Customers driving older Ford vehicles will be able to continue sourcing parts from their local dealer thanks to a new initiative put in place by the team at Ford Customer Service Division. The Vintage Parts programme means that customers running models which went out of production more than 10 years ago will still be able to obtain high-quality original parts from Ford dealers.
Launched in October 2011, this programme extends the available life of slow moving parts and enhances customer loyalty.
“FCSD has a firm commitment to keep stock of parts for each model until 10 years after a vehicle has left production,” explained Paul Dwyer, Daventry’s order control manager.
“After this point, however, the demand for parts becomes very low, and we need to free up space in the warehouses so we can work efficiently and support all of the new models coming on stream.
“In the past, we have sent the obsolete material for scrap. With the new scheme, we ship all of the old parts to a specialist supplier who can contin- ue to make parts available to our dealers.
“This is good for our customers, good for our dealers, and also generates a small amount of extra revenue too,” he said.
The scheme includes 1990s Escort models
Parts are available for the Ford Puma
As the system kicked off, Daventry shipped around 30 containers of material – containing some 2,100 parts lines – to the specialist supplier. Material was also sent from the other European parts warehouses in the same way.
Although the parts are no longer held in Ford locations, dealers can continue to order them via the electronic catalogue. The purchase and shipment, along with any returns, are handled by the external supplier – Vintage Parts, Inc.
Sales of the parts are restricted to Ford deal- ers, to help retain loyalty from the customer to their local service outlet.
