Buying and Living With a Hybrid Ford Maverick

There's been a (minor) update!

No offense, Ford, but why waste the email? I still don't know if I'll get my truck in two months or two years (or never). 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

Well, I know that if we have paid orders from customers, we have to contact them within 30 days if we can't ship :)

https://www.techlicious.com/blog/ftc-mail-or-telephone-order-merchandise-rule-change/ 

More importantly, the best possible thing you can do to keep customers happy is communicate. Maybe not quite as clumsily as that, but you need to let them know you're aware of their order and what's going on.

In reply to Tom Suddard :

It's a simple drip campaign. They wrote this once and it's auto sending on a date from order. It was probably set up before you signed the PO. 

Yeah I got the same email, definitely just a generic mailer for probably all '23 orders.

I don't know- it seems human and sincere. Did they decode my sincerity meter?  What do you want them to say? Radio silence?

I got the same email.  Yeah, its a bit wordy for something that says "letting you know we havent forgotten about your order, but we still have no idea when we will be able to fill it", but I appreciate the message vs. radio silence.

I test drove a 22 Lariat hybrid. It was nice. 

I know it was a generic drip campaign, but I would have much preferred literally any information. For example, they could have said any of the following pretty easily

• We've started building 2023 Mavericks and are excited to be making more than ever!
• Your model is (more) (less) likely to be built sooner than some others due to your options
• Your order is number X out of Y total 
• Your dealer ordered X Mavericks and was allocated Y
• Your estimated delivery date is June-December 2023
• The average Maverick takes X days from order to delivery (Y% less than 2022!)

Or any number of other pieces of information. Instead, it is four paragraphs that basically say "we have emailed you." That doesn't fill me with confidence that they'll be able to build me a car. I get way more detailed tracking when I spend $6 on a Pizza. 

So we ordered a new Wrangler Rubicon 4xe here on Sept 8 from my buddy at the local FCA dealer.  The Jeep portal has been awesome.  They sent my wife an email with a link to a tracker that she can log into and see the status.  Also, my buddy has been calling every time the status changes.  So far so good the lil jeep should be delivered in 3 days to the dealership and be ready to be picked up a few days after that.  FCA may not get everything right, but the tracker is pretty good and quite accurate based on the info I am getting straight from the dealer. 

On the other stuff though I wouldn't count on it.  They may not have the data readily available without mining the ERP and besides, even if they did, why share it...you already spent the money and even if you bail they will sell it to the next sucker on down the line.

Tom Suddard said:

I know it was a generic drip campaign, but I would have much preferred literally any information. For example, they could have said any of the following pretty easily

• We've started building 2023 Mavericks and are excited to be making more than ever!
• Your model is (more) (less) likely to be built sooner than some others due to your options
• Your order is number X out of Y total 
• Your dealer ordered X Mavericks and was allocated Y
• Your estimated delivery date is June-December 2023
• The average Maverick takes X days from order to delivery (Y% less than 2022!)

Or any number of other pieces of information. Instead, it is four paragraphs that basically say "we have emailed you." That doesn't fill me with confidence that they'll be able to build me a car. I get way more detailed tracking when I spend $6 on a Pizza. 

Yeah no email would have provided just as much useful information. I would have respected it much more if the email literally said "Hey we know we suck at manufacturing vehicles in a timely fashion, we're kinda sorta not really trying to get better at it. Your maverick will probably be manufactured sometime in the next 2 months to 2 years." At least that's honest and has some slightly useful information in it.

I think it's mostly that ford doesn't know how to distribute resources properly. The system works okay when it's not wildly overloaded. A friend decided they didn't want to wait forever and also wanted a bit more truck so they ordered a ranger. They day after they ordered it, it had a production date scheduled. I think it was pushed back a week or so but last I heard was scheduled for production at the end of the month.

Yeah, any real information might be nice. I have the same email.

At least it's something to show the dealer wasn't just pulling our legs I guess?

In reply to 93gsxturbo :

I never ordered a Ford but I always assumed once the actual Maverick gets a framed body Ford would start the detailed communications like this jeep order. I do recall that sometimes that still only provides a hopeful estimated window of delivery. If they get the car all the way to the last part of assembly and find out last shipment of 1850+ XLT radios all have a defective screen then your delivery will slide back a month or something. So it was always a debate on if the customer will be happy or super pissed that they are told about that hiccup. Plus customers will start taking legal action if an email said it would arrive on Nov 15th and so they sold their car on the 14th or some silliness. Unfortunate reality to consider. 

