[RANT] It seems that this FiST will be my only (first and last) American new car purchase. It seems that the Big 3 still have some extremely archaic methods of manufacturing and delivery that would need to be addressed before I pulled the trigger on another one.
By means of comparison, my previous 2 vehicles were both "Japanese" and both built-to-order. I ordered my 2011 Subaru Outback in August of 2010, and it was delivered 23 days later as ordered. That is pretty quick to go from order to delivery, but actually slower than my commuter vehicle. I ordered my 2008 Toyota Yaris in the 2nd week of July (no one stocks a standard transmission) and the car was built and delivered in 11 days. You read right, 11 days. It took them 5 days from order to build, delivery was 5 days after that, and 1 day was dealer prep.
I ordered my FiST on Oct 21st. The car was built on Nov 23rd. Four weeks from order to build is pretty lackluster performance, but I do realize that Ford is not exactly a "lean manufacturing techniques" type of operation, so I can live with their less-than-remarkable manufacturing efficiency.
Now this is where the story turns into an indictment of their processes. I still do not have a concrete delivery date, and the car has been built for 6 weeks. The best that my dealer has gotten from Ford is "probably mid-January", which if you are in business means "we haven't actually scheduled it yet."
So let me get this straight. Subaru can deliver a car in under 4 weeks, Toyota can do it in under 2 weeks, and Ford needs 8 weeks to ship a built car from Mexico City to New Jersey? It seems that their organizational and planning skills may be lacking, and unless they learn a few things in the future they will never see another dime from me. Shipping time was shorter from Germany on my GTI way back in 1987, and I would hope that companies would improve on practices over time rather than remaining mired in their outdated methods.[/RANT]
By means of comparison, my previous 2 vehicles were both "Japanese" and both built-to-order. I ordered my 2011 Subaru Outback in August of 2010, and it was delivered 23 days later as ordered. That is pretty quick to go from order to delivery, but actually slower than my commuter vehicle. I ordered my 2008 Toyota Yaris in the 2nd week of July (no one stocks a standard transmission) and the car was built and delivered in 11 days. You read right, 11 days. It took them 5 days from order to build, delivery was 5 days after that, and 1 day was dealer prep.
I ordered my FiST on Oct 21st. The car was built on Nov 23rd. Four weeks from order to build is pretty lackluster performance, but I do realize that Ford is not exactly a "lean manufacturing techniques" type of operation, so I can live with their less-than-remarkable manufacturing efficiency.
Now this is where the story turns into an indictment of their processes. I still do not have a concrete delivery date, and the car has been built for 6 weeks. The best that my dealer has gotten from Ford is "probably mid-January", which if you are in business means "we haven't actually scheduled it yet."
So let me get this straight. Subaru can deliver a car in under 4 weeks, Toyota can do it in under 2 weeks, and Ford needs 8 weeks to ship a built car from Mexico City to New Jersey? It seems that their organizational and planning skills may be lacking, and unless they learn a few things in the future they will never see another dime from me. Shipping time was shorter from Germany on my GTI way back in 1987, and I would hope that companies would improve on practices over time rather than remaining mired in their outdated methods.[/RANT]