know me and will do what they can. If they screwed up or want to take a chance on another buyer at a higher price they take that chance. I do business with people who offer good products at a reasonable cost. I'm not trying to cut the line, I got in line at my dealer in September. If I fell thru the cracks I'm SOL and need to look at my alternatives. I'm getting estimates for installing the 80amp Ford charger already when it comes available because that looks like the fastest way to charge a traction battery at home and also provide house power if you need it from a Ford. If I screwed up it's my fault but I did all I could when I could and I knew this would be a hard vehicle to get. I went to my dealer and ask them to do what they can months ago before reservations ended. I learn like everyone else here and I've come to these forums for knowledge a few times after ordering and find them helpful. Who ever gets one of these trucks is lucky from what I see, Ford makes my cars and I'm happy with my Explorer till I find something better that comes along to tow my boat and trailers. I'm not rich by any means and hope to take advantage of any tax incentives I can with this truck. I've done business with this dealer for 50 years now.

 

[Garbone]

1000 miles on a single charge ain’t gonna happen, sorry.

Easy, Autotrain from Sanford Florida to Virginia and then back again. On charge, 1000 miles traveled.

 

[rdr854]

Easy, Autotrain from Sanford Florida to Virginia and then back again. On charge, 1000 miles traveled.

No horrendous I-95 traffic except to get to Lorton and no mileage on the odometer! Such a deal for hypermiling.

BTW, when I traded my 2017 FFH after 3 year, my average mpg over the life of the car after 32K miles was 52 mpg. I did much better on the highway than around town.

 

[LightningLover]

"Orders start at the beginning of the new year ."

I love how vague they word this . Flashbacks to the Bronco emails .
What's the beginning ? Jan 1st ? Jan 31st ? By end of 1stQtr ?

Yes

 

[Gary Gattis]

No horrendous I-95 traffic except to get to Lorton and no mileage on the odometer! Such a deal for hypermiling.

BTW, when I traded my 2017 FFH after 3 year, my average mpg over the life of the car after 32K miles was 52 mpg. I did much better on the highway than around town.

That is a great lifetime mpg, was it a plug-in? My '09 FEH had a 53.9 on E10 lifetime when I sold it. It wasn't a plug-in hybrid like my '05 FEH but it got the best mpg before the C-Max Energi plug-in with 912mpg lifetime. The best mpg I get in most cars is at 25-36mph and goes down the faster you go from there.

 

[rdr854]

That is a great lifetime mpg, was it a plug-in? My '09 FEH had a 53.9 on E10 lifetime when I sold it. It wasn't a plug-in hybrid like my '05 FEH but it got the best mpg before the C-Max Energi plug-in with 912mpg lifetime. The best mpg I get in most cars is at 25-36mph and goes down the faster you go from there.

It was not an Energi. We had several FFHs. I did the best. Rarely needed the AC in summer because the car was garaged during the day most of the time. My speed on the interstate rarely went above 60 mph.

 

[RavenYZF-R6]

It was not an Energi. We had several FFHs. I did the best. Rarely needed the AC in summer because the car was garaged during the day most of the time. My speed on the interstate rarely went above 60 mph.

I don’t think I could live in a world of only 60mph ?

 

[greenne]

Ford might do the same thing they did with the MME. Dealerships were given demo units shortly after deliveries started, but they were not permitted to sell those vehicles for several months. People could test drive the units but not buy them and take them home.

It's funny you mentioned that...this was posted on the f150 Lightning FB group this morning:

" Ford has started submitting Lightning orders for the Dealer Demo Program in our order banks. We have a Star White Lariat coming. Unfortunately no price information with the order. We can’t change anything on the order and are required to keep the truck for 6 to 9 months before we can sell it. Just nice finally seeing one in the order bank! "

Take it with a grain of salt. I do not know the person that posted this and can not confirm validity. Just thought I'd pass along what was said on social media.

 

[Sdctcher]

It's funny you mentioned that...this was posted on the f150 Lightning FB group this morning:

By ChasingCoral on https://www.[banned site]/threads/ford-is-testing-the-ordering-system.365/

At 2:00 PM EST 01-01-22

OP is listed in his profile as a co-owner of Heartland Ford.

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