The Lariat has been built and shipped. Estimated delivery next week. The FE went into production a couple of weeks ago, and the estimated delivery is the week of Jan 22nd. I feel fairly certain he's going to buy the FE.
Lol. Husband of 48 years decided to replace his Prius C with a small truck in 2021. Wife (me) said, "Sounds good. Buy whatever you want. If you want me to drive it when you do your 600 mile cycle trips, my only requirements are that it be red (Go Wolfpack!) and have a magic start button."
And...
In the US, there are a lot of people who have strong and abiding love of capitalism right up until it bites them in their own pocketbook. Dealers are going to sell these things for whatever amount of money they can get consumers to pay.
And yeah, the market is insane.
I've noticed that since Ford doesn't provide many stock vehicles anymore, dealership employees 'customer order' them. With the current market the way it is, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the employees drive the vehicles or demo the vehicles, then turn around and sell them with a nice markup.
My experience with my current hybrid Toyota (and the one before) is that my mpg improved over time. Maybe it's that I ran the car more while I was figuring stuff out in the driveway, or maybe it's the break in period, or maybe it's just an unsolved mystery, but my gas mileage improved over time...
I think you're going to have to mark them in some way. Maybe you can use your Maverick thinking time to come up with something creative, and post a picture of your idea.
My dealership had 12 orders for Mavericks. At least that's what the general manager says. Approximately 30% of the dealerships reservations converted to orders.