A Confession: I was a fool

[The Memedalorian]

As a fifth grade teacher I spend plenty of time talking to 11 year olds about fairness, kindness, right, and wrong.

Like many of you, over a year ago I reserved a Bronco. I had never heard of allocations, ADM, or @mrlevine. I thought I’d place my $100 deposit, get in line, and wait my turn. After all, that’s what I teach my students. “Wait your turn, and you will get your fair share.”

I have purchased enough cars in my 53 years to know I don’t like the process, but this seemed different. We were told it was different. I was ignorant, and I believed them.

As a teacher in a very high poverty district, I don’t have money to waste, so I chose a discount price from a small town dealer in a neighboring state. I got burned by that. @Ford

I drive a 2005 F150 with 230,000 miles on it, so I can’t wait 6 years for my Bronco, so I believed @mrlevine when he said I could change my dealer. I started that process over 8 weeks ago, and I’m still waiting. I’m convinced I believed the wrong people - again.

Now I find myself thinking of ways to game the system or cut the line, because doing the things I ask my students to do has gotten me nothing but grief, frustration, and embarrassment.

I know some of you will laugh at me or blame me for being so gullible, and maybe you’re correct. This has certainly been a learning experience. I just wanted the truck I had dreamed about for 30 years. I did not expect lessons in patience, disappointment, and corporate misinformation.

Good luck to everyone in line in front of me and behind me. I suspect my students will be driving before I get a Bronco. Maybe I can get a ride from one of them to the dealer for the actual delivery.

This should be a massive redpill moment for you on how the world really works.

Lean into it.

Best of luck on getting your dream rig, I mean that.

And pass this lesson on to your students.

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[Bob Blaylock]

It is good to know of the compassion that Laurence Tureaud has for the one who is not wise.

 

[GiveItaTri]

This should be a massive redpill moment for you on how the world really works.

Lean into it.

Best of luck on getting your dream rig, I mean that.

And pass this lesson on to your students.

I don’t want them to be an angry and bitter old man until they’re much older.

 

[The Memedalorian]

I don’t want them to be an angry and bitter old man until they’re much older.

Teach them from a place of reality and not cynicism.

 

[North7]

I've gotten my truck, and I will admit to being very happy with it.

BUT...

The entire experience of buying my first Ford product has likely made it my last Ford product.
From claiming it was a fair system, only to find out Ford was paying lip service to res holders, while giving handies to the dealers, even going so far as to let dealers themselves pick and choose customers to make it to the front of the line. We were told "oh, those 3,000 to 4,000 trucks won't make a big difference in your place in line, stop whining...." only to find out that our collective fears about the real production capacity were 100% correct. When barely 25,000 units make it out the door, those ones at the front made a huge difference.

To quality concerns with roofs, engines, paint, lack of parts, lack of buildability on even low trims, it became starkly clear that Ford simply wasn't ready to launch this product, in any way shape or form. May the Flying Spaghetti Monster help them with the F150 lightning launch...

And then, THEN....Social Media steps up to the plate, and we get tone-deaf deliveries from marketing of Bronco-themed CALENDARS to help people count the days until they finally get an order filled, a constant stream of Tweets from Levine and crew telling everyone to stay pumped while they drive around in trucks they got to cut the line to get, and an even more constant stream of all these youtubers and SEMA-level vendors that somehow magically got their heavily loaded trucks before everyone else.

It's almost like if you have a nice big audience to give Ford the lip service THEY want, then you get a truck. Everyone else can get f**ked and take a number and hope you get some soup from the soup nazi behind the counter eventually.

Ford's Flying Spaghetti Monster...

 

[GiveItaTri]

Teach them from a place of reality and not cynicism.

Trust me, most of my students have seen more than their fair share of “reality”. They don’t need more right now.

 

[The Memedalorian]

Trust me, most of my students have seen more than their fair share of “reality”. They don’t need more right now.

