kens

I'm not an automotive journalist, but here's a cut & paste of what I had to say in response to a Ford customer survey. (I know such surveys don't really have any direct benefit for me as a consumer, but I felt sufficiently strongly about this that I wanted to give my opinion...) The top part is about sales experience, and my thoughts on the car itself are at the end. ================================================== Here are some rambling comments about sales and about the FFH in general. I very much appreciated the approach taken by our salesman, <salesman name>. He didn't pressure me, and was very honest about his opinions. I also appreciated the fact that he took me seriously from the moment I walked in the door. I probably didn't look like a serious customer, and in fact I probably didn't even look like someone who could afford to buy a new car, much less pay cash for one. At some other dealers (both Ford and Toyota) that I shopped at, the sales staff pretty much ignored me. But <salesman name> was immediately helpful, and remained so over time, so we chose to buy the car from <dealer name>. Also, I appreciated the fact that <salesman name> didn't try very hard to sell me options that I didn't want. He mentioned them, but didn't press the issue once it became clear that all I wanted was a base model. I know that upselling the customer is an important sales strategy, but it also happens to be a strategy that I absolutely hate, and if a salesperson (either for cars or any other product) gets pushy I tend to leave immediately. The sales manager (I can't remember his name) was generally quite helpful. The only downside was that he tried to sell us an extended service plan, and used as an argument the claim that it is very expensive to replace regenerative brakes on a FFH. This struck me as somewhat misleading, because regenerative brakes last an extremely long time compared to regular friction brakes (something he didn't mention in his sales pitch, but that I, as a former Prius owner, happen to know). On the other hand, I greatly respected the fact that the sales manager didn't try to push any loans that we didn't need, and that once we said that we didn't want the service plan, etc, he didn't make repeated attempts to sell them to us (which would have annoyed me greatly...). He also was very helpful in getting the service department to activate the daytime running lights on the car. So overall, our experience with him was quite positive. In terms of the car itself, we are EXTREMELY happy. We bought it for the combination of (relatively) good MPG, safety, and quality of ride/handling. And it has fully lived up to our expectations. To put this in context. This is the first new car that either my wife or I has ever purchased. And it's the first American car that anyone in either of our families has bought in approximately 20 years (in that period, our parents and siblings have bought an assortment of Toyotas, Hondas, Lexuses, and an Infiniti). And we are proud of our puchase. The only thing I hope for is that in the future Ford will make a wagon version. (and no, I don't count the Escape hybrid, because its MPG is too low to be competitive from the perspective of buyers who care about the environment). I know wagons are unpopular nowadays, so call it a crossover, or whatever label is required to get it to sell. The reason this is important is that the one major drawback of the FFH is the limited cargo space -- a major issue for parents of a toddler, and anyone else who ever carries anything other than people in the car. We came very close to buying a Prius instead, due to the hatchback design. So I hope that in the future Ford will make a wagon or hatchback hybrid.

I (6' guy) find the Toyota Camry headrests much less comfortable than our FFH's. And I've heard the same complaint from others about the Camry.

I don't think they can actually finalize the purchase until the car is on hand & deliverable. (not sure about this though). However, I personally would not want to just have a DORA. Having ordered a FFH on August 7, I was potentially in a situation similar to yours (car ordered before Sept 30 but delivered later). Reading the following article made me worried: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/...tax-credit.html The key thing that worried me was the statement, paraphrasing a tax attorney: "But in general, he said, purchasing something is understood as having the benefits and burdens of ownership. " My plan to deal with this was to go to the dealer in late September, put down a large deposit on the car, and get a receipt for it. That way, I'd clearly be taking on the burdens of ownership if the IRS happened to audit me. Fortunately for me I didn't wind up having to do any down payment because our car came in this week, 6 1/2 weeks after delivery. Disclaimer: I'm not an accountant or a tax attorney and have no good credentials whatsoever to justify my advice. Also, I know that my approach was probably an extreme form of "better safe than sorry" reasoning.

Just got the word that our FFH, which was ordered on August 7, has arrived. We'll pick it up on September 23, which is 6 or 7 weeks after we placed the order. For what it's worth, it's a base model (literally the cheapest one possible). Location is the SF Bay Area, CA. Edit: As an update, the car did indeed arrive, and we picked it up on Sept 23. My wife, who had delegated the buying to me, was impressed.

I don't know how accurately the FFH battery gauge represents the actual state of charge (haven't even seen the gauge yet, because my car hasn't arrived). But as a former Prius owner, I do know that in that car the gauge scales nonlinearly, so that what looks like 50% was more like 60% and what looks like 90% was more like 80%. I can't recall the exact #'s, but that should get the point across. The car is designed to handle the battery charging, and keep it in the optimal range.

A couple of weeks ago FCC told me to expect a Sept 21 delivery. Yesterday I called and they said it has been pushed back to sometime between Sept 24 and Oct 1. :(

THANKS! Just got my VIN #, and confirmation that it's set to arrive 21 Sept, which would be ~6 weeks order to delivery on a base FFH.

I've got a quick question for those in the know: how do you get in touch with FCC (i.e., what's their phone #)? I ordered our car on 8 August, got a confirmation #, and confirmed that the order was in the system. A couple of days ago the dealer said the projected delivery date was 21 Sept, so I'm getting antsy and want to get more detail. :)

Another piece of data for the database. I ordered mine on August 7th, and received confirmation that it was in the database. Vehicle: FFH. Location: SF Bay Area, CA.