Dealers WILL be held accountable by Ford for Bronco sales shenanigans

[Sherminiator]

From someone I know that works at a dealership:

Ford has been setting rules for the newer vehicles (Mustang Mach-E, Bronco, etc.) regarding advertising, sales prices, retail order compliance, etc. and enforcing them via an audit program for compliance. Dealers have to report scheduled retail orders that are cancelled by the customer or be in violation of the program rules. Dealers can lose allocation, lose incremental allocation and even be charged back for incremental allocation granted previously depending on the severity of the Dealer's violations.

The Dealers are being held accountable for their actions.

I also received an interesting phone call the other night about this-I'll share more at later date about it.

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[Herbie]

Wouldn't that be poetic justice!

 

[Beach_Bum]

I wouldn't put too much stock in Ford enforcing any penalties on dealers. Ford will only acquiesce any infractions and redefine the parameters so that dealers won't be in violation of any policy. See the prior name-match policy as it was reduced from 80% to 60%.

 

[Drex]

So Ford is going to audit its customers (the dealers) and apply sanctions against them that will limit their ability to buy more vehicles from Ford?

I am just not feeling it.


Anyone believe these mythical penalties will ever be applied to a big dealer?

 

[Sherminiator]

I wouldn't put too much stock in Ford enforcing any penalties on dealers. Ford will only acquiesce any infractions and redefine the parameters so that dealers won't be in violation of any policy. See the prior name-match policy as it was reduced from 80% to 60%.

This is what exactly happening at a certain dealership....

 

[Sherminiator]

So Ford is going to audit its customers (the dealers) and apply sanctions against them that will limit their ability to buy more vehicles from Ford?

Say a dealership is supposed to get 15 Broncos a month and they where doing stupid things-that number would be cut to 10 a month and those other 5 bronco would go to another dealership(s) that followed the rules.

Its not like they are going to turn the spigot off to them but they will hurt them

 

[Beach_Bum]

This is what exactly happening at a certain dealership....

If it is happening, it is only because they are a terrible dealership. Ford has set the thresholds at such a minimal level that it is all but impossible to not remain in compliance. Instead of focusing on a minimum satisfactory threshold and penalizing those that don't clear the low bar, Ford should be focused on incentivizing dealer performance. Those dealers that take pride in attaining the highest percentage of name-match orders should be given additional allocation.

 

[hemiblas]

I'll believe it when I see it. Watching what some of these dealers have done has totally turned me off to ever considering another Ford again.

 

[sgraing1]

What does westway Ford have to say about this?

 

[da_jokker]

Yeah this isn't new. This type of thing was known about way back when reservations were first able to be converted to orders.

Ford has back pedaled on this, raised the allowed "grace" percentage, And I don't think as enforced in a single time yet.

Just my opinion, but this is all dog and pony.

 

[Compta38]

nothing will happen. If Ford cared they would shut down stupidity right off the bat and not after the fact.

 

[Slyder]

I'll stay cautiously optimistic that this will eventually help the honest and deter the dishonest, if this is being enforced.

I'm a Granger order holder and found out my place in line recently, and at the current best case scenario, I'm a late '23. (2-Dr Badlands, 2.7, High pkg)

I've contemplated putting my exact order in at another larger Dealer, but I'd rather not 'clog' the system with another dummy order to see which gets built first.

I'm currently exploring other options, after urging from friends, co-workers & family, and if I can find a build that's 90% my current build (has to be 2.7) that's been abandoned/refused and the Dealer isn't pulling any ADM b.s, I'm going to pull the trigger.

I'm patient, but the mere fact I'm quite possibly looking at a worst case scenario of early '24 for my actual build.

I doubt it'll happen.

 

[Sherminiator]

Yeah this isn't new. This type of thing was known about way back when reservations were first able to be converted to orders.

Ford has back pedaled on this, raised the allowed "grace" percentage, And I don't think as enforced in a single time yet.

If it is happening, it is only because they are a terrible dealership. Ford has set the thresholds at such a minimal level that it is all but impossible to not remain in compliance. Instead of focusing on a minimum satisfactory threshold and penalizing those that don't clear the low bar, Ford should be focused on incentivizing dealer performance. Those dealers that take pride in attaining the highest percentage of name-match orders should be given additional allocation.

Enforcement is apparently happening now and either dealerships didn't care or didn't know about it for whatever reason. Now they'll have to care about it. It just shows that some dealerships don't do there "jobs" properly either through incompetence or indifference.

What it boils down to is there isn't much money to be made selling a vehicle outright-I want to say an MSRP sale is like $500-1000 per Bronco sale and the dealership actually makes more if its an A/Z/D plan sale because Ford reimburses them. Dealerships make money on service and selling extended warranties, not vehicle sales.

So given the opportunity to increase your profit margin by huge number by adding an ADM to a hot product, dealerships got greedy and developed blinders for short term gain. I get it to a point, but the major turn off is they are basically increasing their profit margin by 1000% percent or more (if I did my math right), which most business would be hit with price gouging charges if they did that on other products.

I think most of us wouldn't have an issue paying maybe $1-2K more due to the current market conditions, but paying 5-10-15K or more is what is infuriating people.

 

[BigFootie]

I'll stay cautiously optimistic that this will eventually help the honest and deter the dishonest, if this is being enforced.

I'm a Granger order holder and found out my place in line recently, and at the current best case scenario, I'm a late '23. (2-Dr Badlands, 2.7, High pkg)

I've contemplated putting my exact order in at another larger Dealer, but I'd rather not 'clog' the system with another dummy order to see which gets built first.

I'm currently exploring other options, after urging from friends, co-workers & family, and if I can find a build that's 90% my current build (has to be 2.7) that's been abandoned/refused and the Dealer isn't bulling any ADM b.s, I'm going to pull the trigger.

I'm patient, but the mere fact I'm quite possibly looking at a worst case scenario of early '24 for my actual build.

I doubt it'll happen.

You and me both! I actually hope people cancel their orders with Granger if they get one sooner to allow the rest of us to move up the allocation ladder. Or, at least move them to the back of the line.

 

[palley6]

This was in effect before the first builds were delivered, and here we are. Not to mention if Ford does follow through with this after the deed is done by the dealer, the dealer makes absurd ADM, customers with reservations at said dealer get screwed, new inventory continues to trickle regardless.

If Ford was truly in the position to show concern for the customer they would step in to help those with 1 year+ Bronco reservations and a.) stop the highway robbery regarding ADM, b.) help compensate the customer, or c.) help them source elsewhere.

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