Bronco production update 8/9: Commodity issues far beyond MIC tops. Chip shortage reaches Bronco supply chain (NO COVID TALK)

[XxGearheadxX]

We don't have a booster Venmo but if you send it to me (@RossMusick) I'll flip it right to the booster Paypal. If you include your email I'll copy you on the transfer notification for the sake of transparency.

Thank you so much!

Sending something your way

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[ReimundKrohn]

In all honesty, FE reservation holders are the only ones who should feel super confident about much of anything at this point.

You're good.

Can I ask a “stupid question”? What happens to those of us who have VINs already if we reach the 21MY cut off date and our build still ain’t built? Does our VIN just expire? Are we assigned a new one? I guess what I am asking really is, does having your VIN at this point actually mean anything? The road to hell is paved with the best of intentions…. And purgatory is her next door neighbour.

 

[TheWoo]

Ford states that they have the chips for the Broncos 60k units. 10k into the build cycle, sorry no more chips? Something seems way off.

When Ford says they have chips for 60k builds, they mean that they have suppliers committed to getting them the 60k chips. But then when the supplier doesn't deliver...

 

[THEMANatwar]

Like with the Webasto top?

Technically a German company. Outsourcing just with less steps

 

[mds5917]

We don't have a booster Venmo but if you send it to me (@RossMusick) I'll flip it right to the booster Paypal. If you include your email I'll copy you on the transfer notification for the sake of transparency.

Thank you so much!

No need to copy me back - I trust you!

 

[zebraquick]

I woke up saying we will hear bad news today and possibly see no scheduling again this week. I think that may happen. UGH. oh well. Thank you for the info man!

 

[RagnarKon]

Can I ask a “stupid question”? What happens to those of us who have VINs already if we reach the 21MY cut off date and our build still ain’t built? Does our VIN just expire? Are we assigned a new one? I guess what I am asking really is, does having your VIN at this point actually mean anything? The road to hell is paved with the best of intentions…. And purgatory is her next door neighbour.

At the moment Ford is intending to produce MY2021 units up until mid-December. So if you have a VIN now you’ll probably still get your Bronco before the cutoff date for MY2022. Still got four months left in MY2021 production.

BUT, still an interesting question. Would be curious what the answer is. I imagine you’d get a new VIN, but who knows.

 

[Bronco4lyfe85]

Edit to add: My inbox is crammed with a metric ton of unread messages. If you're waiting on a reply, I'll try to get thru those in the next few days.

Oh god. Leave him alone people, good lord. He doesn’t work for Ford, get a life, log off the internet, quit hounding this poor dude.

 

[TheWoo]

Well let's start with your assumption that only the time since 'full production' (lmao) is important. It seems obvious to me that since production started, Ford has not been receiving enough supplies to ever hit their 'just in time' manufacturing goals even for their 'ramp up' production goals, so actually all that delivery data is probably still somewhat relevant (weighted according to time of course). It seems very likely that its been weeks/months that Ford has been receiving the absolute max commodities they could from their suppliers given the evidence that they've not been able to deliver on their scheduled promises.

Again, estimates do not need to be exact and neither does any model to power estimates, but I think it's very likely that given that Ford hasn't been able to actually fully produce so many scheduled builds means that they are tapping out their supply chain and have been for a while.

Okay, I guess I see that point - many suppliers have been underperforming all along. So you suggest to take this data and apply it to all future projections? Do you believe that would be a good representation of what Ford can do?

My point is that the sample size is simply too small and variable at this point to build any kind of reliable model. So, any projection given today that goes beyond the next couple of weeks is simply a total guess.

How confident do you believe Ford should be in the projections before sharing them? Would you rather have them send you a projection that is mostly a guess, or simply say we're unable to give you an accurate projection? That isn't sarcasm, by the way. I'm really interested in what would make people more satisfied.

 

[Dads_bronze_bronco]

As long as you put Bronco 6g logo drum heads on it.....

Both my son's went through 4 years of high school marching band. Band camp was always a rough go. Full sun and temps in the upper 90's. At least the humidity was low.

The band dads had shirts. They read, Ours is not to reason why, Ours is just to move the band.

Yeah, you get pretty creative at instrument and prop packing.

 

[TheWoo]

BUT, still an interesting question. Would be curious what the answer is. I imagine you’d get a new VIN, but who knows.

A new VIN would have to be issued in that scenario. VINs are specific to model years, so if Ford moves anyone from a MY21 to a MY22, they'll have to cancel the original VIN and issue a new one.

 

[_finack]

Things are not good in Bronco production land. I spoke to my dealer last week. His wife had a Bronco reservation and was #44 in their sub 80 number of allocations (I am #74).

He recently changed the order to remove all constraints and it got built and delivered. It was only the 2nd retail Bronco the dealership received!

In other words: things are absolutely fu**ed with regards to Bronco production and I probably will be looking at a MY23.

 

[ATLColonial]

Phew, we thought they’d gotten to you. Still, be wary of unmarked Ford Transit Vans. Can never be too careful!

This is why they're going to electric, so they can sneak up on MAP leakers all quiet-like.

 

[OldGrayMare]

Has anybody heard any bad news about this week’s scheduling or are we still on for Bronco lottery?

 

[Smheard]

Here's the thing - Ford has tried to string everyone along and keep enthusiasm up in the face of constant delays. At this point, they need to push out a real communication to order holders AND equip dealers with real information to assist their customers. They have been overpromising and underdelivering consistently throughout this process - and maybe all due to factors they have limited control over - but at the end of the day, the product says "Ford" on it (well, or at least "Bronco", which is a Ford product!), so the buck stops with them. Start under promising and then try to over deliver. I feel bad for people who were planning on moving from a lease into their Bronco, or need to upgrade a vehicle and were waiting on this with no end in sight. Many of us, myself included, were buying this as an "extra" vehicle, so while very frustrating, it's not critical for me. If it takes too long, I may just move on to something else and think about it further down the road. But they are terribly mismanaging their customers on this, and as a Ford shareholder, this very well could have a trickle down effect of people walking away from their orders, and possibly not coming back to Ford for future purchases. And it may certainly impact other people considering an order for the launch of the F150 Lightning or other future vehicle - especially with Ford announcing they want to shift more to build to order sales. And I realize these are unique times, but as many of us in various businesses have seen this past year, how you communicate with your stakeholders through a crisis can have tremendous impact on how you emerge from it - and Ford is failing in that category, in my opinion.

At this point, I think Ford should simply say "we are having far greater supply chain and production challenges than we could have anticipated, and we know that we have not done a sufficient job of communicating that with you. At this point, our commitment for 2021 is to deliver all First Edition reservations, and all Broncos that have been built and are waiting on parts or other quality checks. If you have not received notification that your Bronco has been built, you should anticipate a MY 22 build, and we will be releasing the build & price for MY 22 on ____. If you have a Ford vehicle that is end of lease and have a Bronco on order, your dealer has options to extend that lease for you at your current payment until your Bronco is delivered." And then come up with some sort of meaningful financial incentive / discount to get order holders to stay in the queue and not bail on their orders - commit to selling at invoice, guarantee 0% financing, etc. Do something to hold onto as many orders as you can because if people start to bail, you lose so many enthusiasts that would be your initial brand ambassadors, and you the negative comments and coverage will pile up. And then maybe start MY 22 production earlier if they are able to and have cleared the units promised, but stop dragging this shit out and rip the band-aid off already.

This..... ^^^^

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