Video: 2021 Ford Bronco ordering Q&A

[Boxer4]

Having been in the car biz for 40+ years I can tell you that allocations are not going to get bigger because a dealer has a ton of orders. Smaller guys will initially get get smaller numbers. If you went to a small guy to save a grand it may (most likely) delay your Bronco. I opted to forego trying to save a buck and went with a dealer that is big in truck and suv business and with no ADM. It's great to have a dealer offer a discount until he gets a small allocation and you end up with a 2022. The manufacturer has criteria that allows you to earn bigger allocations of hot items. It's kinda catch 22. You can't get more unless you sell more but you can't sell more until you get more. Who do you think is going get more the Midwest Ford dealer that is tucked away somewhere selling average volume or the Ford dealer that has multiple megastores in multiple states?

Interesting how " catch 22 " works in more ways than two here.

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[privateer35]

I still think Ford is hedging their bets and most of you here will be pleasantly surprised come June 2021.

 

[grewhi]

I don't think your order at your dealer matters. Your order there is determined by your reservation number. The #1 reservation holder would be #1 at whatever dealer they switched to.

I believe what matters it your reservation number/date in comparison to the other reservation numbers at the dealer you choose. If you transfer dealers you kind of get to cut in line a bit. If you have a week 2 reservation you may want to skip the 1k deal and shop around to a dealer that has fewer week 1 orders. I wonder if you asked the dealer when the other reservations were placed if they would tell you.

 

[splathead]

Nothing like taking a simple concept like reservation numbers, that even a 5 year old could understand, and F it up with 'dealer allocations'. It's as if they can't have something simple. Everything has to be complicated.

Here is the way I see it:

Hypothetically, Acme Ford Dealer just happened to sign up the first 100 reservation out of the 190,000 reservations total. But due to allocations, they are only alloted 25 Broncos a quarter. So the 100th person to reserve won't get his vehicle until a year after reservation #1. He would have gone from basically 100th in line to 190,000th in line? What am I missing.

 

[Walnut]

Its better than being customer #499 at the dealer with the same conditions you just mentioned.

Of course I could be wrong, but I think It makes no difference if you're #2 or #792 to place your reservation at your dealership:

1. All 100,00+ submitted orders will be handled in one batch on March 19
2. The System will determine when and in what sequence your Bronco will be built based on commodities and timestamp. So now the System has all Broncos order from #1 - #150,000.
3. From there, the orders will be placed in their respective dealers allocation buckets. So #1 -> Granger, #2 -> Stephens, #3 -> Granger, and so on until that dealer's allocation bucket is full.
4. If your order is #65,000 and your dealer's 500 allocations have been filled already, your Bronco will not be built and it will go into the MY22 pile.
5. The dealer buckets continue to be filled until there are no allocations left for any dealer for MY21.

 

[usarms]

Interesting how " catch 22 " works in more ways than two here.

Nothing like taking a simple concept like reservation numbers, that even a 5 year old could understand, and F it up with 'dealer allocations'. It's as if they can't have something simple. Everything has to be complicated.

Here is the way I see it:

Hypothetically, Acme Ford Dealer just happened to sign up the first 100 reservation out of the 190,000 reservations total. But due to allocations, they are only alloted 25 Broncos a quarter. So the 100th person to reserve won't get his vehicle until a year after reservation #1. He would have gone from basically 100th in line to 190,000th in line? What am I missing.

Nothing. That's how it works. You are not going to a giant allocation just because you have a lot of reservations.

 

[ZackDanger]

I believe what matters it your reservation number/date in comparison to the other reservation numbers at the dealer you choose. If you transfer dealers you kind of get to cut in line a bit. If you have a week 2 reservation you may want to skip the 1k deal and shop around to a dealer that has fewer week 1 orders. I wonder if you asked the dealer when the other reservations were placed if they would tell you.

I bet they'd be enthusiastic to tell you if it would mean you'd switch to them.

 

[Headsong]

Having been in the car biz for 40+ years I can tell you that allocations are not going to get bigger because a dealer has a ton of orders. Smaller guys will initially get get smaller numbers. If you went to a small guy to save a grand it may (most likely) delay your Bronco. I opted to forego trying to save a buck and went with a dealer that is big in truck and suv business and with no ADM. It's great to have a dealer offer a discount until he gets a small allocation and you end up with a 2022. The manufacturer has criteria that allows you to earn bigger allocations of hot items. It's kinda catch 22. You can't get more unless you sell more but you can't sell more until you get more. Who do you think is going get more the Midwest Ford dealer that is tucked away somewhere selling average volume or the Ford dealer that has multiple megastores in multiple states? At that point the only thing that matters is where you are in the reservation queue.

That helps, thanks. Just what I was wondering....is it about conversion rates? Quantity of orders? Both? Yes is the answer! So I need to keep from leetle dealers with only a handful of orders, but maybe the biggest ones aren't what I'm after, either....

