Lucas Bell 
The all-new 2021 Ford F-150 started reaching dealerships earlier this month, as demand for the 14th generation truck skyrocketed. According to the Blue Oval’s own figures, sold order numbers are up over 210 percent over this time last year. Despite this overwhelming interest from buyers and dealers alike, the Detroit Free Press has just reported that Ford is stockpiling thousands of new F-150’s at their facilities outside Detroit Metro Airport.
According to the report, there are currently several thousand of these brand new 2021 Ford F-150 pickup trucks just sitting in parking lots around Metro Detroit. The automaker told the publication that these vehicles are from an early batch of 2021 Ford F-150s, and are not trucks that have recently rolled off the assembly line. Ford says that these trucks need to undergo a final quality assurance test, whereas truck’s leaving the factory now are headed directly to customers. This means there is no delay on deliveries, which is good news for any recent buyers.
Ford wasn’t too specific when talking about what these final quality checks look like, but they could involve anything from software updates to hardware changes. Regardless of what needs to be done, this sort of cautionary thinking isn’t a bad approach from the Blue Oval. After bumbling the launch of the previous F-150 and the current Explorer model, it is vital everything goes well with the 2021 F-150 models. Quality assurance is also one of CEO Jim Farley’s top priority, in an effort to reduce the company’s overall warranty costs and please Wall Street. The F-150 is the best selling vehicle in the United States, and much of Ford’s cash flow is dependent on the truck doing well.
If you are currently waiting to take delivery of your own 2021 Ford F-150, it is understandable to be frustrated at a parking lot full of new trucks. That said, it does appear to be in everyone’s best interest for Ford to make sure these units are up to par. Having to wait for a new truck is annoying, dealing with avoidable quality issues is something else entirely.
