I'm okay with the posts if you are. I am entertained and I am learning a lot.
I also appreciated the picture of the magnetic ST, front license plate bracket and all, lol. I have always ordered black cars, but felt that black on an ST with the street pack might not show off the ST features as much, now I'm really glad I went with the magnetic, although a black ST will still look sharp.
I just got off the phone with the dealer. I had inquired as to why if they entered it as a retail order, it wouldn't show on the retail order tracking site. It turns out, they use different terminology at the dealership. They use "customer" order to mean what the rest of us (and Ford) call "retail" order and they use "retail" order to mean what the rest of us call a dealer stock order. They ordered it as dealer stock because they thought it would get here faster. I explained everything I learned here and he had no awareness of any of that. I then went on to express my concern that I might be getting a unit that might have required some rework. He tried to convince me that STs are custom and that Ford wouldn't let that happen. I laughed to myself about that, 20% of the Explorers will be ST, hardly custom and I don't think they are building and base or XLTs until June.
I also asked him to confirm my VIN and check on the build date (I didn't tell him I already knew the build date). He said he didn't have a build date and couldn't get to the VIN, so I told him to check again tomorrow and please let me know.
I also told him I am monitoring the progress at CAP (hopefully those in the know can pass on some intel to this forum) and that if I become aware of any issues that require substantial rework, I will be subjecting the vehicle to extra scrutiny. I'm mainly concerned about them having to disassemble something and never quite get it back together correctly, causing a rattle or something like that. I'm not worried about software bugs, or stuff that they can fix without taking the whole car apart. The truth is with an estimated 5/21 build date, the delivery date might not be all that far off from a retail order and they still have plenty of build days before then to work out kinks. At this point, my other option is to order new, and that would definitely get here later
Still, I would have preferred a retail order and the next time I order a car, I will specify that I want it to be a retail (i.e. customer order) and not dealer stock order and then I will ask to see the order confirmation sheet to make sure it has a retail priority code (10 - 19).
Finally, I want to thank everyone for their contributions to this site, it has made me a much more educated consumer.