What does "build date" really mean?

[gemdc]

I had always assumed that Build Date was pretty much the date the vehicle started through the final assembly line and was pretty close to the date it rolled out the door on 4 wheels. I thought from start to finish was maybe from 1 to 3 days. Guess that is not so. My 2014 Lincoln MKZh shows a build date of 07/09/13. I drove it at the dealer on 10/12/13 and they said it had been unloaded from the transport on the 10th and it still had white plastic wrap on the rear bumper and was not prepped. The bottom left side of the window sticker shows 08/30/13.

 

Just today I was looking under the hood and saw there were dated tags on some of the wiring harnesses. One near the firewall had 08/23/13 8:26am on it and one near the driver side fender well says 09/02/13 11:11pm. How does the build date of 07/09/13 relate to all these much later dates? I thought I read that the 2014 Fusions and MKZs were going to start building in early July but surely it doesn't take 3 months to build one of these.

 

Anyone looked at the paper tags under the hood (only dated ones I see are on wiring harnesses) to see how much time elapsed from the build date shown in ETIS?

[murphy]

A build date of 07/09/13 from the ETIS web site is September 07, 2013. ETIS is a european web site and the date format in Europe is dd/mm/yyyy.

 

The build date is the day the car is ready for shipment. My car's build date was April 1, 2013 and on April 2 it was on a train headed north.

[jeff_h]

A build date of 07/09/13 from the ETIS web site is September 07, 2013. ETIS is a european web site and the date format in Europe is dd/mm/yyyy.

 

And that date on the wiring harnesses of 8/23 was probably when they were made and the place they were manufactured, and two weeks later they were used to build your car.

 

A similar thing occurred on my 2010 FFH, where the top of each headlight assembly had a dated tag on top, which in that case was 6/10/09 and 6/13/09 and the car was built on 6/15/09.

 

On my 2013 FFH I got a cyberdman update on 12/10/12 of "in production - trim line" and then the build was finished and build date established of 12/11/12.

[gemdc]

Thanks, Murphy and Jeff. Things I know at one time aren't always known later. I knew they turned the day and month around but somehow had the July start date burned in and read mine wrong. I can believe 9/07/13 with it getting delivered to the dealer about 10/10/13. So the window sticker got printed or at least dated 8/30/13 and it took until 9/7/13 to actually finish the car. Still no way to know how long they actually take to build the vehicle.

[jeff_h]

In most cases (at least with those who have reported here and the window stickers that many here have retrieved), the window sticker generation date is about 7 days before the build date, give it take a day or two.

 

As for how long it takes to build, the below video of the F-150 plant in Dearborn has the host (the goofy guy Leo) ask the plant manager how long it takes to build an F-150 and he answers 18 hours... so I would imagine that a Fusion would be roughly the same unless it takes quite a bit longer/shorter in time when considering a sedan vs a pickup.

 

[Waldo]

It might only take 18 hours down the line, but if it fails a end-of-line test or inspection it gets sent over for repair and that can take anywhere from an hour to 2 weeks.

[jeff_h]

It might only take 18 hours down the line, but if it fails a end-of-line test or inspection it gets sent over for repair and that can take anywhere from an hour to 2 weeks.

 

I can attest to that, as my status on Dec 10th was "trim line" then build date shows as Dec 11th, but then when I asked for an update the following week the status was "Re-released Dec 15th" and when I got the car the fuse box cover was not secured and the plastic trim piece to the lower right of the steering wheel was still pulled out a couple inches (was missed during PDI I guess, was easy to pop back in) - making me think that it was built and found to have some eletcrical issue that was diagnosed and fixed (and the dudes quickly moved to the next car without popping things back in place?) before it left the plant -- never had any electrical issues at all so whatever glitch it may have been, it got fixed.

[acdii]

I'm curious as to how long it takes for the paint to cure before they assemble the car. Factory finishes are pretty damn hard when compared to aftermarket paint jobs. It took a few months before the paint was hard enough to get a decent polish on it when I repainted the Grand Marquis, and that was in a heated spray booth and baked.

[Hybrider]

I found another video on YouTube for the Megafactories video showing the F-150 assembly line in Dearborn, about 45 minutes long. And I'm pretty sure they said the F-150s take about 12 hours to build, including paint time. I would have to watch the video again, but I didn't see the paint being baked at all.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khbb1vBz_U0

[acdii]

I would love to take a tour of a Ford plant. I live near the Chrysler plant but its Chrysler, and I have no interest in how they are slapped or glued together.