DORA for 2003.25

[pstroke]

I have a 2003.25 on order with my local dealer. I have made a few changes since I first placed the order and want to verify the changes have been made prior to my order being pulled for production.

My salesman says that a DORA is not available for my truck since they are not being built yet. I know I have seen them on f-d.com for the new trucks.

Will someone tell me, or better yet so I can inform my salesman, how to obtain a copy of my DORA? I know they will probably not be priced yet but I always thought a DORA was obtainable shortly after placing an order.

Thanks for any help.

[Cochise]

PStroke,

Cochise here. Your "salesperson" is yanking your chain. The "DORA" is available "if" your saleperson wishes to get off his/her butt and get it.
Where did you order?

[pstroke]

I ordered from Payton-Wright in Grapevine. I have bought a new truck every year from them for the last four years. They take good care of me as a repeat customer but they do not know very much about ordering, new trucks and options, etc. or do not want to give me too much information.

I told my salesman today that I had seen DORA's for the 2003.25 with the 6.0 Litre Power Stroke and he all but called me a liar. I have spoken to the customer relations person at the dealer and they even tell me that a DORA for my truck is not available yet.

Another thing is that I want to add heavy service front springs to my truck and he (salesman) said it would put me at the back of the line for delivery of my new truck. I had an earlier post that said I can change anything I want on the truck up until the day it is pulled for assembly.

With all of the time I spend on this site, I really feel like I know more about our trucks than the dealer does.

I don't know if I will order any more vehicles from this dealer. I may be ready to make the move over to Cochise and Lone Star Ford.

Thanks for your help on this one.

[MaXRSmart]

Well you could call your salesman a lazy liar. I have had a copy of my DORA since the middle of June when I ordered my truck.
You should also be able to make option changes without going to the back of the line. If you changed the model of truck, (F-250 SRW to a F-350 DRW) you might have to go to the end of the line, but not for a option on a truck that is not on the production line yet.
Tell your dealer if you are going to lose your place in line anyway, you will just go to another dealer that knows what they are doing. I am positive that Cochise would have know problem printing out a DORA for you if you ordered through him. Good luck with your incompetent dealer. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Cochise]

PStroke,

Cochise here. B/S! You would not loose your place in "line"! How would you loose your place when none of the 6.0L are scheduled for production?! [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
Tell them to add heavy service supension to your order and you expect a DORA within two/three days.
You do know you can not get heavy service supension with the camper package, right.
As far as DORAs go I,ve got all the ones from my orders, why would their dealership be any different? [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[SmokeyWren]

Don't confuse DORA with "priced" DORA.

Perhaps what we have here is a "failure to communicate"?

Priced DORAs (order code C09?) may not be available for the 2003.25s yet? But if the Ford computer accepts the order, then unpriced DORAs are produced for the dealer automagically if the priced DORA was not ordered.

Remember what DORA means - dealer order receipt acknowledgment.

[MaXRSmart]

Good point Smokey. My DORA does not have prices, it is more like a check list to make sure you did not forget anything (which I did [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] )and everything was ordered correctly.

[pstroke]

Everything you explained to me is how I thought it should work. I have printed out this forum and delivering it to my dealer this morning.

I will try to make the changes and get a copy of the DORA. I will let you guys know how it goes.

Thanks for all your information.

[XCR440SP]

I can say that I just tried to enter a order for a 6.0L SD and it currently won't take (and I've been trying for a month). So odds are your salesman is right, he can't get you a DORA yet. However, that doesn't mean that there are now DORA's. Many times when first added to CONCEPS you can order immediately and then after a week Ford will block the order bank so orders won't take. I ordered a Mustang Mach 1 back in March long before it was announced and I got a DORA, however, I ordered a second months later and it wouldn't take at that time.

Also don't think because someone got a DORA and you didn't that your truck will be later than theirs. First each dealer gets allocated so many trucks each week. If one dealer took orders 6 months ago for 6.0Ls and another dealer didn't took his first order the day they started scheduling both trucks would arrive the same time (assuming the variables I'll mention next are the same.)

Next don't think that because you ordered early that you can't be bumped in line. Dealers can prioritize their orders from 10 through 99 (99 is a non-buildable order). Ford can lower the priority to 1-9 if for some reason they need to get a unit built (first car destroyed in transit and need a replacement, etc). Ford trys to schedule based on the dealers order bank prioritys. If you ordered 6 months ago and the dealer put a priority 20 on your order, then someone came in and ordered the exact same thing and the dealer prioritized it as a 19, his will schedule first regardless of order dates. However, if both orders were a 20 the oldest retail order would get prioritized.

Controled commidities will also affect scheduling. If an item is on control, it may get your unit "skipped". Right now there are very few commodities. But for example back in 1997 the Off Road package was very hard to get on the F-150, so for example, if you had a F-150 Off Road ordered Priority 10 and someone else had a Regular F-150 priority 50, but Ford ran out of Off Roads before yours got scheduled they'd skip your and build the priority 50.

Finally, first built can often be last to arrive. Talk to dealers about the 2003 Expedition. We had one of the first built, but it didn't arrive for 4 and a half months because the early ones were held for quality inspections. Most dealers had several other units arrive long before they got their first one. Will this be the case with the 6.0L? Probably not as bad as a hole new vehicle, but it could get delayed and even though a truck was built first it could be held for quality inspection and others arrive before it.

Hopefully this gives a better understanding of the ordering process. I know most dealers would benifit if Ford would publish this information as a few dealers that don't understand the system misinforming their customers can cause headaches for all of us.

[SmokeyWren]

Hey Hey, XCR440SP, and <font color="red">Welcome!</font color> to TheDieselStop.com.

What we need around this website is a big-dealer Inventory Manager to keep us straight on this stuff. We had a really good one for a couple of years, but he got tired of managing inventory and putting up with the Ford VOPC so he "changed careers". [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[BKColeman]

Hey XCR440SP, that is some good info! Thanks for passing along the knowledge.

[XCR440SP]

No problem. I'll try to throw my 2 cents in on occasion.

One thing I forgot to mention is that there are some vehicle lines that are different. Select (small) dealers started a new ordering system on certain lines a week ago. For the Select dealer there won't be any allocation or controled commodities. Every Thursday whatever they have in the order bank will get scheduled. It doesn't matter if it has a controled commodity or not. By Controled I mean available, but limited. For Example, on F-150 Two tone paint is a controled commodity, only 30% (just and example not correct %) can have two tone, however, select dealers can have all of theirs with two tone if desired. This is true of Controled commodities but not Hold comodities. For example 2003 Mustang's offer a interior upgrade package that is on hold until 10-7-02. If your order had this it wouldn't schedule until the Thursday after that hold comes off. Taurus, Mustang (excluding Mach 1), Focus, Crown Victora, Windstar, and F-150 are all included in this program. Just thought I'd point this out so if looking at any of these lines you'd know how their allocation works. For Contact (medium-Large) dealers their allocation is the same for all lines (same as Super Duty described in earlier post)

[TonyB]

I have searched this site and a few others....Yes, I am about to show ingnorace....What is DORA?

Tony

[pstroke]

Excuse my spelling if wrong but it stands for Dealer Order Receipt Acknowledgement.

[TonyB]

I knew it had to be simple....Thanks pstroke!