MadManMoon

I found this on the Ford Fusion forum, and thought it might be interesting to people here wondering what the specific dates actually mean! Legend: MS&S = Marketing, Sales, and Service MP&L = Material Planning and Logistics VO = Vehicle Operations Receipt Date: The date that MS&S recorded the order. When the order is received from the dealers. Serialize Date: The date that MS&S transfers the order to MP&L and the VIN is created. When the order is received by Material Planning and parts are ordered. Segment Date: The date that MP&L determines which week the order will be built. When they figure what week that parts will be able to be delivered to the plant to build the vehicle. Sequence Date: The date that MP&L determines which day the order will be built. When they figure what day that parts can be at the plant to build the vehicle. Blend Date: The date that MP&L determines when the order will be built within the assigned day. When they figure the specific order that vehicles will be built. This depends on options and line constraints. Produced Date: The date that VO finished assembling the vehicle Your unit has been built! Gate Release Date: The date that VO transfers the vehicle to Transportation Carriers for shipping Your unit has left the building, and is in the hands of the shipper (rail or truck). Ship Date: The date the vehicle left the Assembly Plant Your unit has left the load site, and is on it's way to the dealer. Arrival Date: The date the Dealership received the vehicle Your dealer has the unit in hand, doing the dealer prep thingy. Sold Date: The date the Customer picked up the vehicle You came in, looked it over, said, "I'll take it!" and signed the papers. Hope this helps!

Got my VIN! Got my VIN! :happy feet: :happy feet: :happy feet: :happy feet: :happy feet: Ford Service (Twitter) sent me my VIN this morning (I've been pinging them for updates every Friday, rather than bother the dealer), and I have a VIN! No window sticker yet, but it's getting closer! :drool: Tick-tock, tick-tock... :banghead:

Model: C-MAX Hybrid SEL (302A) Estimated: 6-8 weeks Ordered at Dealer: 5/18/2013 Order Placed at Factory: 5/24/2013 VIN: 6/14/2013 Window Sticker Available: TBD Build Date: TBD Actual Delivery: TBD State: MD (dealer in VA)

I have one in mind, but since you can't reserve one in advance here in MD, I'm going to keep it to myself until I get it. For reference, two of our three cars already have vanity plates: "CONDOR" on my GT500 (Ford's internal code name for the engine/vehicle 2007-2009) "WEBBIE" on my Focus (2003 graduate of Webb Institute, where we're known as "Webbies") My wife's F-150 does not have a vanity plate yet, but I'm pushing her towards "MULEY" (she owns a mule, and uses the truck to bring the mule to shows). Can't wait to get my C-MAX so I can get my plates! :)

Got an e-mail from my dealer Sunday evening with two tables pasted in - Scheduled Retail Orders and Unscheduled Retail Orders. Sadly, my order is still in the latter table, as expected. However, under Priority, it shows ONE! The HIGHEST priority! Yee-hah! :happy feet: Now I'm just waiting for UNSCHEDULED-CLEAN to be switched to SCHEDULED. :woohoo:

Ack! My dealer teased me (inadvertently) today! When I spoke to my sales rep earlier this week, he said their dealership's orders are scheduled on Thursdays, so he'd call Friday (today) with an update...maybe even a VIN! (I was skeptical; it's only been six days since I placed my order!) So imagine my surprise when my phone rings this afternoon showing Sheehy Ford on the caller ID! I pick up, and there's a cheerful salesman on the line, letting me know that there are big sales happening this Memorial Day weekend, and now would be a great time to pick up that C-MAX I was interested in! I paused for a second, and started laughing. I informed him that I already had one on order...and was hoping he was calling with an order update, maybe even a VIN! He laughed and apologized, and said they'd update my customer record with the fact that I've already ordered. So...still no change, but at least a little chuckle to start the holiday weekend! :)

Welcome, SOMD! I'm a fellow SOMD'er, living in Waldorf, just up the road. Congratulations on your order, and welcome to the site! :)

This is where our C-MAXs are born! http://watch.discoverychannel.ca/clip931528#clip931528 Interesting look at the Michigan Assembly Plant (MAP), where the Focus and C-MAX are made.

