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FCA Not producing tan soft tops

Sftdyna0326$

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Well for all you people who ordered tan soft tops it appears they arent being produced! After spending all day going back and forth with FCA they finally claimed only a few were produced and they have been on material hold for the past 5 months yet my order and many others went right threw without showing they weren’t available. I have reached out to atleast 10 dealers including Koons who also claim they have never seen one. If anyone knows of a JLU with a tan top you have a rare truck.
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kkuntz01

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So either Jeep or Bestop is to blame.
I would put the blame more on customers and market demand and maybe even dealers than on Jeep or Bestop.

If it's on a material hold it is likely that there is a very limited demand for for the tan tops. The way I see things, Bestop isn't going to start a production run of tan tops unless they have an order from Jeep to back it up. Jeep will not going order tan tops from Bestop unless they have a known demand for them. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether the entire production run of Wranglers is based solely on what dealers are ordering (dealer stock and customer orders) or if they're just building random Wranglers to ship to dealers in addition to what dealers are ordering. I'm inclined to think it's more the former and less the latter which to me would signal that dealers don't see strong demand for Wranglers with tan soft tops. At least where dealer stock is concerned, they're going to order vehicles optioned with features they think customers want and that are going to move. There isn't much incentive for them to order something that may only appeal to a very, very small niche because if they do, they run the risk of that vehicle sitting on their lot for a while until the right buyer comes along or having to discount it heavily to move it off the lot.
 

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I would put the blame more on customers and market demand and maybe even dealers than on Jeep or Bestop.
Not necessarily disagreeing, but as far as I'm aware we've literally never seen one - how can we be sure there's no demand?
 

kkuntz01

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Not necessarily disagreeing, but as far as I'm aware we've literally never seen one - how can we be sure there's no demand?
I would posit that if there was enough demand for it now, we'd be seeing them out in the wild. Eventually if/when there is enough demand we may start seeing them out there.
 

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I would put the blame more on customers and market demand and maybe even dealers than on Jeep or Bestop.

If it's on a material hold it is likely that there is a very limited demand for for the tan tops. The way I see things, Bestop isn't going to start a production run of tan tops unless they have an order from Jeep to back it up. Jeep will not going order tan tops from Bestop unless they have a known demand for them. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether the entire production run of Wranglers is based solely on what dealers are ordering (dealer stock and customer orders) or if they're just building random Wranglers to ship to dealers in addition to what dealers are ordering. I'm inclined to think it's more the former and less the latter which to me would signal that dealers don't see strong demand for Wranglers with tan soft tops. At least where dealer stock is concerned, they're going to order vehicles optioned with features they think customers want and that are going to move. There isn't much incentive for them to order something that may only appeal to a very, very small niche because if they do, they run the risk of that vehicle sitting on their lot for a while until the right buyer comes along or having to discount it heavily to move it off the lot.
I would disagree that there is little demand for the Tan top. I think there are other issues at play here. Also, in my opinion, if anyone is to blame, it is only Jeep and that is because they advertised the Tan top and if they were waffling on building them based on a potential demand, they should not have offered them. I told my dealer that if Jeep ends up canning the Tan top, it would be a deal breaker for my order and that I would start all over with a 2019 Rubicon, possibly in a different color and with the power soft top.
My dealer just told me that my order of April 11th would probably now be scheduled for build in August, another 30 days or more delay. You would think I was buying a Rolls Royce, Bentley, or Ferrari which normally take months and months to build, but a Rubicon? Come on, get real.
 

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I would disagree that there is little demand for the Tan top.
I hate to say it, you should bone up on the how the manufacturing supply chain works. Companies like Jeep won't blindly order product unless they know they have firm buyers for that product and companies like Bestop are not going to commit time and resources to producing a product that they don't know is going to be purchased (by Jeep).

My presumption would be that Jeep isn't going place an order for tan soft tops until they have firm orders for a minimum of x,xxx tan soft tops, because why would they waste their time on a couple of hundred of something when you're selling 20-30k Wranglers every month.

I think there are other issues at play here.
You didn't elaborate, what issues might those be?

My dealer just told me that my order of April 11th would probably now be scheduled for build in August, another 30 days or more delay. You would think I was buying a Rolls Royce, Bentley, or Ferrari which normally take months and months to build, but a Rubicon? Come on, get real.
I won't disagree with you that Jeep screwed the pooch in many ways with the launch of the JL. I was a victim of the Trail Rail Management System fiasco that essentially cost me a month and a half on my order and me getting what I had originally wanted.
 

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Tan soft tops show way too much dirt and grease. Look great when new but a mess a few years down the road.
Yep... Mold isn't as noticeable on a black soft top... :)
 

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That is funny as hell, the customers fault that jeep advertised it and now its not available. I guess it's our fault we don't have the off road pages no more either. In all seriousness that comment that its the customers fault is one of the dumbest comments I've ever seen in a forum.
 

