Allocations rant

[C J Cox]

When I was a teenager, I went to my friend and his family to take delivery of their new 1965 Ford pickup.

September 17, 2022 I returned to that dealership to order a 2023 Maverick. It has always been family owned and a Ford dealer since before I was born in 1951. Dealers like this one across the country made Ford Motor Company what it is today.

My Maverick order has no constrained items and remains unscheduled. The last time I called Ford, the CSR offered me $50 credit for merchandise from the Ford online store. I believe this was not a good sign.

I suspect the only reason my order remains unscheduled clean is because this family owned dealership lacks allocations.

What I don’t understand is why the current allocation system favors the mega dealers with multiple stores and penalizes long affiliated independent dealers like mine. Ford take care of the dealers that made you what you are today.

Reading posts in this forum, appears best chance for taking delivery of a Maverick is ordering from a mega dealer with multiple locations or national operations like Autonation, Sonic, etc. This system of allocations to volume dealers will put the small ones out of business because they can’t sell what they don’t have.

I plan to stay in line until 2023 scheduling ends but I will not get in line for 2024 orders next month.

Sponsored

 

[Last Truck Ever]

Your build's pretty loaded and Ford has been grabbing pretty hard for the expensive builds, I'll still hold out hope for you in the remaining one or two rounds of scheduling. Has that dealership gotten ANY Mavs at all, or do you know?

 

[JBryant]

You are on target. Ordered Lariat hybrid from large dealer and it was built March 5. Ordered same truck for wife same day from small local dealer. Talked to sales manager yesterday and it is being built next week, but will be first hybrid and 3rd total of only 12 orders. Large dealer took over 500 orders and getting lots of them in.

 

[realshelby]

Having worked at "rural" as well as "mega" dealers in the past......

Rural dealers are too often simply living in the past. They were started back when Dad or Grandpa bought a franchise from Ford and started selling. They would sell 15 new cars a month ( if lucky) and never go out of their way to promote the product, their dealership. In rural markets they wanted all F series trucks on the lot. Maybe a couple of something else. Cherry Picking what Ford offered for sale. Then, especially as vehicles became more technical, they would not send their techs to Ford for training. Figured they were just as well off muddling along, not spending money on training or advertising. That worked in the 50's through the 70's well enough.
Ford knows where it's buyers come from. When they see a decent percentage of new Ford registrations in an area......are going to Dealers 50 or 100 miles away, they take notice. That is telling them the local dealer is not doing its job!
So today, now that there is no longer just Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler/Dodge competing for sales, Ford has to meet higher standards. Or go away like Pontiac, AMC, Oldsmobile, Mercury, and so on.
While there is still a need for "rural" dealers in remote areas, and Ford is glad to have many of those, there are still too many that were once the only dealer in a small down that has grown up around them to have competition. They may or may not have grown with the area.
A Dealer can sell about all the F-150's they can get. Same with F-250's and other HD trucks. Most other products not so much. But they do sell, and having them in stock is a BIG factor in selling ANY product.
THIS is where allocation comes in!
Want more F-series? Ford will give you 5 more this month if you sell a few Escapes and Explorers.
Because the Maverick is outselling demand, Ford is going to give allocation advantage to dealers THAT STOCK AND SELL FORD VEHICLES that are not as easy to sell as the hot products. Reward for a job well done!
Going into the second model year for Maverick, Dealers had very good idea of how many allocations they could expect. Most rural dealers are only going to get a fraction of what the Mega dealers get. But if Mega dealer is delivering 3-400 new retail units a month, and Rural dealer sells 20-30 per month is there anything wrong with Mega dealer getting 12-13 times as many allocations as Rural dealer?
Few business models would disagree.....

 

[Darnon]

Do you want me to dig up the posts of the people who ordered at the mega dealers and were also complaining that so many people ordered there to exceed their allocations while perceiving they fared better odds at a smaller dealer?

 

[Your_Cousin_Vinny]

I think a lot of people share your sentiments. I consider myself exceedingly patient, and good thing considering our circumstances...

Reading posts in this forum, appears best chance for taking delivery of a Maverick is ordering from a mega dealer with multiple locations or national operations like Autonation, Sonic, etc. This system of allocations to volume dealers will put the small ones out of business because they can’t sell what they don’t have.

I feel your pain, and it is very warranted, but honestly it is pretty hit or miss even at the biggest of dealers. I ordered from my local dealer, which happens to be an AutoNation location, which happens to be the largest network in the country... I thought I'd be a shoe-in for a quick(er) build. Not so. Its the dealership I bought my first car from back in the day, and despite being a big franchise, is still very "family oriented" in their operations and customer care. I was their first 2023 Maverick order, on the first day of the order banks being open, first thing in the morning. I have a relatively well optioned xlt on order, identical to dozens of other people here that have been scheduled already through the last few months, made even more frustrating when I see those other members were pretty close to me location-wise too.

I'm not trying to invalidate your feelings, they are warranted and very much shared. What I am saying though, it there is not much rhyme or reason in this chaos. Ford isn't being malicious, just inept, or most likely, needlessly complex. They promised first-in-first-out orders, and quickly went back to their screwy allocation system before scheduling began.

