Ford Broncos by the thousands caught on camera parked at Michigan plant

UPDATE: We now know the reason for the holdup in delivering these Broncos. See the latest development here, in a letter to Bronco reservation holders. Meanwhile, we also just learned Thursday that Ford Mustang Mach-E production will be hit with weeks of delays because of the chip shortage.

Previous story appears below.

If you've been waiting for that 2021 Ford Bronco you ordered, now at least you know where it is — it's parked in Wayne, Michigan. Bronco6G forum member Mike Webb took video of likely thousands of the SUVs parked in lots at Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant, where the Bronco is built. 

You'll have to check the video out over at the forum. As Webb pans the scene, Broncos are parked at seemingly all points of the compass, with some of them far off in the distance. 

Motor1 asked Ford what was up and was told the Broncos were awaiting quality checks before being shipped. If that's the extent of the explanation, this would seem to be quite the inventory throughput problem. A chokepoint. How many trains would it take to deliver what's queued up here?

But the explanation behind the explanation could be a little more nuanced. We know that roof issues have long been a hangup in the Bronco rollout, delaying some deliveries into next year. But Bronco6G has also been reporting recently that early owners have experienced roof hardtop and soft top quality-control issues with delivered vehicles, and that the ongoing chip shortage has also come into play. Michigan Assembly was shut down in parts of July for a lack of parts. The image of these Broncos echoes pictures of F-150s stacked up over the past few weeks and months in Kansas City and Dearborn awaiting chipped parts.

Is this herd of Broncos awaiting final components in the same "build-shy" strategy Ford has used with the F-150? (The term means building as much of a vehicle as possible, then parking it to await final assembly with the last components.) When Ford reported its Q2 earnings in late July, CFO John Lawler said the company had 60,000 to 70,000 vehicles parked for this reason.

Whatever the reason, that appears to be a lot of Broncos. Meanwhile, when they do get delivered, some are destined to go to 100 Ford dealers who are rushing to construct separate Bronco showrooms in which they'll present the hotly anticipated vehicles.