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I agree....don’t offer it, if you’re not going to sell it. I think it’s more costly when it comes to paint. What if only 20 people order a certain color? They still build it, and it becomes a super rare color. Come on jeep, sell the tan tops. At the end of the day, they are still ordering soft tops from bestop, well, last time I checked bbestop sells tan tops for other vehicles, so just take a handful of your material, put it in line with the black material and tat da! It’s not rocket science.

For example.....why did they only build a handful of 2018 wrangler Nacho colored? I’m sure it cost them a lot of money to set up the paint for only a few Jeeps.
 
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PatrickKiser

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I hate to say it, you should bone up on the how the manufacturing supply chain works. Companies like Jeep won't blindly order product unless they know they have firm buyers for that product and companies like Bestop are not going to commit time and resources to producing a product that they don't know is going to be purchased (by Jeep).

My presumption would be that Jeep isn't going place an order for tan soft tops until they have firm orders for a minimum of x,xxx tan soft tops, because why would they waste their time on a couple of hundred of something when you're selling 20-30k Wranglers every month.


You didn't elaborate, what issues might those be?



I won't disagree with you that Jeep screwed the pooch in many ways with the launch of the JL. I was a victim of the Trail Rail Management System fiasco that essentially cost me a month and a half on my order and me getting what I had originally wanted.
My sales guy just told me that the Jeep should be scheduled for build in August, when in August is the question. I told my dealer that I'll wait until mid August or so for the build to be confirmed and the status changed from 'C'. If nothing changes, I'll walk on the order and get my deposit back and order a 2019. I'm really lucky because I currently have a Rubicon 10A in Anvil and body color fenders and hard top. It even has the dual top option and I've never even used the soft top yet because I line near Chicago (think cold weather most of the year). It just turned 17,000 miles and is like new. If I get a hoist system where I can remove and store the hard top, I'll be a happy camper. I wanted the soft top on the 2018 because I am relocating to Tucson and the weather is so nice there 9 months of the year, the soft top would be the way to go to easily open up the top. So maybe I'll look into how guys remove their hard tops without busting their asses.
I attached a pic of the 2018 with the tan soft top and also a pic of my 10A. Would you just keep the 10A or trade for a 2018?

zPat's 2018 Jeep Rubicon - Copy (2).jpg


PK's Jeep 2.JPG
 

NavyVet1959

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My sales guy just told me that the Jeep should be scheduled for build in August, when in August is the question. I told my dealer that I'll wait until mid August or so for the build to be confirmed and the status changed from 'C'. If nothing changes, I'll walk on the order and get my deposit back and order a 2019. I'm really lucky because I currently have a Rubicon 10A in Anvil and body color fenders and hard top. It even has the dual top option and I've never even used the soft top yet because I line near Chicago (think cold weather most of the year). It just turned 17,000 miles and is like new. If I get a hoist system where I can remove and store the hard top, I'll be a happy camper. I wanted the soft top on the 2018 because I am relocating to Tucson and the weather is so nice there 9 months of the year, the soft top would be the way to go to easily open up the top. So maybe I'll look into how guys remove their hard tops without busting their asses.
I prefer a hardtop vs a soft top since the air-conditioning will work better plus it offers better security. I like the orange instead of the gray though, but since I'm ex-Navy, I've seen all the haze gray in my life that I ever want to see again.
 

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How do they know what the demand is when up until recently you couldn’t order Tan - I wanted tan back in Feb but it wasn’t an orderable option.
 

kkuntz01

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That is funny as hell, the customers fault that jeep advertised it and now its not available. I guess it's our fault we don't have the off road pages no more either. In all seriousness that comment that its the customers fault is one of the dumbest comments I've ever seen in a forum.
So I’m not sure if your post is directed at me or not, however I’ll say this in response...

A company like Jeep, they were probably testing the waters to gauge interest with offering a Wrangler with a tan soft top. They throw out a few pre-production models with a tan top, a small niche of people get really excited talking about how they have to have it and Jeep decides to float it as an option. Where the reality sets in is that Jeep as a manufacturing company, they don’t manufacture anything without an order. I’m not talking about the special orders from the schlumps like you and me, I’m talking about the orders dealers place with Jeep for their inventory. Now you see, dealers are a finicky group, they only want to bring product (vehicles) onto their lots which will potentially move quick. The faster they turn over inventory the less money it costs them in finance charges (because they’re borrowing money to buy vehicles from Jeep to sell to consumers), or even potentially on the sale price. Bring something on that only caters to a “small niche” and they’re left hoping that the “right” buyer comes along is willing to buy it, if not they run the risk of it sitting on their lots for an extended period of time or having to discount it heavily to sell it someone who is only partially interested in what it has.

Speaking from my own experience searching dealer inventory within a 150 mile radius for something that had the options I wanted because I was getting sick of how long it was taking for Jeep to build and ship my order one thing I noticed was nearly every JL that I found that was sort of close to what I was looking for was either white, black or granite with the occasional gray. There were very few colors like blue, red, orange or green or even models that were dual top. What infer from that is dealers know their target audience and what the vast majority will buy. Does this suck for the niche customer who wants something unique or different that what everyone else is running, yes and it likely means you’re going to be on your own to figure out how to get what you need by sourcing it from a different company.
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