I ordered my Fusion Sport in august 2016 and took delivery in October the same year. It was built in and shipped from the same factory that now makes the Maverick. The wait now the seems absurd by comparison. I'm just glad I'm not waiting on a replacement for an ailing old car like I was for my fusion, or an expiring lease...

*deep breath*

 

[Mav_RICK]

When I was a teenager, I went to my friend and his family to take delivery of their new 1965 Ford pickup.

September 17, 2022 I returned to that dealership to order a 2023 Maverick. It has always been family owned and a Ford dealer since before I was born in 1951. Dealers like this one across the country made Ford Motor Company what it is today.

My Maverick order has no constrained items and remains unscheduled. The last time I called Ford, the CSR offered me $50 credit for merchandise from the Ford online store. I believe this was not a good sign.

I suspect the only reason my order remains unscheduled clean is because this family owned dealership lacks allocations.

What I don’t understand is why the current allocation system favors the mega dealers with multiple stores and penalizes long affiliated independent dealers like mine. Ford take care of the dealers that made you what you are today.

Reading posts in this forum, appears best chance for taking delivery of a Maverick is ordering from a mega dealer with multiple locations or national operations like Autonation, Sonic, etc. This system of allocations to volume dealers will put the small ones out of business because they can’t sell what they don’t have.

I plan to stay in line until 2023 scheduling ends but I will not get in line for 2024 orders next month.

Except there is no other vehicle out there like the Maverick and won't be till 2025 at the earliest. I understand your frustration but I think you should keep your order and order new. I would choose a different dealership for MY24.

 

[Mike215]

I ordered my 22 from a megadealer here in Philadelphia and still waited 16 months. I was one of the first orders in and last of the 22s out. But I avoided some recalls so it worked out. Be patient, you will probably get yours.

 

[Bob The Builder]

Ford changes their allocation procedures as much as the wind. Do not give up hope. Last year, I read how Ford had ordered tens of thousands of the 2.0 engines from their plant in Barcelona, Spain. I will assume all those engine orders have arrived or still in the process of arriving. This is just one example of what I am sure are many examples of parts ordered to build Mavericks that do them no good unless they are put together as a truck and sold.

Keep the faith, mate. I firmly believe everyone who ordered an ECO will get it, eventually. The Hybrids, that does not seem to look so good. I would guess batteries are the issue there.

 

[skadizzle]

You should be good just the fact that you have an Ecoboost. I think Ford thinks they will be able to schedule all Ecos.

For what its worth, I didn't get my first Maverick until 17 months later and my second one will be 20 months when it arrives this month.

 

[Redline]

I ordered my Temor from a small dealership. The salesman said I was one of 5 orders they had. I've seen them advertising at least 2 different Mavericks on their website available for sale to the general public. My truck is being built this week and I hope to have it by the end of the month. They don't seem to be getting shut out of allocations by Ford.

 

[Mikeetch]

To me allocations make no sense for retail orders. I could understand allocation determining dealer stock.

 

[TomD]

When I was a teenager, I went to my friend and his family to take delivery of their new 1965 Ford pickup.

September 17, 2022 I returned to that dealership to order a 2023 Maverick. It has always been family owned and a Ford dealer since before I was born in 1951. Dealers like this one across the country made Ford Motor Company what it is today.

My Maverick order has no constrained items and remains unscheduled. The last time I called Ford, the CSR offered me $50 credit for merchandise from the Ford online store. I believe this was not a good sign.

I suspect the only reason my order remains unscheduled clean is because this family owned dealership lacks allocations.

What I don’t understand is why the current allocation system favors the mega dealers with multiple stores and penalizes long affiliated independent dealers like mine. Ford take care of the dealers that made you what you are today.

Reading posts in this forum, appears best chance for taking delivery of a Maverick is ordering from a mega dealer with multiple locations or national operations like Autonation, Sonic, etc. This system of allocations to volume dealers will put the small ones out of business because they can’t sell what they don’t have.

I plan to stay in line until 2023 scheduling ends but I will not get in line for 2024 orders next month.

I ordered my maverick from the dealership that sells more vehicles than any ford dealer in the world. I don’t know how the allocation works but sure never worked for me. The maverick in my garage is not there do to any diligence by the dealer. I made probably 100 calls trying to get one. I finally found one that a customer rejected the day of my call.
for what it’s worth you will more attention from a small town dealer than you will from the mega dealer. The small town dealer needs your business to keep from being absorbed by one of the mega dealers.

 

[Bob The Builder]

You should be good just the fact that you have an Ecoboost. I think Ford thinks they will be able to schedule all Ecos.

For what its worth, I didn't get my first Maverick until 17 months later and my second one will be 20 months when it arrives this month.

OK, that's enough Mavericks for you until I get mine. Hahahaha.

 

[Lonnie gee]

Except there is no other vehicle out there like the Maverick and won't be till 2025 at the earliest. I understand your frustration but I think you should keep your order and order new. I would choose a different dealership for MY24.

If I order anew my 24 while waiting for my 23 price increase and I would have two trucks on order , please advice
Lonnie

Sponsored