Model: C-MAX Hybrid SEL (302A) Ordered at Dealer: 5/18/2013 Order Placed at Factory: 5/24/2013 Estimated: 6-8 weeks VIN: TBD Build Date: TBD Actual Delivery: TBD State: MD (dealer in VA)

Spoke to the dealer yesterday, the order is in! "In Order Processing - Unscheduled - Clean," which means there are no holds, no shortages, and I'm just waiting to be scheduled! My dealer said the region does its scheduling on Thursdays, so he may call Friday with a VIN, but somehow I strongly doubt I'd get a VIN within a week of ordering! Frankly, I hope not - my Focus isn't paid off until September, and I'd rather have 2 payments for as short a time as possible! Of course, the eager little kid inside me is going, "VIN! VIN! Gimme a VIN! That means car is coming soon!" :)

I went with a combination of X Plan and Costco -- X Plan to get the order priority and limit dealer fees to $100, and Costco for the better price. I ordered a SEL 302A with Interior Protection Package, Exterior Protection Package, and Panoramic Fixed Glass Roof. MSRP is $32,875.00. Invoice price is $31,015.60. X Plan price is $31,166.54 (or $150.94 above invoice). Costco price was $30,515.60 ($500 under invoice, $650.94 under X Plan). (All prices here are before any rebates or incentives.) Order was submitted as an X Plan order, but the purchase agreement I signed indicated the Costco price. Definitely worth it for me.

Residual value doesn't mean much to me, considering I expect to keep this car for 7+ years and 125,000+ miles. I'm likely to hand it down to my parents at that time.

It doesn't; it's X-Plan that helps with priority. Typically, once X-Plan orders are submitted, they are changed to the highest priority (1-9) in the Ford ordering system ahead of all other retail and dealer stock orders. The Costco membership only helped with price. The X-Plan also limits dealer fees to $100 (I don't think the Costco plan does that).

Couldn't wait until July...ordered this afternoon! Sterling Grey Metallic, Charcoal Black Leather Interior 302A Equipment Group Panoramic Fixed Glass Roof Interior Protection Package Exterior Protection Package Now the waiting game begins! :happy feet:

Well, I finally did it! I couldn't wait any longer! Went to Sheehy Ford in Springfield, VA and placed my order as follows: 2013 C-MAX Hybrid SEL Sterling Grey MetallicCharcoal Black Leather Interior302A Equipment GroupInterior Protection PackageExterior Protection PackagePanoramic Fixed Glass RoofI'm ordering through the Costco Auto Buying Program, combined with X-Plan (to keep the fees down and to prioritize my order). Final price was $500 under invoice ($650.94 under X-Plan). Order Priority is 10 (highest possible priority for dealer orders). I am absolutely thrilled! Here's hoping for a quick and easy 8-week delivery time! Now comes the hard part - waiting! :banghead:

So, in checking out the 2014 C-MAX Hybrid order guide, I noticed that the remote start feature has changed from a dealer-installed to a factory-installed system, with an integrated key FOB (instead of a separate one, as it is with the dealer-installed version), According to the order guide, the factory-installed option is 66R. In building and pricing 2013 C-MAX Hybrids on ChromeCarBook, I noticed that 66F (the dealer-installed option) is shown as "No Longer Factory Orderable, see Dealer for Current Availability." However, the 66R option is shown as well. Does this mean I can get a 2013 C-MAX Hybrid SEL with the factory-installed remote start? Does anyone know if this has changed somehow? Does 66R for 2013 really mean factory-installed? Thanks!

That's exactly what my local dealer quoted me, to the penny. Thanks!

I have a specific dealer (in Georgia, of all places!) that I will be ordering all my Fords from, because of their absolutely awesome sales staff and ease of experience. All the dealers up here in the DC area STINK. To me, it's worth the one-way plane ticket to get it from GA and have a leisurely break-in drive home.