My fun is trying to predict the timing with investments so the cash isn't just sitting idle. My bet is I won't see a car till summer.

I will be honest. This is my first communication from Ford themselves regarding the order, not just a text from someone at the dealership and I was gearing up to reach out to the sales manager for some kind of confirmation that the order actually got in.

I didn't even get that email y'all received 

The 2021 Silverado just passed 36k miles, is averaging a combined 22.9 mpg over that time and has only needed oil services a set of wiper blades and one ECU at 300 miles. I am kinda glad the Ford dealer dropped the ball with me. 

dps214 said:

Yeah I got the same email, definitely just a generic mailer for probably all '23 orders.

Same here for the Exploder we ordered in August. It was followed by an email saying it would be built the week of November 14, then another saying the 21st, then another saying the 28th....

So, I had no information when I placed the order about the "blackout" option.  A black interior rather than the denim blue (on my XLT).  Only thing is, $1,645.   OUCH.   Pretty hefty for a different color cloth and some smoked headlights/taillights. 

I had a brief thought about seeing if I could call and get it added to my order, but nah, at that price I'll pass. 

I got the email like everyone else did.  Wasn't surprised by it given the experience from the Mav forums.  I knew about the blackout package and chatted with my son about it, but he wanted the non-cloth seats and, at the time, we weren't sure if they blackout pack on the Lariat would switch to black cloth or not.  I agree, though, that you could do all the exterior blackout stuff aftermarket for much cheaper.  And we ordered him a black truck, which already came with black handles, mirrors and grill. 

For us we're cool with the delays, the longer we can wait the more we cash we can put down.  If the order banks weren't open for only 72 hours and I knew I could just go in and pick one up when we were ready to buy, I wouldn't have ordered it.  If Santa brings Ford all their missing parts and it comes earlier than I was planning for, then we'll chalk it up to not really being the "right" vehicle.

-Rob

I like the wheels, headlights and tail-lights of the black appearance but not the interior. 

I'm gonna drop this here.

Tom Suddard said:

I know it was a generic drip campaign, but I would have much preferred literally any information. For example, they could have said any of the following pretty easily

• We've started building 2023 Mavericks and are excited to be making more than ever!
• Your model is (more) (less) likely to be built sooner than some others due to your options
• Your order is number X out of Y total 
• Your dealer ordered X Mavericks and was allocated Y
• Your estimated delivery date is June-December 2023
• The average Maverick takes X days from order to delivery (Y% less than 2022!)

Or any number of other pieces of information. Instead, it is four paragraphs that basically say "we have emailed you." That doesn't fill me with confidence that they'll be able to build me a car. I get way more detailed tracking when I spend $6 on a Pizza. 

All those would be great.

However each and every one sets expectations that may not be met.  When you set expectations and they aren't met, you get Karens screaming their heads off at you.

Not just Karens, any American consumer. And you're 100% right - if you state any info, it's viewed as a solid promise. "Estimated delivery date of June-December 2023" will be taken as "middle of May 2023". 

Keith Tanner said:

Not just Karens, any American consumer. And you're 100% right - if you state any info, it's viewed as a solid promise. "Estimated delivery date of June-December 2023" will be taken as "middle of May 2023". 

If there is any one thing about my actual job I hate, its getting general contractors to understand the timelines I give them, and how their failures to sign or field verify measurements creates a problem for them and not us when it comes to delivering a product.

"You promised us these would be delivered next week!"

"No, our proposal stated that there was a rough time frame of 12 weeks for production from when you approved the P.E. calculations.  When you sign off the drawings we send it to the P.E. for calculations and when you sign off on those then we can start building.  You sat on the submittal drawings for 10 weeks and the P.E. drawings for 4 weeks.  We emailed you once a week asking for updates and you didn't respond.  So, now that you've signed off on everything it will be 12 weeks to actually make your parts."

Keith Tanner said:

Not just Karens, any American consumer. And you're 100% right - if you state any info, it's viewed as a solid promise. "Estimated delivery date of June-December 2023" will be taken as "middle of May 2023". 

I mean you're not wrong. But ford's already shown they're not afraid to offer hard dates and then back down from them. I think the order open date for the maverick changed like four times, including the final delay happening like two days before orders were supposed to open.

The difference there is that they hadn't taken any money by that point, I suppose.