There is a site where you can see the 'on the lot' time at a dealership. My brother has used it to find 'stale' cars that have been advertised and remain unsold. If interested, he contacts the dealership, notes the 'staleness', and makes what he considers to be a calculated offer. Lower than normal, to say the least, and also knows what his current vehicle should be valued at.
Some are on the lot for more than 90 days. A VW at a Cadillac dealership may not be what the average Caddy used car buyer shops for... Or a "Pink Cadillac" may not be such a hot seller when the Revlon Saleslady up and quit... and did not pick up her special order.
One thing likely is less 'cash on the hood' - rebates - to incentivize sales of slow-moving product. I do not know for sure. The particular problems with the Maverick leading to 'funny' lead times are not the norm, and should not be the norm in the future(hopefully). Order one to your liking and it should be on the lot within a 30-60 day timeframe. I do think there will be 'stock' units on the lot. Once they get past the 'lump in a snake' of startup demand being so high. If you were alive in spring 1964, and wanted a Mustang, you had to wait. ADM was a BIG business at dealers across the country. Ford put a couple plants on round the clock production. And sold a LOT of Mustangs. They have seemingly put Bronco Sport and Maverick and Escape all in the same plant at the same time... Why? Dunno. I think the plant can do 25,000 cars a month(somewhere on one if these sites), and that is not 24X7 production.
There is a formula that indicates when to go to overtime and when to add another plant .. and Ford knows all this.
Given all the F-150 production sitting in race track infields, etc, awaiting 'chip' install, it must have put a scare into the assembly plant managers. They now have 3-4 months, MONTHS of deliveries to do to get those already built trucks out to the dealers. If they keep assembling and stacking them up in lots, the transport drivers will not be available as they are not allowed to drive more than xx hours a week. In short, they should be shipping them as quickly as possible to the selling dealers for completion of the last bit locally. They could get them self in a real bind with limited transport capacity.
The 2.3 in the Ranger has a bit of hp and torque. The same engine is used in other lines, such as the Edge and maybe the Explorer. There is a 'performance' kit offered by Ford, approved for warranty acceptance, that adds hp and torque. Trucklic, have you driven one? Do you know how well they tow a trailer? My brother has one, and towed from MD to CO and back, getting just under 20mpg doing the whole trip, including a side to Wyoming and up to the Continental Divide. No. Problem. He drove with the A/C on, from 65-68, and lengths at 70mph. I told him to keep it closer to 65 and he'd gain 2-3mpg, and his results seemed to agree. Today, the average transaction for a new vehicle is over $36,000. Ranger can get there readily, but you have to add everything but the kitchen sink to get a Maverick at that price.(exaggerate, yeah I know). The 2.3 has been used for some time and the only thing I have learned is that there was a coolant/head gasket problem that has been fixed, AND change the oil. The Maverick ecoboost is a 2.0 version of that engine as I understand.
tom