So I purchased an XLT back on 3/26 from the Ford dealer in Everett, WA. I spent forever going through each zip code region on Ford's website trying to find the vehicle we wanted as I didn't have the time to wait for a custom order to be built. Local dealer in Bremerton, WA was no help, we gave them a list of "must haves" and they said there was not one to be found. I'm not going to pay $40k for the wrong vehicle so I did my own research.
I was in a combined 100+ mph head on crash in a 5 week old 2011 4runner Trail Edition and spent 2 weeks in the hospital, some idiot swerved directly into oncoming traffic because he didn't merge when he was supposed to. No way I could drive another one after being conscious through the whole crash with vivid memories so after lots more research decided on the new X as a replacement.
I'm a little concerned with how it's going to handle offroad especially considering it only has 7.6" ground clearance! My '04 Subaru Forester XT had 7.75" clearance and I scraped that thing quite a few times trying to make it to some remote trailheads. Anyone taken theirs offroad yet? How does it handle in deep snow?? Overall though the X will be an amazing vehicle for the other 99% of the time I drive it and we were extremely impressed with the build quality and array of features and improvements from the 2010 model.
We got a 202A w/ the tow package, sunroof, and power liftgate. Salesman originally told me the vehicle would be arriving on Tuesday 3/29 when I was making calls to anyone with an XLT tow package within a 3 hour radius of our home in the pacific NW. Did all the paperwork, with the $750 ford customer cash (thanks for the tip on the brochure!!) and the $1,000 cash incentive. We were told they'd call on Monday morning with an update...never happened. I called them twice a day for the first couple days and each time got the run around and said they'd call me when they knew. Got frustrated and called customer service and was told the vehicle wasn't even built until 3/25 and had an ETA of 4/8. Called the dealer and spoke with a manager, who thankfully was very understanding and suggested I get a rental car (cruisin' around in a Kia Sportage...not very inspiring to say the least) and they'd reimburse me when the vehicle arrived. He said they have 9 explorers that have been held up at the factory. I called customer service today 4/6 to get another update and she said it shows up still as awaiting shipment with a location of Chicago!!!
What is going on with these explorers?? If it's still in Chicago that means I have at least another couple weeks until it makes it all the way out here...very disappointing. Anyone know exactly why these are being held up? I've read rumors about it being AWD parts, quality control issues, lack of rail cars, software bugs, the list goes on. Doesn't make me too confident in my choice but I have been very please with Ford's progress on build quality and reliability in the last few years and they were the only US manufacturer not to take bailout money.
I'll send Seni a PM w/ the VIN and hopefully she can give me a little more information about it's location, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that perhaps customer service was wrong and it has shipped already!