[NorthernProducer]

I have had my FiST on order for 3 weeks and stopped by my dealer today to check on the status. My salesman told me the order had been accepted and remains unscheduled for production. He also indicated that the order continues to show a "Clear" status which he said indicates that all the parts for assembly are available. The dealer says that "Scheduled" Fiestas classed as "Retail" (or sold cars) are taking longer to reach Scheduled status than the Focus ST's they have ordered. I know they are built at different plants...

Are any others finding it is taking a long time to get their orders to be scheduled for production?

 

[ConST]

I'm assuming you are somewhere in NA? I believe yours are produced locally so I'm not sure how big the backlog is.

I know for us in Oz and Europe there is a long wait. Up to six months on custom orders.

The good thing with us...... there are no custom orders. Only thing you can choose is colour. No additional options. That said, no sat navigation or sunroof options.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

 

[rodmoe]

NA cars are Made in Mexico near Mexico City. looking at about 10 to 12 weeks if your dealer has and allotment What that all entails is the dealer being able to order as car and having as slot for it to be built for that dealer or something along those lines... Once you get a VIN the time will go fast. I only waited 7.5 months for mine but I ordered last March just to get inline early ... As it was the dealer ordered car came first then 6 weeks later mine was built and shipped...

 

[NorthernProducer]

Thanks for the responses (ConSt…Tennessee is in NA). Based on the information supplied here, I asked my dealer to clarify the ordering process for me. He indicated that Ford dealers have no allotments or restrictions for ordering the FiST, and that "sold" cars have priority over dealer stock orders. So, my ST should go ahead of the routine stocking orders. He also told me I should see my ST before the end of November, but I guess that is just based on his prior experience. VIN's are assigned once the car goes into production status and he said that I'll see it delivered shortly after that. Interesting comment from my dealer…he said the most difficult Ford product to get a confirmed order now is for the Explorer Sport. He has a customer order in the system for over 30 days and just this week had it scheduled for production with a delivery date in late December! Interesting situation…especially since Ford announced today that it was temporarily closing it Focus plant in MI.

I'll post an update when the status changes on my order.

 

[rodmoe]

Sounds good.. Glad they gave you the straight skinny.. Maybe with production ramping up they are getting the ST's out quicker .. Happy for ya ..

 

[LtDan]

I put my deposit down on Sept 17 and just got a production date today for a November 10 build date.

 

[NorthernProducer]

I had an interesting discussion with two FoMoCo rep's (these were not dealer rep's) over the weekend at the Nashville Auto Show. I asked them about the long lead times in getting an ordered Fiesta ST, but they claimed there were no problems in production scheduling out of the Mexico plant. They also theorized the ordering dealer may have reached his allocation limit, but when I told them that Mark Fields had publicly announced that ST's are not limited production cars and dealers can order all they want, they went silent. I also asked them why Ford did not bring any Fiesta ST's or Focus ST's to the show and they succeeded in avoiding a direct response. They instead pointed out the Mustangs on the floor. Their bit of advice was to work with my dealer on the order, but they could not explain what that means. I guess the real message here is that there is a shortage of ST's...even to the extent Ford couldn't put one in the Regional Auto Show displays, or any extra's went to SEMA. Their rep's are obviously ill prepared to deal with customer questions about the ST product line...I seemed to be more of an "expert"...

Consider this...the competition to the ST line was at the show and their rep's seemed to have all the information ready to answer my questions. In each case, there was an offer to have specific model information sent to me...this is in stark contrast to what Ford was prepared to do with respect to their ST offerings. That's it for now.

 

[cinderbike]

Other than a single Focus ST commercial and the EcoBoost challenge events (which seems to push the Edge/CMax/GT500/whatever else as well) I haven't seen Ford promoting the ST's in the US at all, really. So it may not be a shortage/secrecy issue as much as a lack of interest in the product from the reps.

 

[rodmoe]

If it aint a F something Truck we don't see it here in the northern parts

 

[Flaco]

I ordered my ST a couple days after Rodmoe. All I ever got from my local dealer was "I don't know" or some other story to keep me on the hook. Pretty bad considering I've done business with theses fella's for 25 years. In then end my ordered ST didn't arrive until 8 days after the ETA week Ford said it would show up. Know one knew where the car was even customer service. The order process seems a bit screwy to me ! In the end my local dealer got sacked and I bought from another dealer. And the ST I ordered is still in the show room a month later. Just pissed with the whole 8 months I waited on a car I didn't buy. Moral of the story..Dealers and salesmen don't tell stories to your customers and if you don't know the answer find it out .

 

[NorthernProducer]

Finally...I got a production date today. My dealer informed me that December 16th my FiST will be built. My dealer is relatively small by most "big city" standards and has been family owned for generations, so every customer "counts" and because of that, I believe he listened when I told him I couldn't understand why it is taking so long to push these ST's out of Mexico. My salesman told me the owner had some serious discussions with somebody in Dearborn about the problem and now I have a production date (order date was 10/3). My salesman has been at this dealership for many years and told me he has rarely seen the owner intervene like that. Of course, he may have been "motivated" by wanting to keep a good customer happy (?)...I, along with my brother and nephew, buy cars, and trucks for personal and business use from this dealer.

It looks like I'll have to figure out how to get that FiST under the Christmas tree!