Thanks! Based on a simple ratio from my wife's 2011 F-150 invoice, I calculated about $409 for Advertising Assessment and about $54 for fuel charge, so it sounds like I'm pretty close. Thanks!

For those that went X-Plan for their C-MAX Hybrid, or for those who bought and got a copy of their actual dealer invoice, can you please tell me what the ADVERTISING ASSESSMENT and FUEL CHARGE were? I'm trying to make an accurate calculation here, and without those numbers, I know my X-Plan price estimate will be inaccurate. Thanks!

Sadly, tomorrow the C-MAX and I will have to part ways. I am very depressed over this. I have never been this enamored with a car before - and I have a Shelby GT500! The technology in this car worked flawlessly for me - Bluetooth paired every time, voice commands worked without a hitch, GPS was spot-on, and MyFord Touch responsiveness was near-instantaneous. I can only hope mine will be just as excellent! When I picked it up, the lifetime mileage was 33.0 MPG, with over 12,000 miles on the odometer. (Keep in mind, this is a Budget rental car, so I doubt most renters are hypermilers!) After five days, I've got the lifetime average up to 33.7 MPG. My wife and I used to have a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, and in order to get good MPG, I had to drive it like a hybrid - really gradual starts, long slow braking periods, etc. With the C-MAX, I can just drive it like a car, and it does the rest! The braking is much more progressive and "normal-feeling" compared to the FEH, and the engagement of the ICE is almost imperceptible. The car exhibits a fit and finish I've never seen in a Ford before. The door shuts with a heavy, reassuring "THUNK" that screams quality. Wind noise is almost non-existent. I'm not sure how I'm going to survive the next four months before I can call a C-MAX my own. It will be very, very hard to go back to my 2010 Focus tomorrow. Until then, I'll live vicariously through y'all! :happy feet:

It lets in SO much more light! I had been sold on getting the Medium Light Stone interior without the moonroof, considering it didn't open, but seeing how much light it lets in, I"m sold. Today's discovery was the fact that it works with my Verizon Galaxy Note II to read my text messages to me!!! My wife texted me "On bus," it read it to me, and when I stopped I wrote her a text that said, and I quote, "HOLY CRAP SYNC READ YOUR TEXT TO ME!" to which she replied, and I quote again, "LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!" Which SYNC promptly read to me as something that sounded like "gobble-gobble-gobble," and I almost drove off the road laughing! Still can't wait to own this car for real!

I am so completely smitten with this car, it's not even funny. My co-workers are openly mocking me, and I just don't care! The SYNC voice commands are dramatically improved over my 2010 Focus' system. The MyFord Touch responsiveness is superb. The twin LCDs in the dash are awesome. The responsiveness of the car when goosed is wonderful, and cruising on the highway at 60+ MPH in EV mode is incredible! It's comfortable, with a nice open greenhouse and plenty of space. My wife's 2011 F-150 has the backup camera, but the added feature where, when you're backing with the wheel turned, the lines curve to show your angle of attack, is awesome! So, I'm definitely not waiting until 2014. As soon as I can (July, maybe) I'm ordering a 2013 as follows: 302A Equipment Group Panoramic Moonroof Interior Protection Package Exterior Protection Package Sterling Grey Metallic with Black Leather Interior I'm already anxious, and I'm still months away from ordering the car! AHHHH!! :)

SUCCESS! Checked the storage cubby in the hatch by the battery, and sure enough, there's the floor mats (still wrapped), the owner's manual, and the SD card for the navigation system! Keep in mind this is a C-MAX with a build date of October 2012 with 12K+ miles on it, and NO ONE thought to check the trunk for the SD card?! Wow! So, I'm even more enamored now. This car is a friggin' starship!

I can confirm this, though I stumbled upon one via pure luck! I'm on travel for work, which selected Budget for my rental car. I spotted a C-MAX in the lot, asked if I could rent it, so here I am on a five-day extended test drive!