 

[splathead]

I thought production was delayed by six weeks due to the tops issue which is why ordering was delayed by just as long.

If this were true they would not have removed the top options from Build & Price. What would be the point?

 

[Deano Bronc]

The Ford rep in the video is a complete imbecile. He has no idea what he is talking about. The allocation process is a "complicated formula". That is code word for "I don't know what I am talking about so I am going to throw a math formula in my answer so that no one will question me". He has no clue and he can't articulate even the most basic of explanations. SMH. The rollout will be delayed again if this guy is a representative of who is in charge at Ford.

Would you have felt better if he would have said "It's none of your f'in business"? As we have found out in this thread, Ford has a NDA with the dealers dealing with allocations so there was no way he was going to talk about it. Also, if he would have given out the formula, how would that have really helped us if we don't know the data to plug into the formula?

 

[grewhi]

Nothing like taking a simple concept like reservation numbers, that even a 5 year old could understand, and F it up with 'dealer allocations'. It's as if they can't have something simple. Everything has to be complicated.

Here is the way I see it:

Hypothetically, Acme Ford Dealer just happened to sign up the first 100 reservation out of the 190,000 reservations total. But due to allocations, they are only alloted 25 Broncos a quarter. So the 100th person to reserve won't get his vehicle until a year after reservation #1. He would have gone from basically 100th in line to 190,000th in line? What am I missing.

And to boot they won't tell you when you actually get your bronco until well after you have ordered so it will be too late to back out. I guess this is one way to reduce reservations to a manageable level.

 

[XCR440]

Maybe @Granger Ford @StephensAutoCenter @XCR440 could comment on the process.
Is it correct that Ford first provides the preliminary allocations which only then allows a converted order to be entered into Ford's system. At that point while your build could have a commodity bump, does still it remain a MY21 dealer allocation? Thanks

No, the preliminary will just be for estimating. With the preliminary allocation we can hopefully give the customer some idea of if they'll get a 21 and what quarter they might get their Bronco (not factoring commodities), then after reservations are done, it sounds like we should get a more precise estimate, based on the video they talk like that might factory commodities, but I find that hard to believe as I find many change over time. For example, one week 3.5L F-150's might be controlled so you have to order a 5.0, the next week you can't have a 5.0 and have to order a 3.5.

 

[Gloff]

Having been in the car biz for 40+ years I can tell you that allocations are not going to get bigger because a dealer has a ton of orders. Smaller guys will initially get get smaller numbers. If you went to a small guy to save a grand it may (most likely) delay your Bronco. I opted to forego trying to save a buck and went with a dealer that is big in truck and suv business and with no ADM. It's great to have a dealer offer a discount until he gets a small allocation and you end up with a 2022. The manufacturer has criteria that allows you to earn bigger allocations of hot items. It's kinda catch 22. You can't get more unless you sell more but you can't sell more until you get more. Who do you think is going get more the Midwest Ford dealer that is tucked away somewhere selling average volume or the Ford dealer that has multiple megastores in multiple states? At that point the only thing that matters is where you are in the reservation queue.

This allocation is not like a normal Ford product. More converted reservations= more Broncos. That's why Stephens and granger wanted switches. It absolutely will increase their allocation.

Remember, the allocation distribution is based on three factors weighted differently. Converted orders, competitors in market, and your dealerships sales.

 

[XCR440]

The components of the formula have been wildly shared (even from an internal Ford memo), but the actual formula itself has not been shared... that's still secret, and a big missing piece.

The other missing piece is what the values would be for a specific dealer, to calculate how the formula plays out for them.

We know the equivalent of me saying:

"My decision to purchase a Bronco is based on the amount of down payment I will have saved up, the trade-in value of my current vehicle, and my estimated monthly disposable income at time of purchase and through the length of my loan."

It's fruitless, based on that sentence alone, for anyone to try to guess whether I will purchase a bronc...

...though judging by my post count, I think we can probably all make an educated guess on the matter.

The numbers likely will never be seen. Allocation Formula (in Ford speak) is what has been shared. Normal allocation is based on Sales and availability (often 60%/40%). The numbers Ford uses will likely never be announced, just each dealer will get their numbers.

 

[Boxer4]

Nothing like taking a simple concept like reservation numbers, that even a 5 year old could understand, and F it up with 'dealer allocations'. It's as if they can't have something simple. Everything has to be complicated.

Here is the way I see it:

Hypothetically, Acme Ford Dealer just happened to sign up the first 100 reservation out of the 190,000 reservations total. But due to allocations, they are only alloted 25 Broncos a quarter. So the 100th person to reserve won't get his vehicle until a year after reservation #1. He would have gone from basically 100th in line to 190,000th in line? What am I missing.

So it converted reservations- same 100 but what if the get only 80 allocated for the year? What said the allocation is equal per quarter?

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