Image copyright Steven Pham, Muscle Cars & Trucks.
Some Ford Bronco reservations have been delayed more times than customers would like, with some pushed back to the 2022 model year, while some saying they could be delayed “indefinitely”. And there’s unfortunately more bad news for Bronco reservation holders; based on an alleged change in the way Ford allocates Bronco production to certain dealerships, some Bronco orders could take “years.”
The initial order allocations for the 2021 Ford Bronco SUV were reportedly as follows: 25 percent by the dealership’s share of national sales, 25 percent market area responsibility, and 50 percent based on a snapshot of total reservation holders a dealership had. Meaning the more reservations a dealership had, the more sales they would make, as people that reserved or ordered Broncos from a specific dealership would get them sooner.
According to The Drive, one dealership saw this as an opportunity to allocate more sales by promising to sell the Bronco Two-Door and Four-Door SUVs below invoice, allowing them to sell more units than their competitors, growing its national market share, and allocating more Broncos for the coming years.
The model has since changed, where the 50 percent allocation based on total reservation holders was cut in half, and now sits at 25 percent. Meanwhile, the criteria of a dealership’s share of national sales increased to 50 percent meaning smaller dealerships have a more challenging time getting ahold of Broncos since their national sales are small compared to a dealership located within a major city.
The change would mean that for people that have reservations placed at local dealerships with relatively low national sales, they’re going to have to wait even longer to get ahold of their Bronco orders. Meaning that if a dealership only receives 200 Broncos a year, it’ll take several years before all of their orders are filled. While this is a setback at the moment, it likely won’t be forever. We like to think things will eventually return to normal in terms of supply and demand, meaning the Bronco assembly team will be able to produce more vehicles no matter what configuration.
For the time being, however, this is how Ford Motor Company has decided to organize allocations to be fair to all dealerships and comply with state laws. In addition, customers can transfer their reservations/orders to another dealership if they don’t want to wait for their order to be fulfilled with their original dealer by contacting the Ford Customer Relationship Center.
Ford added further details to The Drive report, stating the following:
“Ford is aware of Bronco customers who placed orders with a small number of dealers that created special deals to attract a large number of orders,” a Ford spokesperson told The Drive via email. “Ford’s allocation system treats all dealers fairly and complies with state laws, and while the number of reservations is a component of the allocation model, it is not the only factor. The Bronco team is working hard to fulfill all customer orders as quickly as possible while balancing production, and also managing commodity constraints. Customers can either wait for their order to be fulfilled with their original dealer or they can transfer their reservation / order to another dealer by contacting the Ford Customer Relationship Center.
“With regards to building stock units, we said we would prioritize building reservation orders before stock orders as long as there are parts available to build reserved Broncos,” it added. “Production for Broncos with high demand options, such as the 2.7-liter EcoBoost, hard top and Sasquatch package, has always been constrained by the availability of parts to assemble those Broncos. When we can’t make Broncos with high demand options for customers, we make other configurations so we don’t shut the assembly line down, such as 2.3-liter, soft top, Big Bend, that dealers can stock. We have provided advice for customers to change their order configurations if they wanted to receive a Bronco sooner instead of waiting, which some customers have done.”
Image copyright Steven Pham, Muscle Cars & Trucks.
Zac's love for cars started at a young age, after seeing the popular Eleanor from Gone In 60 Seconds. From there, fascination and enthusiasm blossomed and to this day the Ford Mustang remains a favorite. His first job started out detailing cars, but also provided the opportunity to work on restoration including an 1968 Ford Mustang, Pontiac Firebird, and a C3 Corvette, though he left that job before further work and experience could be had. From there, he was a detailer at a car dealership before quitting that job to try and finish college.
Much of his free time while studying was spent watching YouTube videos regarding new cars, or off-roading. 4WD247 is a personal favorite channel which rekindled a dying flame in car enthusiasm, now tailored towards trucks and SUVs and the fun that can be had building up an overlanding rig, and going on adventures, though, that chapter remains unwritten for the time being.
Zac Quinn 
