Direct Question From Mike Levine

[Frank N]

Again, if you're unhappy, cancel, get your money back and tell Ford to stick it. There's plenty of other options out there and you aren't married to the Bronco.

I am not married to the Bronco, but our engagement has been somewhat rocky still I am not ready to call off the wedding next year.

Ya know if they fixed the 1595 auto situation in the first week, this would have never happened. Makes me wonder why they didnt fix it.

Sponsored

 

[Dubfound]

This forum gives me Anxiety

 

[jaspercasidino]

I received a direct question from Mike Levine in Twitter where he asked me about the specific link where Ford Bronco Brand Manager Esteban Plaza-Jennings was asked in the Live Q&A if the 2.7 V6/Auto Price was correct where his exact words were "Yes, its true and its a steal". Now I do remember hearing Mr. Jennings say that but I cannot find the exact link. I was hoping to get some help so I can send a response to Mr. Levine........Thanks.

I asked this question in the big thread about the auto transmission pricing increase. I don’t think Esteban ever said it and there has been no evidence to contrary. I found the International Auto Q&A and that is where the “it’s a steal” comes from.

I made Mike aware of the 2.7L and 10spd price bundle on the day of the B&P launch. No one tweets me back (haha), so I don’t know if you get notifications for people replying to you, so I don’t know if he actually saw this or not.

 

[jaruss01]

WOW

The fact that he asked...sounds like they all knew and it was by design.

What we should all be asking ourselves is whether it was intentional. Why is no one asking that? They had the correct prices in the survey. Then delayed and delayed on B&P release, no mod tops, and miraculously prices were lower. Ha. How convenient.

Side note - Don’t forget Esteban (who seems like a very nice, educated guy) was the one who spilled the beans about the white tops. But as we know and confirmed it was a rep at the expo.

Ford is smart about delaying the bad news given the drawn out process. Anything negative they share with the public has been very strategic. You don’t think everyone at Ford on the bronco team knew the auto tranny cost was missing?? It was in their own survey! No wonder they are sensitive to a team member that blatantly lied, instead of their original plan to play it off as a mistake, draw out a couple months, then raise it.

If they weren’t facing a two month delay with mod tops (which they knew about when B&P was released) maybe the would have had the correct prices during the initial B&P.

 

[Hank 615]

Stop saying we thought the auto trans was free. No one thought it was free, just that it was included in the $1895 charge to upgrade to the 2.7. Two different things.

 

[Rover72]

I really don't care what Ford does as they are not going to upset even one of my days.
I may or may not buy a Bronco was always the case. They don't owe me anything. How they present what they are offering & I am interested in matters if they want my business though.

Just some observations:
As smart business processes go I think of publishing the B&P tool in the same vein as writing code for a computer program or writing a book. You write code & test it over and over with many different people trying to break it so you can find the problems and fix them "before release". You certainly make sure major functionality works (major components should be correct, engine & tranny price should be correct) and the only issues might be small areas on the edges that are hardly looked at. If you write a book you have it proof read a bunch to make sure you do not have typos or paragraphs left out. The B&P could not have been proof read if the tranny was to have a $1595. price originally as we are now told.

I understand disclosures and they should not be needed to ensure major component pricing information can be corrected. Disclosures should should be for the little gotchas and not for reckless release of misinformation as this looks like bait & switch, not a good feeling to leave potential customers with. Ford either screwed up, didn't pay attention for 2 months even after being asked about a possible issue or they decided to increase pricing with the tranny being the logical slot for a price change. It appears some of their reps (its a steal) even believed the misinformation and didn't go back to management for clarification & correction. Levine weighing in is Ford confirming the price change is here to stay and not some B&P update mistake. Ford is not on top of their game or the game is really shady. Levine failed in my opinion because a better explanation is what he should have been offering rather than asking for proof of what was said. Don't play his game, stop looking for proof as he did not offer to change things even if you produce it, its a waste of time. Levine is not a good steward of Ford customer relations look for someone else as such.

Either way it is what it is.
Ford will live with the aftermath of lost sales from failure to post accurate details.
We will pay attention to an everchanging line of Ford speak while they figure things out until we can place our orders.
Happy Holidays!

