Are allocations “anticompetitive practices”?

[UNBROKN]

This is what I was saying in another thread. The power is now on the dealer's side.

My dealer asked for a $2500 non refundable deposit. After I pushed back he said I didn't fall in his allocations anyway and told me to go somewhere else. (I'm a day 3 reservation, so I find that hard to believe)

So this guy don't give a f about me. I leave and that just moves up someone else on his list that is willing to make that deposit.

Yes, and you may kick someone off the list at the dealership you move it to.
" Sorry Bob, someone moved their reservation so you get a MY22 now."
I am 5th at a dealer with 4 allocations. I would hate to get moved down to 6th and my dealer tells me its because someone moved their reservation and jumped ahead of me... right after he got 1 more allocation. Allocations are "estimates". I am a 7/31 reserve at a very small dealer. Hopefully the dealers will have a little leeway on this.
I am also hoping one of the earlier reservations wants late availability stuff and will be happy to get a MY22...

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[PowPow]

Yes, and you may kick someone off the list at the dealership you move it to.
" Sorry Bob, someone moved their reservation so you get a MY22 now."
I am 5th at a dealer with 4 allocations. I would hate to get moved down to 6th and my dealer tells me its because someone moved their reservation and jumped ahead of me... right after he got 1 more allocation. Allocations are "estimates". I am a 7/31 reserve at a very small dealer. Hopefully the dealers will have a little leeway on this.
I am also hoping one of the earlier reservations wants late availability stuff and will be happy to get a MY22...

You are correct. And that sucks. But that's not an excuse to bully me into a $2500 non refundable down payment. This dealer has given me no choice. Esp when you can't guarantee me I'll even get my bronco in 2021.

Would you give some $2500 to just hold onto for a year? That does me nothing. I'm someone who likes to invest. Giving him that money now literally costs me more money.

Nevermind this dealer also hasn't said boo to me since making the reservation, then emails me yesterday saying I need to give him $2500 non refundable money by Tuesday to reserve my bronco? Get the f outta here.

Btw, I'm a 7/16 reservation... So where are you reserved at? Hahaha, jk ?

The dealer I'm moving to seems to be a pretty large volume dealer. So hopefully I don't knock someone out. I honestly should've went with them first. But I never bought a Ford (GM family) so I just choose the closest to me, not giving it much thought.

 

[XCR440]

I'll argue for allocation. Lets forget the Bronco side of things and just go regular. Reservations has been a disaster and I see no way to make it right at this point.

Lets go with something like Mustang. New one came out in 2005 and was HOT, I'm a truck and SUV dealer that doesn't sell many Mustangs, but in 2005, I could sell as many as I could get. If not for allocation I could have ordered and scheduled a lot of them. Now lets say another dealer in Texas sells lots of Mustangs every year. Because they gave me more in 2005, he'd have gotten less, so the customer that buys one every year gets told he can't have one this year because the dealer got less. Not a good way to do business.

That's the reason for allocation, its meant to make sure things go where they should to keep things fair.

Another reason is to keep things in check. I'm a small dealer. Lets say allocation didn't exist and I ordered and got 200 Mustangs one month. No way I can get them all ready, cleaned and give the customer the training and information they deserve. It would be a hose them down and ship them out, with low tire lights on and scratches from the wash bay, wam bam operation. Again not good for customer satisfaction. The allocation system keeps your volume inline with your capability. It used to be a requirement in the franchise agreement that you had to have service area to match your sales, so you couldn't get a crazy number if you had a 5 bay shop. I never heard of it being an issue, but you can understand the reasoning.

Allocation in new dealerships is a necessary evil. Now how allocations are calculated, that's something I think is a more arguable point. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes not. More of an issue on new models in a segment they haven't been in before.

 

[Broncoak]

You are correct. And that sucks. But that's not an excuse to bully me into a $2500 non refundable down payment. This dealer has given me no choice. Esp when you can't guarantee me I'll even get my bronco in 2021.

Would you give some $2500 to just hold onto for a year? That does me nothing. I'm someone who likes to invest. Giving him that money now literally costs me more money.

Nevermind this dealer also hasn't said boo to me since making the reservation, then emails me yesterday saying I need to give him $2500 non refundable money by Tuesday to reserve my bronco? Get the f outta here.

Btw, I'm a 7/16 reservation... So where are you reserved at? Hahaha, jk ?

The dealer I'm moving to seems to be a pretty large volume dealer. So hopefully I don't knock someone out. I honestly should've went with them first. But I never bought a Ford (GM family) so I just choose the closest to me, not giving it much thought.

Dude, you're right to move. Dealerships do a killing in sales and there's a lot of nonsense that goes on behind the scenes at dealerships to make you sick. At least most hide that from the customers so they can make the sale. The fact that yours is giving you the 1 finger salute out in the open tells you all you need to know.

I know there are good dealerships out there; I've even considered taking a second job at one because I'm an enthusiast of cars, not just the Bronco.

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