I received a call yesterday that my EB FX4 had been produced? I asked if he had a vin and he said that he thought he would by next week, and could expect to receive the truck in about 3 week.. Does that sound right? I thought once produced I'd get a vin?!

The VIN is assigned BEFORE the build date. Might just be that the guy at the dealer does not know the system to get the info.

The dealer should have an inventory manager that can tell you.

always wondered...does it cost yall more to custom build

I don't think so. The price of options and packages are what they are. You build up your vehicle to your wishes, get a price from your salesman and NEGOTIATE from there, apply incentive, discounts, etc. and end up with your final price.

The trucks on your dealers lot were "custom built" by their guy that does the ordering. He speculates (or maybe is directed by the marketing department) the equipment and options that he thinks will sell quickly and goes from there.

True, but also remember that the inventory on a dealer's lot is inventory that isn't making him any money. You can often work out a slightly better deal on a truck that's been on the ground for a while vs. a truck that doesn't exist yet.

Either way, the dealer makes money, but sometimes you can really score on older inventory.

Actually the opposite is true. Trucks on the ground are costing the dealer money. They need to make a certain amount of $$ to cover their cost. If a vehicle has been sitting a LONG LONG time, then you can usually get a deal on it because the factory will add incentives and the dealer will want to cut their losses. This is what is happening with any left over 2010 vehicles right now. Huge, steep discounts.

The best deal is made on a vehicle that is ordered and sold BEFORE it has made it to the dealers lot. There is no additional cost to the dealer of to the manufacturer if it is sold right away.

Typically Ford will cover the cost of the vehicle while it is sitting on the lot for the first 30-60 days (daily interest) and don't forget, Ford still owns the vehicle until it is sold, not the dealer.

In process-assigned a build date-in production-in transit. All in all mine took 8 weeks. about a week for prod and a week for delivery. Luckily it was only being built about 11 miles away so the dealer went and got it for me, very nice.

Called the dealer got my vin and pulled up the window sticker. There is a date at the bottom of 03/26/2011, any idea what it means?

The date is the day you pulled up the window sticker, the dealer will have the invoice, the invoice will have a date of invoice on it you can expect your truck about 30 days after that date

That is especially true with used. Cause the dealer does own them. They'd rather sell a car next day and make 500 bucks than let it possibly sit 4 months taking up space to make 3k.