 

[Efthreeoh]

This is too funny! Ford decides to find out where that rumor came from and turns out... It was just a rumor haha

And B6G went apeshit for 50+ pages about it. LOL

 

[Compta38]

1. I hope enough people cancel that it bumps me up in line and I get my Bronco sooner.

2. I hope Ford sees the folly of their ways after all the cancellations and makes auto trans free again.

 

[Efthreeoh]

B&P is still weak. Today it was adding my options to MSRP not the options/pkg section.

Get the January when B&P will be fixed with no bugs.

oh and colors lol

I rebuilt my 2-door BD yesterday now that the modular top is in the B&P. In the option listing detail the $1,895 price for the modular top is listed twice, but is only added once in the summary section. The pricing is correct based on my build pricing from weeks ago as it only adds the $1,895. But it is a bit confusing.

As I've been saying since the beginning, once I'm at the dealer ordering my Bronco those are the numbers that count and get locked into. THOSE are the numbers that both I and Ford agree to in writing and have a signed artifact confirming the vehicle price.

 

[Efthreeoh]

I really don't care what Ford does as they are not going to upset even one of my days.
I may or may not buy a Bronco was always the case. They don't owe me anything. How they present what they are offering & I am interested in matters if they want my business though.

Just some observations:
As smart business processes go I think of publishing the B&P tool in the same vein as writing code for a computer program or writing a book. You write code & test it over and over with many different people trying to break it so you can find the problems and fix them "before release". You certainly make sure major functionality works (major components should be correct, engine & tranny price should be correct) and the only issues might be small areas on the edges that are hardly looked at. If you write a book you have it proof read a bunch to make sure you do not have typos or paragraphs left out. The B&P could not have been proof read if the tranny was to have a $1595. price originally as we are now told.

I understand disclosures and they should not be needed to ensure major component pricing information can be corrected. Disclosures should should be for the little gotchas and not for reckless release of misinformation as this looks like bait & switch, not a good feeling to leave potential customers with. Ford either screwed up, didn't pay attention for 2 months even after being asked about a possible issue or they decided to increase pricing with the tranny being the logical slot for a price change. It appears some of their reps (its a steal) even believed the misinformation and didn't go back to management for clarification & correction. Levine weighing in is Ford confirming the price change is here to stay and not some B&P update mistake. Ford is not on top of their game or the game is really shady. Levine failed in my opinion because a better explanation is what he should have been offering rather than asking for proof of what was said. Don't play his game, stop looking for proof as he did not offer to change things even if you produce it, its a waste of time. Levine is not a good steward of Ford customer relations look for someone else as such.

Either way it is what it is.
Ford will live with the aftermath of lost sales from failure to post accurate details.
We will pay attention to an everchanging line of Ford speak while they figure things out until we can place our orders.
Happy Holidays!

I agree with your software analogy and I'd bet Ford and it's software suppliers build and test software used in various on-board modules to the automotive software standards/protocols set by the industry. But the B&P is just a website pricing tool with far less criticality standards. I'm sure the B&P is built to Ford's internal standards and was tested as such. Perhaps the testers were too close to the product to not see the minor pricing errors in the code?

In the age of social media it is impossible to keep rein over all aspects of information dissemination. I know in my industry, once email became prevent in the 1990's, it became highly difficult to control the flow of information to the customer and information dissemination crossed between program disciplines (i.e. keeping business information separated from technical information). To this day it causes confusion in my industry and my position is one of cleaning it up to correct the course. I hate to admit that part of my duties is being a "spin doctor".

As an auto consumer, one just needs to retain some level of maturity and realize there is some inaccuracy built into the system, because it must be understood in the age of social media, imprecision rules the day.

 

[Efthreeoh]

This forum gives me Anxiety

I find automotive forums offer far better entertainment than TV.

 

[Hoofnmouth]

First we will offer the manual with the worst engine,then when they try to go larger we make it auto only,but we offer it for free ,just a taste ,then before christmas we snatch it away and watch the forums go 80+pages...excellent !

 

[Blitzinger]

One more example of how this launch is a total circus. I’m only buying a bronco to sell at this point. Use some proceeds to get a defender or 4Runner

 

[Smrideatiger76]

Sponsored