Got a call from my dealership. Ordered Platinum with sun-roof on Jan. 20. Dealer said it had gone through final inspection today (Tuesday), and will be in their lot Friday/Sat. I am in Detroit, so there is not much transit time.
need to dig out the $500 discount email I threw away thinking it would never made within Feb. Anyone confirmed with Sam's club's certificate?
Awesome—congrats! Good to hear that the border crossing doesn't add much time. I would think/hope that transit time to Grand Rapids wouldn't be much longer than Detroit... (once they build ours)
I can also confirm that the border crossing is very quick. Took about 8 hours to get from ON to MI for mine(non hybrid)
Built pending inspection: 02/16/17 03:22:25 AM
Production Status KZ Received 02/16/17 04:29:40 AM
Ingate / Rebay at Facility 02/16/17 04:37:00 AM WINDSOR, ON
Gate Out 02/16/17 09:32:00 AM WINDSOR, ON
Ingate / Rebay at Facility 02/16/17 05:30:00 PM DETROIT, MI
Railcar Departure / Yard Exit 02/18/17 01:32:44 AM DETROIT, MI
Railcar Released by Consignee 02/18/17 04:32:00 AM DETROIT-JEFFERSON, MI
In-Transit Report Station, Rail Arrival 02/18/17 10:03:00 PM DETROIT NORTH YARD, MI
Rail Interconnect Carrier 02/20/17 06:50:00 AM GIBSON, IN
Congrats!! We're all jealous!!! Anxious to hear how you like it!!. My F&I person at the Dealership (and a Chrysler rep) confirmed the Sam's discount should work, but if you use that discount it will knock out the $500 email coupon from Chrysler. That's what I was told Friday 2/17.
Congratulations indeed!!! I'm puzzled though how the priorities work on making the VANs. I ordered on 1/11 and mine still sits in D1, other folks ordered in early december of last year and theirs even in D. Chrysler customer service has not been helpful at all!!! Today they told me to wait 56 days after order and then raise the issue, not good!
I hope hhspiny is correct, but I'll believe it when I see it. I was told yesterday the hybrids haven't been released yet. Sounds like they have a bunch done and sitting in storage for some reason and they'll begin shipping sometime (whatever that means) in March. They told me there is no ETA on my unit at this time. I hope I'm wrong!! If you do get it this weekend please let us know!! That would give us all a little hope.
We can add one more hybrid to the storage pile as mine has just been added as well. No one will give me a shipment or delivery ETA, but if it doesn't ship early in March I'll be away on vacation for a couple weeks and I don't like the thought of my dealership having it on their lot and available for test drives.
Maybe FCA is concerned with the cold weather and how it affects the car battery. If they realease them at the end of March that would allow for better gas mileage reports.
Using the Chrysler website, I have never seen any Pacifica Hybrids listed in dealer inventory in southern California. I would think that this would be one of the largest markets for this vehicle.
However, I have been seeing billboards along the local freeways advertising the Pacifica Hybrid for the past couple of weeks. I'm not sure how to interpret this marketing strategy. Like most of us on this forum, I can only guess.
...Or they have a coordinated roll-out plan and are in the process of ramping up to full production according to that plan. Like most car makers that launch a new vehicle I'm sure they can't just pump out X number of vehicles on day one of production. Evidence points to them starting production around December, likely those were early test units and media review units etc., low volume. In the airplane business it's called LRIP, Low-Rate Initial Production. It's a phase where you mass-produce something slowly so you learn how to do it efficiently and work out the bugs in the supply chain and assembly line. Tesla will be doing that with the Model 3 starting in July. Their ramp is something like 1000 the first week, 2000/week a couple weeks later then up to 4000/week after that.
It looks like January's production went to Google's fleet of test vehicles, probably December's runs too. Actual volume production for public consumption wasn't supposed to start until mid-February which it looks like it has so presumably they are working towards getting the assembly and distribution lines up to full capacity now. I'm sure they ran into snags and other issues in the process which would be normal for any mass produced product but it makes sense they'd store the early client vehicles that may have been produced during the ramp up until they were satisfied with production yields and running near the max production rate.
If the leaked documents etc. are accurate, and I have no reason to believe they aren't, it looks like they expect to hit their max production rate sometime this month which would be why they would only start to deliver them in the next few weeks and only start advertising shortly after that. Once these things are out in the wild demand will likely start to increase as more and more people see them. I have no doubt all of us will be giving our friends and families test drives in our new electric minivans. Some of those test drives could very well turn into sales so I'm sure they don't want to be in a position where they are pushing these vehicles on the public through ads only to find that they can't produce them fast enough to meet demand. That's a nice problem to have but it ultimately hurts the brand because it makes it seem like the company can't execute on product deliveries. It's one thing having a handful of irritated early adopters who have already plunked down a deposit and will forget all about the irritation once their shiny car arrives. It's quite another to have hoards of people who sorta care about the product but not so much that they won't just go to Toyota or something if it takes too long to get one.
We are all early adopters here when it comes to this van. When we bought these vehicles we knew going in they were pre-orders and that it would take a while to get them. Heck, most of us had to educate the DEALERS on what they were and how to order them for us and what options we could or couldn't get and what incentives exist for them etc. We are not the regular public that this car will eventually appeal to, we are the keeners. We are buying it because we already know it's something unusual and good. Could Chrysler have done a better job at keeping us up to date? Absolutely! I think the real problem here is that they are unaccustomed to having Apple-esque enthusiasm for one of their products. I don't think they know what to do with early adopters. I don't know about anyone else here but this is the first vehicle I've ever bothered to pre-order before it came out. And it's a freakin' minivan from a company I never thought would ever make something that I'd want to buy! The only other people I know who have pre-ordered a car before it was in production are my two friends getting Tesla Model 3's, and they are even more in the dark than we are. They don't even know what the interior of their future car looks like let alone when they might be getting theirs!