Teaching kids about the modern car buying process vs how it used to be is what I meant.

How to do things in the real world is far more useful than what a lot of curriculum covers and a teacher giving a life lesson from thwir personal experience might engage.

At least, that's my opinion. I zoned out a lot, especially with my 5th grade teacher.

 

[Mr. Nice]

In terms of the truck itself, I think Ford has done an incredible job here. The Bronco is a marvel. With the notable exception of the roofs (both hard and soft), which quite frankly have been underengineered. Those roofs are turkeys and do not live up to the standards set by the rest of the vehicle.

For the most part it's been parts, sales, and communications letting us down. Parts I understand, given what the world has been going through. But it shouldn't be asking too much to have a clear, well-communicated, and fair process for getting vehicles into the hands of the people who ordered them. I don't see how anyone can consider that part of this launch to be successful. We still have tens of thousands of people with no earthly idea when Ford will produce and deliver their vehicles.

I pretty much agree on your concepts here.

The only problem is if Ford has no idea of when they can produce and deliver their vehicles, how in the world can they communicate something that is obscure to them?

 

[Richtor]

How did the small town dealer burn you? When was your original reservation?

 

[Hossfire]

Ford has lost control of this process. I can understand the "dealer allocation" change to how fast builds are processed. Allowing dealers to charge greater than MRP for orders months (years) in advance is terrible. Ford is in the position to MANDATE (not "suggest") that these orders have a signed purchase agreement by dealership management. Shame.

 

[etmccaus86]

I pretty much agree on your concepts here.

The only problem is if Ford has no idea of when they can produce and deliver their vehicles, how in the world can they communicate something that is obscure to them?

Communication is not static, especially now. Easier than ever to regularly engage with an audience as a situation unfolds or information developments.

Unfortunately, from day 1 communication on this vehicle has treated us as those who don't appreciate detail, meaning what updates we have received have been rather devoid of substance.

 

[Mr. Nice]

Communication is not static, especially now. Easier than ever to regularly engage with an audience as a situation unfolds or information developments.

Problem. They are clueless...

 

[Beach_Bum]

How did the small town dealer burn you? When was your original reservation?

He got burnt by Ford and the new allocation rules - not by the small town dealer. Ford has been changing the rules and moving the goal posts to appease their larger dealers. The OP isn't the only one that took Ford at it's word in building reservations before dealer stock in timestamp order.

I'm in his same boat looking at MY'25 for my reservation to come.

 

[MrJoe]

I ain't was a fool. I is a fool. I jumped on this ride never expecting it would take this long. BTW, thanks for being a teacher. I should have paid more attention in English class.

 

[phocion]

The only problem is if Ford has no idea of when they can produce and deliver their vehicles, how in the world can they communicate something that is obscure to them?

I think Ford could at least give us a running estimate in the range "early 2022", "late 2022", or "early 2023" based on what they currently know. They were supposedly on the cusp of giving all order holders such estimates before they canned the idea at the end of May.

They do have more information than we do, but they aren't interested in sharing it with us. They don't want people canceling on them, or downgrading their Broncos to get them faster. They also don't want to publicize the enormous impact dealer allocation has on your spot in line, since they spent a year constantly singing the virtues of the all-important reservation timestamp.

The way it is right now, you have folks waiting to see if they've been scheduled every Thursday, when Ford knows damn well they are 6+ months away from getting a build date. You have people trying to time moves, vacations, and big financial purchases around when they will have their truck, without having a clue to go by. Ford could fix that, but they don't want to.

At this point, Ford is probably regretting setting up the reservation system, as it has led to a lot of confusion and animosity, and has caused their dealer network to miss out on the massive ADM they could be charging for Broncos if they were all in the retail channel. Ford would love to be rationing these trucks based on who's willing to pay the most instead of the cockamamie scheme they have set up here. They already got the PR benefit of trumpeting their big reservation numbers. Now we're just a pain in their ass, waiting for products that Ford can't manufacture.

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