Thanks HILLY:
I sure enjoyed reading your earlier post which was not only informative but pretty enlightening for me too! I actually didn't know that the assembly line could react that quickly and make almost instantaneous (within a day or so) changes/deletions, locally, to solve material shortages without high-up corporate approvals.
But, thinking back, when shopping for our 2024 Expedition MAX Limited (we looked at nine (9) different cars & drove 5 of them in 2 days), I did see some very slight and subtle differences from one Expedition MAX Limited to another with the same Equipment Group 302A, but it never entered my mind about shortages possibly causing these differences. I was thinking some were because of differences of colors int/ext or other/different Optional Equipment. When we went looking, I first viewed these Expy's on the dealer web sites, printed out every Window Sticker (of the ones we were interested in) and then went to see them in person. That way, we could compare apples to apples on these cars. Some had stuff we didn't want/need and some were missing stuff that was important for us to have on the 2024 Expy. Like the 2024 Expy MAX that we bought, had the 2 video screens on the back of the driver & passenger headrests (which we surely DIDN'T need) but it turned out we were so happy we had these video screen headrests because now both the headrests adjust/tilt forward & back, unlike the non-video ones that are fixed & permanently tilt too far forward, for us.
Last: My daughter had purchased a standard-length Expedition Limited in July 2024 with the same 302A Equipment Group but, her Window Sticker showed $2705 for this 302A and ours, bought March 2025 showed $3100 for this same 302A. That's a $395 jump in 8 months. Her 'Jewel Red Metallic' was $495 extra and our 'Stone Blue Metallic' was $495 extra. I am fairly certain that these colors don't cost Ford $500 more to paint, though. Just another plunk in their cash drawer! I also thought that with exactly the same base equipment that my daughters standard Expedition Limited had @ $68,410 base price and our Expedition MAX Limited @ $71,515 base price (a $3105 increase) was high for 12" more interior length in our MAX. That's $260/inch! but we wanted the extra cargo area so, paid the price. Another plunk in their cash drawer! But that's enough of my sniveling because both my wife and I just love and are totally pleased this Expy !!! Lance