My wife was hesitant to consider the Pacifica. She was afraid it was too big and that visibility for parking and maneuvering would not be good. She still didn't want it after the test drive. Then we sat in the parking lot and checked the options and settings on the display screen. When she saw the 360 degree camera view, she was sold!
Roger that and I believe it will park itself as well.
My kids are all grown and truthfully we could live without a mini van now, we have had 6 over the years all Chrysler. However my wife will not have anything else but a van. She likes the ease of entry & exit, sitting up higher while driving, handling etc. I have friends who abandon the mini van after the kids flew the nest and almost every one of them was sorry. The grandkids will like it as well.
Two additional thoughts on the ramp up process. All the dealers have to get their mechanics trained, the chargers installed and the basic spare parts ordered. This also takes time to happen and for Chrysler to make sure the various dealers are in compliance and ready for the roll-out. They don't want vehicles to be delivered and then not be able to be serviced, even the dealer prep for delivery is different.
Second, while the vehicles are in storage they can be recalled for any quick mods or fixes that show up in the initial build process. Once they are shipped to dealers those fixes are more expensive and more public. Public fixes damage the vehicle reputation and hurt future sales. Pre-ship fixes don't have to be publicized.
All in all, they seem to be on their published schedule.
This is an interesting point. Building pre-production or 100 for google is one thing, but if they are now building 124 units a week, they might find some small QA/QC issue that they can quickly remedy during the build process and update any of our finished vans sitting in storage.
I'm told they're now building around a hundred a day if not more. My info is a little out of date. The QC thing makes perfect sense. That's what I would do if I were them.
Update for what its worth.
My dealer has a close connection in Detroit. Yesterday I asked when my unit would be shipped (currently in storage). The response was "soon, very soon".
I will post when I receive word that it is actually in transit.
I really doubt there is a quality issue. They are just going to ship a bunch out at once so most dealers get them around the same time. After what I was told today by Chrysler Cares, I expect them to begin shipping around 3/21 (as was mentioned above) with them hitting a few dealers starting the week of 3/27. The majority will see them rolling in through the month of April. Sad but true. To some that may be "very soon", but to most it's way overdue!
News Flash:
Word from my dealer this morning. Dealers cannot order any more Hybrid Platinums. They can only place orders for Premium models. No production schedule for the Premiums yet. If you missed the Platinum launch package you will have to find one that is not spoken for. If they do offer the Platinum again I would bet you won't see the options included in the launch package for the price. If you have a Platinum coming you were a wise buyer.
Also, all hybrids are in Containment to be released beginning 20Mar17. Typically shipped, first in last out, as they don't want to move a lot of units around to get to the first ones produced which are parked behind all the others. The later yours was built the better your chances of getting sooner than some of the rest of us who had earlier builds.
Also, all hybrids are in Containment to be released beginning 20Mar17. Typically shipped, first in last out, as they don't want to move a lot of units around to get to the first ones produced which are parked behind all the others. The later yours was built the better your chances of getting sooner than some of the rest of us who had earlier builds.
This made me bite, it looks like they may be able to get appox 1400 cars parked on lots that are in proximity to the actual assembly plant. Not sure if they have any remote lots or not. That isn't too many, I'm not sure what their total production is on a single day, but if they are doing 100+ hybrids in a day, that lot wouldn't come close to holding a weeks worth of all the completed Pacificas.
Having procrastinated on ordering for weeks (I wanted to test drive one..) I read the latest news this morning with dismay. I phoned my dealer anyway, and he said he could still put in an order, which he did. I now have a Priced Order Confirmation which shows status "BA = Pending order". The first line item "RUES53 - Platinum" and the second line item "Customer Preferred Package 2EC" are highlighted in yellow, which according to the legend "=Restriction".
What do we think this means? Is it a real order? Does "restriction" just mean that I'll have to wait longer, or does it mean the order may be a cancelled?
I don't know but I'm incredibly jealous. We are expecting a bonus in a week and I was hoping to use it to put down a down payment on a Platinum but I think we would have to do a dealership 2.5 hours away if we are lucky.
Looked at my order sheet, from 2/13 (car originally ordered 1/12 by someone else)
First line RUES53 Platinum
Second line 2EC Customer Preferred package 2EC
third line 3.6 L V6 etccc
original ship date of 2/22
Chrylser has confirmed a build date of next week, I am to contact again week of March 20th, delivery end of Month or so!
So I think your order will be fine, however there are more knowledgeable people on this forum.
Your order should be fine. New orders at this point, well not so much as far as the Platinum is concerned until the start producing them again maybe in a different package with some on the equipment in the launch package as extra cost options. Right now the are going to start on the Premiums.
Was told by one dealer that the ship date has been moved from 3.25 to 3.21. Another dealer said the first ones are being shipped to Kansas. Another dealer said this: "As of today we were told they are at storage getting final updates and should ship no later than 3 weeks from today."
I thought that many of these vans were in storage in Michigan. Is that not the case? Are most still in Windsor? I don't have an order placed, but this sure is frustrating. One of my dealers that has been trying to get me to come in and lock down something she has in the pipeline told me yesterday I can come in and place a new order for a hybrid platinum w/mocha interior. While I like that she has been responsive, needless to say, she is not well informed.
I haven't got my VIN yet and want to get the Green Plates. I'm in GTA.
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