🤬 Naughty Bad Dealerships Hall of Shame ("Surprise ADM" List)

[BRBlue]

Been waiting on this list. Please add AutoNation Ford Gulf Freeway in Houston. They offered me an X Plan equivalent discount to move my day 1 reservation to them. I made sure to get that offer in writing and signed by management before placing the order in March. Just took delivery in December and they refused to honor the agreement. They even threatened to not sell me the Bronco if I didn’t pay MSRP. They pulled this with some others as well.

Clearly gaming the system to get more allocations. I realize MSRP is a good deal in today’s market and others are seeing large ADMs but it doesn’t make me feel any better having been lied to and taken advantage of by this dealer.

I reached out to the GM with all of the details and a copy of the signed agreement and his response made it obvious that this comes from the top down and it’s not just a bad sales team/rep running rogue. They claim that “Ford no longer offers X Plan on the Bronco” and therefore they can’t honor our agreement. Funny thing is I pointed out to them that Ford wasn’t honoring X plan when placing the order and they assured me I would still see the equivalent discount.

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[phocion]

Koons Ford Annapolis. Thread below.

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...how-much-and-dealer-location-post-here.26048/

I will add this one. MD is another hotspot it seems.

 

[phocion]

Been waiting on this list. Please add AutoNation Ford Gulf Freeway in Houston. They offered me an X Plan equivalent discount to move my day 1 reservation to them. I made sure to get that offer in writing and signed by management before placing the order in March. Just took delivery in December and they refused to honor the agreement. They even threatened to not sell me the Bronco if I didn’t pay MSRP. They pulled this with some others as well.

I believe that other dealers have pulled this too. It's another form that the lying takes. I will include these situations when the dealer makes it clear that Ford may not be honoring the plan price, but the dealership will.

Some Broncos have been successfully bought at the X plan price, so we know that the dealers aren't under strict orders from Ford to avoid doing so.

 

[Bob 07064]

Bob..I don't know if you are still interested..But I dealt with All American Ford in Old Bridge...They kept their word on my sale..and I was buying on the A/Z plan,and they honored the plan price...just throwing this out there if you're still buying..

I went with Flemington Ford. so far so good and I have a string of emails with the dora, agreed price and such. In NJ emails and texts are considered legally binding contracts.

 

[lewisbrett]

Another scenario I have heard of but doesn't seem to apply to me:

- dealer orders what they want and not what the customer order (for example the 2.3 instead of the 2.7, wrong color, maybe an Outer Banks instead of a Badlands) and then tells the customer to take it or leave it when they come to pick it up.

I'm not going to name the dealership on this because I don't have first hand knowledge.

 

[RedDawg]

B6G also tweeted this link. If you’re on Twitter, “like” and “retweet”

 

[nwGTS]

This thread is terrific and more importantly the thread title graphic is outstanding.

 

[phocion]

Another scenario I have heard of but doesn't seem to apply to me:

- dealer orders what they want and not what the customer order (for example the 2.3 instead of the 2.7, wrong color, maybe an Outer Banks instead of a Badlands) and then tells the customer to take it or leave it when they come to pick it up.

I'm not going to name the dealership on this because I don't have first hand knowledge.

Order screw-ups have definitely happened. Dealers have even damaged Broncos. I'm not intending to list every time a customer was less than satisfied with a dealer, since that would eventually envelop every Bronco dealer in the world. Even at good dealers, shit happens sometimes. Focusing this thread on the blatant bait-and-switch, for what are supposed to be reserved Broncos.

 

[NORCALGXP]

Thank you for all the hard work. Exposing and shaming the greedy dealerships for all to see in one place. Excellent.

 

[peterh]

great thread, hopefully it keeps the dealers who came on this site offering special deals to keep their word - there are several and they captured alot of reservations this way.

 

[RedolentSurge]

Thanks, I'll check it out. New Jersey seems like a hot spot for bad dealers.

Always has been; see Mad Men, season five.

 

[Markatmac]

Pretty cool man. Hopefully this will discourage any other dealers to add ADM to any reservations.

 

[Toastedtostito]

This is crowd-sourced... please link me to the applicable sources and details, and if you see any discrepancies or have any recommendations let me know -- thanks! I know of a few more cases and will be updating the list in a few hours.

Westway Ford (Irving, TX) - AKA "Worstway Ford"

• At delivery, @sadiki2527 was charged $24.5k over MSRP ($4k supposedly for tint and other dealer add-ons)
• Customer was an early reservation
• Customer apparently signed a form generated by Westway with MSRP.
• Dealer has not budged yet.

Fremont Ford (Newark, CA)

• At delivery, @94becerra was charged $15k over MSRP.
• Dealership never agreed to pricing with customer, kept telling customer to wait for delivery before talking price.
• Dealership agreed to "lower" price to $8k over MSRP, and @94becerra walked.
• Attempted to charge @stratego $5k surprise ADM; he walked and they listed it for $30k over MSRP.
• Informed @bman3000 in August that all Bronco orders would be $5k over MSRP. Fremont had been evasive about price until then.

Lindsay Ford (Wheaton, MD)

• At delivery, @Smeagolsaur was charged $10K over MSRP.
• Dealer had previously agreed to MSRP in March (when customer also put down a deposit).
• Situation was resolved to the customer's satisfaction after online pressure from B6G.

Don's Ford (Utica, NY)

• At delivery of a Dirt Mountain Bronco, @Jack1080 was charged $20K over MSRP -- they later agreed to lower this to $15k over MSRP "for being a good customer".
• Dealer had earlier verbally committed to MSRP; had been providing vehicles to customer's company for 10 years.
• Customer told them to ram the Bronco up their ass, and walked.

