Ford CEO Farley Says Dealers Who Price Gouge Could Get Fewer Vehicle Allocations

[milla61]

So they are going to punish the "dealer" by fulfilling less customer orders at that dealer?

Ford-"We've tried nothing and we're out of ideas!"

That was my take on it as well. The only way this benefits customers with orders already placed is if Ford personally contacted order holders and let them know they are decreasing allocation amounts and switches them to a dealer that can fulfill their order.

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[lobbs611]

Well, we know they'll punish dealers who were charging less than MSRP by changing the whole damn allocation formula for the next model year so it's plausible...

 

[anl]

Let's see if Ford enforces this for the Bronco Raptor, especially since some dealership have already stated there will be huge ADM's on them.

 

[DREWR13]

Ford can't deliver orders to dealers right now on any model line. The idea they are going to punish "dealers" when they can't even get them vehicles at all is comical and just for the news stories.

 

[2021WILDTRAKCDH]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...R9yzE5CXJDYb4ownnJe6R6dCM1Mj9rzc4RBIeNj-BdgGs

Glad to hear it.. Whether or not they follow thru will be interesting to see.

And I am sure we call all trust FORD to deliver on this promise....So a dealer looses 1 bronco allocation a year but lies, cheats, and steals customer orders and charges 10-25K ADM on 5-10 other Broncos....I cant imagine the dealer would change his business model....FORD releases a BS statement like this to say they care....lol

 

[vzqhsg]

unless Ford plans on making public all dealer allocations for Bronco by dealership (past, present and future) there is no way to verify this. All we can do is take Ford's word for it.

Yep...talk is cheap. There have been dealers that have done this already. They should be the example if they mean it. How do you cut the throat of your sales partners...answer...you don't.

 

[JB93]

All this complaining but 90%+ of posters on here seem to be lining up in the droves to buy a Half-Baked Bronco at full pop. All you foot stompers clamoring to lock in MSRP from F-Urd are not voting with your wallet. More like lining their wallets. I'm out of the car buying market until all this nonsense passes. I started off wanting a Bronco really badly, ordered, canceled, then my wife fell in love with it too and now she wants one. I'd love to buy her one, but the smart money says wait 2 years and then buy one off the lot for a decent price and probably a better vehicle after the bugs are worked out and the overtaxed Covid production line that is slapping these bitches together without torqueing down bolts will be in better shape too. I'm pretty angry with Ford over all this and just can't see giving them a fat tip right now when the service so far has sucked.

 

[JakeC]

I feel like Jim is attempting to communicate indirectly to the Dealers themselves.

 

[Bronco wannabe]

Ask F-150 Raptor owners if they're paying ADM the last two years....

 

[gryphon1231]

Yeah I'll be real curious to see the markup horror stories on those.

Personally I think dealership will use ADM for the Raptor as a selective sales tool. If they only have a few allocated to them

Yep...talk is cheap. There have been dealers that have done this already. They should be the example if they mean it. How do you cut the throat of your sales partners...answer...you don't.

Since Ford's CEO is says they will punish these dealerships it would interesting to know if Ford puts language into dealership contracts that says they will be penalized if they sell vehicles at a certain mark up over MSRP.

 

[1975U15]

Cutting allocations means less units, means the dealer is motivated to charge even more ADM on the ones they have. In any event, this was a well-documented statement he made regarding the EV vehicles. It is not relevant to Bronco sales. Ford continues to offer the same exemplary concern about the reservation holders as they always have.

This.

As well as what @Razorbak86 mentioned. This is all forward looking and about the F150 Lightening. ADM’s on Bronco…meh. Ford has basically claimed it’s your fault for not having a signed agreement. Pissing off the EV and F150 crowd with ADM’s however, may lead to dealerships being burnt to the ground.

Certainly going to be interesting to see how reservations and the overall Lightening launch goes. Glad I’m just a spectator.

 

[Take57]

There's both a constrained supply and relatively high economy-wide inflation. People can talk a big game about holding the line on prices, but the market clearing price for a lot of vehicles (and certainly the Bronco) is above MSRP. Either the dealers will be selling cars at that price, or flippers will be buying them up and doing it.

My expectation is that dealers will honor prices they negotiated with customers. That's where I think Ford needs to be vigilant. But if this reservation mess continues on and the auto market goes through another 10-15% inflation in 2022, how willing are the dealers going to be to take a serious bath to keep a promise made in Jan 2021? How willing will Ford be to hold them to it? I think the answer to both is "not much".

I don't know that they'd be taking a "serious bath" because presumably the deal they made originally was already profitable. I see it more of a case of not making as much as they could were the deal was done at the time of delivery and the car in question was somehow "better" than the one in the original deal.

It's no secret that in many cases the cars being manufactured at this moment often have lesser features (mostly in terms of chip based tech, i.e. the temp readouts on the heater controls being cut) than earlier models. (The ones spec'ed on the original order)

In any event, if the dealer feels they are being taken advantage of, they need to have that conversation with Ford rather than being of a mind that it's the customer's responsibility to maintain their profit margins.

 

[DogHauler]

Customers should agree to keep the vehicle for at least 2 years.

 

[Take57]

Customers should agree to keep the vehicle for at least 2 years.

The GT strategy...

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