Ford is finally in the 21st century

Thank God.

You can order a pair of socks on Amazon and track them from the factory to your front door. Until now, if you ordered a vehicle, it would sometimes have an accurate ETA, and other times not.

Now, Ford has a new tracking system that will allow dealers the ability to nail down the location and status of every ordered vehicle.

I can't tell you how excited I am for this!

I can see diehard car fans tracking this hourly and taking time off from work to follow the car while it's on the train or truck.

13COBRA said:

Thank God.

You can order a pair of socks on Amazon and track them from the factory to your front door. Until now, if you ordered a vehicle, it would sometimes have an accurate ETA, and other times not.

Now, Ford has a new tracking system that will allow dealers the ability to nail down the location and status of every ordered vehicle.

I can't tell you how excited I am for this!


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its about ****ing time. Seems like until now they were just into a black hole once they left the holding lot. Mine was back in 2012 but seems until right now nothing had changed - dealer said it was on the train and be there next week, 45 minutes later it was on their lot

VegasMichael said:

I can see diehard car fans tracking this hourly and taking time off from work to follow the car while it's on the train or truck.

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This won't be available to customers.

13COBRA said:

This won't be available to customers.

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Well, that's no fun. Guess that means your phone will be ringing more often with inquiries about where a customer's car is currently located.

VegasMichael said:

Well, that's no fun. Guess that means your phone will be ringing more often with inquiries about where a customer's car is currently located.

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That won't be any different now, the only difference is that now I will have a better answer to give them.

Guess I don't see what the harm would be in allowing customer access.

VegasMichael said:

Guess I don't see what the harm would be in allowing customer access.

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I have no idea.


EDIT: They clarified. They don't want any conflicting information being relayed to the customer, which I agree with.

Really? LOL.

Sub'n for Ford to also post Facebook pages of UAW workers who assembled your vehicle.

Meanwhile, Ford axes the Fiesta.

13COBRA said:

I have no idea.


EDIT: They clarified. They don't want any conflicting information being relayed to the customer, which I agree with.

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Conflicting how? I mean if the customer is tracking the car and see it's in SE Kansas they aren't supposed to believe it?

13COBRA said:

That won't be any different now, the only difference is that now I will have a better answer to give them.

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But the same answers Waiting to load on rail, sitting on a train, sitting at the rail drop waiting for a transporter.

VegasMichael said:

Conflicting how? I mean if the customer is tracking the car and see it's in SE Kansas they aren't supposed to believe it?

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Conflicting if they receive incorrect information from their salesman, or if the automated Ford emails come through early/late, or have poor information. Not even every individual at the dealership will have access to this program.

Weather Man said:

But the same answers Waiting to load on rail, sitting on a train, sitting at the rail drop waiting for a transporter.

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But have timestamps, an immediate update, and accurate clarification of the vehicle's status. This is HUGE compared to what we've been dealing with in the past.

13COBRA said:

Conflicting if they receive incorrect information from their salesman, or if the automated Ford emails come through early/late, or have poor information. Not even every individual at the dealership will have access to this program.

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That's not exactly a confidence booster in the Ford Motor Company.

VegasMichael said:

That's not exactly a confidence booster in the Ford Motor Company.

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Definitely a growing pain of a lot of different departments and areas trying to 'help'.

Nick, what is Ford calling this new tracking system?

Tob said:

Nick, what is Ford calling this new tracking system?

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VIN View

13COBRA said:

I have no idea.


EDIT: They clarified. They don't want any conflicting information being relayed to the customer, which I agree with.

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I also wonder if thieves would use it...instead of stealing raptors out of that same lot they sneak around and just pictures of the VINs then snag em from local yards. Might be a bit of a stretch but nothing would surprise me at this point

I order a motorcycle this spring. Dealer couldn't tell me when it was scheduled for production, when it hit the boat, when it arrived at US port, when it was moved through customs, when it was on truck, nor the VIN of the bike at any time in the 4 months process. My first actual update was that the truck carrying the bike from ATL to IL was lost and took more than two weeks to locate. My favorite part of the experience was the GM of the dealership lecturing me on the complexities of international shipping. My head... It was exploding.

Sorry for the side rant. But I don't think Ford is alone in having ample room to improve their production/logistics feedback to dealerships and, ultimately, end-users. I agree with flowing that information only through qualified folks at the dealership level. But in a world with the automation we have in place and IoT, very granular manufacturing information is lurking just behind a network switch. Systems just need to be put in place to collect that data and get it to the right folks. 'Snot rocket science...

Now if only production could scale up….

Btw, @13COBRA, I’m driving a 19 Raptor that I picked up a few months ago. Also ordered a TRX that should arrive within a month. I don’t need both- you probably need the TRX on your lot.

Morgan said:

Now if only production could scale up….

Btw, @13COBRA, I’m driving a 19 Raptor that I picked up a few months ago. Also ordered a TRX that should arrive within a month. I don’t need both- you probably need the TRX on your lot.

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I could get you a number on it if you want. Unless you're getting a screaming deal, I'd bail on it. They're coming down.