It makes sense for Ford in this bizarre time and place. If they have 1,000,000 built/no-computer units and only 500,000 microchips. May as well go to a build-to-order format and allocate those chips in units that will turn quickly.
We'll see if it catches on elsewhere. I work in the car industry, the margin between invoice and MSRP is alot thinner than people think. On a 50,000 dollar car it may be 2-3000. On a 30,000 car it's usually around 1500-1000 bucks. When model year inventory lapses and those 'dealer discounts' start hitting, it wipes out the whole margin. Great for consumers, really tough on dealerships. Car dealers can recoup with back end product (warranty, gap, other bs). I don't know if powersports dealers operate similarly.
If I was a dealership, I'd love a snowcheck-only model; pretty much guaranteed to be selling at MSRP and less risk of having 2-year-old inventory rotting on the floor. Something I feel like Arctic Cat really was notorious for (in the late 00's early 10's) - over shipping of in-season units. Once again, still my open and debatable opinion!