 

[peoples1234]

Finally...I got a production date today. My dealer informed me that December 16th my FiST will be built. My dealer is relatively small by most "big city" standards and has been family owned for generations, so every customer "counts" and because of that, I believe he listened when I told him I couldn't understand why it is taking so long to push these ST's out of Mexico. My salesman told me the owner had some serious discussions with somebody in Dearborn about the problem and now I have a production date (order date was 10/3). My salesman has been at this dealership for many years and told me he has rarely seen the owner intervene like that. Of course, he may have been "motivated" by wanting to keep a good customer happy (?)...I, along with my brother and nephew, buy cars, and trucks for personal and business use from this dealer.

It looks like I'll have to figure out how to get that FiST under the Christmas tree!

I don't want to disintegrate your hopes, but transportation times are crazy. I FiST was built on the 09/19, shipped 09/28, and arrived on Nov 4th.

 

[ags]

I'm sorry you guys are experiencing these delays. I live in So. Cal. I just went onto the Ford website, found the exact Fiesta ST I wanted, and walked into the dealer that had it and bought it off the lot! Of course, the dealer initially tried to charge me a $2000 "market value" markup, but I quickly got them to drop that. No fuss, no muss.

 

[NorthernProducer]

Today, I finally received an ETA of 1/6/14 for my FiST. Interestingly, last week the status was changed to "Temp. Hold" and today it was updated to "Bucked" with an ETA and VIN (the build date never changed). All are good signs the car will finally be heading down the line and eventually to me.

I had an opportunity to chat with the owner of the dealership about all these delays in ST production, and he told me that he has seen delays on all the "performance" vehicles the dealership has ordered since the start of the government's sequester and reduced funding impacts to the EPA. Apparently, the EPA certification process that must take place in the assembly process has been affected, and as a result, slowed the production of some vehicles (including our FiST's). He said Raptor production is especially impacted. Draw you own conclusions...

 

[Pelotonracer2]

Today, I finally received an ETA of 1/6/14 for my FiST. Interestingly, last week the status was changed to "Temp. Hold" and today it was updated to "Bucked" with an ETA and VIN (the build date never changed). All are good signs the car will finally be heading down the line and eventually to me.

I had an opportunity to chat with the owner of the dealership about all these delays in ST production, and he told me that he has seen delays on all the "performance" vehicles the dealership has ordered since the start of the government's sequester and reduced funding impacts to the EPA. Apparently, the EPA certification process that must take place in the assembly process has been affected, and as a result, slowed the production of some vehicles (including our FiST's). He said Raptor production is especially impacted. Draw you own conclusions...

Interesting read. Thanks for the update.

 

[Pelotonracer2]

I'm sorry you guys are experiencing these delays. I live in So. Cal. I just went onto the Ford website, found the exact Fiesta ST I wanted, and walked into the dealer that had it and bought it off the lot! Of course, the dealer initially tried to charge me a $2000 "market value" markup, but I quickly got them to drop that. No fuss, no muss.

Wow, I haven't seen a single market adjustment sticker on any FiSTs here. Dealers are really motivated with good deals, as long as they know you are well informed and tell them up front "no games". I let the different dealers in my area play against each other by e-mailing 10-12 different ones and giving them one chance at their best deal. It works.

 

[NorthernProducer]

Pelotonracer2...the market adjustment stickers I see in middle TN are on the C7 Corvette. As for Ford products, especially Fiesta ST's, they are hard to find and seem to be primarily "special order" cars (like mine). There are a few Focus ST's around, but no market adjusted cars except maybe in the Memphis area (my nephew came to middle TN to buy his Focus ST). My dealer keeps one Focus ST in stock as a demo and is not really "dealing" on that unit. In general, TN dealers have the freedom to add-on excessive doc fee's...one Nissan dealer in Nashville adds $699 to every deal! I've lived in 5 states and TN is the only one that doesn't have a ceiling on doc fee's (i.e. add on profit).

As for my dealer (a low volume dealer when compared to big city dealers), he competes without the high doc fee's and still is open to fair offers relative to price on a vehicle (in stock or ordered). I think the only time I ever saw them use a market adjustment sticker was on the one Ford GT they were allocated back in 2005 or 2006.

I guess that was a long story that really seems similar to your experience...except maybe for those excessive doc fee's at some dealers?

 

[Pelotonracer2]

Pelotonracer2...the market adjustment stickers I see in middle TN are on the C7 Corvette. As for Ford products, especially Fiesta ST's, they are hard to find and seem to be primarily "special order" cars (like mine). There are a few Focus ST's around, but no market adjusted cars except maybe in the Memphis area (my nephew came to middle TN to buy his Focus ST). My dealer keeps one Focus ST in stock as a demo and is not really "dealing" on that unit. In general, TN dealers have the freedom to add-on excessive doc fee's...one Nissan dealer in Nashville adds $699 to every deal! I've lived in 5 states and TN is the only one that doesn't have a ceiling on doc fee's (i.e. add on profit).

As for my dealer (a low volume dealer when compared to big city dealers), he competes without the high doc fee's and still is open to fair offers relative to price on a vehicle (in stock or ordered). I think the only time I ever saw them use a market adjustment sticker was on the one Ford GT they were allocated back in 2005 or 2006.

I guess that was a long story that really seems similar to your experience...except maybe for those excessive doc fee's at some dealers?

Yeah, I was actually referring to the market adjustments in California. They have doc fees here in Texas too. I tell them if they want my business, it must be less than $50 lol. Normally it get's really interesting once you get to the finance office. They will try to sell you all kinds of stupid stuff you will never use or need. They really push extended warranties and fluff packs. They get really creative and pushy...

 

[stvkaufman]

I ordered mine on December 30, 2014. Any idea what the wait time is these days?

 

[RDgolfer]

4 months...full of red dirt...what can I say...suck it up