DCH Ford (Eatontown, NJ)

• At delivery of a Dirt Mountain Bronco, @Sherminator was charged $10K over MSRP.
• Dealer had a customer-signed DORA with MSRP.
• Situation snowballed badly, involving social media and Mike Levine, and the dealership ultimately refused to sell the MY21 Bronco to the customer.
• Highly toxic situation was resolved to the customer's satisfaction, but ultimately did not result in him acquiring his original Bronco. New order was placed for MSRP.

Billy Cain Ford (Cornelia, GA)

• Upon MY22 reorder of a MY21 reservation, @Luv9rove was charged an extra $13k ADM.
• Customer walked.

Hansel Ford (Santa Rosa, CA)

• Upon MY22 reorder of a MY21 reservation, a deleted user was charged an extra $2.5k ADM.
• Customer walked.

Haldeman Ford (Trenton, NJ)

• When @HadEnough switched from a FE to a Badlands, Haldeman attempted to give the early FE reservation to someone else and generate a new, late reservation for the Badlands.
• With the help of Ford corporate, the original reservation was converted to a new dealership, and Haldeman lost the FE reservation.

Al Piemonte Ford (Melrose Park, IL)

• At delivery, @ChiPlJam10 was charged $20k over MSRP, later lowered to $10k.
• Customer did not have a negotiated price with the dealership.

Koons Ford (Annapolis, MD)

• At delivery, @MRuby was charged $20k over MSRP, later lowered to $7.5k.
• Customer did not have a negotiated price with the dealership.

Woodbridge Ford (Woodbridge, NJ)

• Formerly Bell Ford, this dealership came under new ownership, refunded order deposits, and used this as an excuse to ignore previous price negotiations.
• While in production, informed @Kamikazi_bronco that his Bronco would be $15k+ over MSRP, and that the final price would not be discussed until delivery.
• Informed @broncusmaximus that the written, negotiated MSRP pricing would be voided and "100% guaranteed you'll pay over MSRP".
• At delivery, informed @Bob 07064 that his Bronco would be $14k over MSRP. Customer walked.
• Complaints to Ford corporate were not fruitful.

Grand Prairie Ford (Grand Prairie, TX)

• At delivery, a Facebook user was charged $21k over MSRP.
• Dealership was apparently using reserved Bronco to provide test drives to other customers.
• Not clear if she had a previously negotiated price with the dealership.
• Situation was resolved to the customer's satisfaction after the customer's posts went viral.

Autonation Ford Gulf Freeway (Houston, TX)

• At delivery, @BRBlue was charged MSRP instead of previously negotiated, in-writing X-plan pricing.
• Dealership did sell at X-plan to @TXAG96 but griped about it incessantly and added $548 of unwanted accessories.

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Is your dealer trying this with you? Go through the steps in this thread.

Is your reservation with a bad dealer? You may have a tough time getting it moved, so be prepared to place a brand new order at another dealer.

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Let's be clear about the scenario this list is for:

• Customer reserved/ordered Bronco and agreed with dealership on a price (in writing or verbally).
• Sometime later, especially after scheduling or upon delivery, the dealership informed the customer that "additional dealer markup" is now being applied above the agreed-upon price.

A few special circumstances will also be included:

1. Dealerships that "steal" a reservation (sell a reserved Bronco to a third party without the customer abandoning the order). Even if this is by accident, it's severe enough to make the list.
2. Dealerships that applied new ADM to MY22 reservations when rolling over orders for MY21 (i.e. punishing the customer for having to wait longer).
3. Dealerships that came under new ownership and "changed the deal".
4. Customers who assumed the Bronco was selling for MSRP, but never actually came to any firm pricing agreement with the dealership, and were later surprised by ADM. This will be very clearly indicated, since some readers will not find the dealer to be entirely at fault in this scenario.

If a dealership later comes to an acceptable arrangement with the customer, that will be clearly noted, but the dealership will not be fully removed from the list. Also, dealerships will not be removed from this list as part of a deal. Customers have no power to directly modify this list and it can't be part of a negotiation.

Additionally, we aren't concerned with what constitutes a legally binding purchase agreement here. If a dealership lies or misleads the customer about ADM, that's enough to make the list.

Inclusion on this list is not a recommendation to avoid the dealer. You can read the details of each case and decide for yourself whether you want to risk a similar experience. The information here is only as good as what the customer provides us; you can read the linked threads and decide for yourself whether the information is accurate and complete.

What this list explicitly does not include:

• Dealerships that are selling marked-up Broncos from their lot (including mannequins) to new customers. Yes, even if it's $50k over sticker.
• Dealerships that have been transparent with their reservation customers about above-MSRP pricing from the beginning.
• Dealerships that surprise customers with dealer add-ons like VIN etching, nitrogen in the tires, etc. that they charge customers for. If you do not want these things, tell your dealership not to do them.
• Dealerships that are rude, dumb, messed up the order, gave priority orders to their friends, or aggrieved customers in any other way. This list is specifically for dealerships using deceptive pricing tactics with Ford's reservation/ordering system.

This list is the single most helpful thing I have found on this forum in a long while. It's good to see actually information, and not just complaining about how much mike or Ford sucks. Thank you for this.

 

[Wanted33]

What say you @Ford MotorCompany (other than pompoms and leading the cheer) ?

Bad dealers are damaging your brand.

Fixed it for ya. Gotta have them spaces in there.

@Ford Motor Company

 

[SaveTheManuals]

I will add this one. MD is another hotspot it seems.

I thought that Koons may be a fishy one. I went to service my bronco at their other Ford dealer in Falls Church and saw at least 10+ broncos sitting in their lot setup like they were for sale. Thankfully I bought mine from another dealer in the area. I will not be returning to Koons anyways after their service department tried to tell me the alignment for a bronco sport and bronco were the same thing.

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