Ford CEO Jim Farley on Bronco production & price protection [as of 2/14/22]

[Incommunicado]

“We are aware that some customers who placed orders at certain dealerships may be waiting longer than expected. We are investigating why this has occurred at a limited number of dealerships.”

Bold.

Many have already noted spot-on thoughts about how Ford flipped the table halfway through the game, by changing the allocation… which they can certainly do… at risk of pissing off the many reservation holders that were operating under the original plan.

So a handful of smart dealers offered special pricing to reservation holders and grabbed many orders. Great job. Free market, right?

But Ford must have noticed that what little product they could produce was about to get routed to just a few small dealers. Large Ford flagship dealers were about to watch delivery after delivery go to just a few, if it were strictly by time stamp regardless of location. But by changing the allocation, they ensured greater national distribution (a marketing necessity) and kept their biggest dealers in the game (you know, the ones that refused to compete and were msrp and msrp+ only). So a few dealers and their customers get screwed… collateral damage.

To hear Ford say they are investigating what they themselves did is comical at best.

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[jleafgre]

Arbitrary deadline. If you are on one side you get price protection, if you are on the other side, no price protection yet both will wait similar amounts of time.

The dealer priority is another issue. Sending more to larger dealers just ensures they stay larger but maybe they should be forced to work harder. There is only 1 fair way that should be compliant with every state law and that is produce them in the order received and the only exception is parts availability. The other obvious fix is to ramp up production.

 

[Booback]

Arbitrary deadline. If you are on one side you get price protection, if you are on the other side, no price protection yet both will wait similar amounts of time.

The dealer priority is another issue. Sending more to larger dealers just ensures they stay larger but maybe they should be forced to work harder. There is only 1 fair way that should be compliant with every state law and that is produce them in the order received and the only exception is parts availability. The other obvious fix is to ramp up production.

“Sending more to larger dealers just ensures they stay larger but maybe they should be forced to work harder”
Except what @Ford Motor Company did wasn’t even that. There’s no real way reservations can be moved. So all it does is punish reservation holders and small dealers.

 

[sjp]

Another point that people seem to forget is that we were pressed to make a dealership decision by a certain date. Initially, Ford said we could switch dealers just once and it had to be done by October 2020. So of course we were aggressively calling dealers and trying to find one that would put a price in writing so we could avoid paying surprise high ADMs. We wanted to find a price as close to the advertised price on the build and price tool, Ford's MSRP, as we could, from a dealer that was knowledgeable and trustworthy. When you're spending tens of thousands on a new vehicle, you don't want to make an agreement with someone who can't even quote you a price.

In my experience, calling dealerships around Colorado, none met that simple standard. Posts on this site showed that people in other states were having similar experiences: their local dealerships would not put a price in writing.

Ford then changed that rule and gave us until sometime in January 2021. Then they said we could switch dealerships more than once.

By then, anyone with an early reservation had already locked in a dealership by the earlier deadline of October 2020. There was no reason for us to continue shopping around.

So the defense that most dealerships couldn't discuss pricing that early, which I've seen in several articles, is nonsense. Some dealerships were discussing it, and many early reservation holders were funneled to them by Ford's own original system that forced us to choose a dealership within roughly three months, from July through October.

If more dealerships had been willing to discuss pricing by October, or if Ford had never imposed that deadline in the first place, the reservations would have been spread across more of them.

Again, Ford created this mess from the beginning, and they exacerbated it tenfold with the changing allocation system that's preventing many early reservation holders from getting their Broncos in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[BigSkyBadlander]

“Additionally, if a customer isn’t happy with their dealer experience, they have an option to transfer their reservation or unscheduled order to a different dealer.”

Bold faced lie alert. Reminder: My transfer request sat unanswered for 5 months. Not one single update was provided. No agent would give me a timeline, a hint of timeline, or any indication that my request advanced from “open request” in any way at all. For five months.

I moved mine twice. Maybe have more tenacity?

 

[BroncoT]

I moved mine twice. Maybe have more tenacity?

I called multiple times, Levine had an assistant reach out to me that led to absolutely nothing. I also contacted both dealers for approval ahead of time and again to ask for help subsequently. Short of berating a call center agent, not sure what else could be done. I’m not going to berate an agent.

Note: this was after the initial order was placed, consistent with how Farley laid out his comment.

 

[BigSkyBadlander]

I called multiple times, Levine had an assistant reach out to me that led to absolutely nothing. I also contacted both dealers for approval ahead of time and again to ask for help subsequently. Short of berating a call center agent, not sure what else could be done. I’m not going to berate an agent.

Note: this was after the initial order was placed, consistent with how Farley laid out his comment.

What does Levine have to do with anything? Not his job man. Just call Ford customer service and move it. Easy.

 

[MrWindowsAZ]

I don’t see this as a huge issue either.

In the March 2021 timeframe, dealerships were actively converting ALL reservations to orders (sometimes without consent) because converted orders factored into the allocation formula at the time.

A 99 priority order is still an order.

Who here has a reservation before March 2021 that didn’t convert it to an order? I can’t believe there is much if any at all.

I haven't converted my 08/17/2020 reservation to an order as yet. I wanted an OBX/MIC/AMB, now no AMB, so looking at an Everglades.

 

[BroncoT]

What does Levine have to do with anything? Not his job man. Just call Ford customer service and move it. Easy.

He saw me complain on twitter and had someone reach out to me. I didn’t ask for that, but it happened.

 

[BigSkyBadlander]

He saw me complain on twitter and had someone reach out to me. I didn’t ask for that, but it happened.

Customer service and PR people have two totally different functions. Guess which one is there to save face in the public eye and blow smoke up your ass and which one is for solving your problems?

 

[williamoneal]

Now I'm even more chapped. Guess what - When I make a commitment to buy your vehicle the day you opened the order banks, my perspective is - YOU SHOULD SELL IT TO ME FOR WHAT I AGREED TO PAY YOU. You aren't doing me a favor - You are holding up your part of the deal albeit nearly two years late (If I'm Lucky). Your choice to send unsold vehicles to dealers instead of filling my order SHOULD NOT COST ME MONEY! Fill the dang orders of the people who gave you a commitment more than a year and a half ago!

Gotta love it even more when you have had a reservation that long ago, and placed an order as soon as the orders opened in January of 2021, with no Schedule date in site, and THEY ARE GIVING THE DANG THINGS AWAY ON WHEEL OF FORTUNE. Between seeing that on TV and hearing about how many are being shipped to dealers that are "unsold" shipments, I quickly see how much they care about the commitment I made to them in 2020. Google Ford Slogans and you will see that one of them is: Ford has a better idea. I think I now know what that means now. Money over loyalty.

 

[jon]

“Additionally, if a customer isn’t happy with their dealer experience, they have an option to transfer their reservation or unscheduled order to a different dealer.”

Bold faced lie alert. Reminder: My transfer request sat unanswered for 5 months. Not one single update was provided. No agent would give me a timeline, a hint of timeline, or any indication that my request advanced from “open request” in any way at all. For five months.

My reservations move started in August 2021 and didn’t transfer till end of February this year after 23 calls!!!

 

[jon]

My reservations move started in August 2021 and didn’t transfer till end of February this year after 23 calls!!!

Mind you that still doesn't mean that I have Bronco yet! I just have a new location closer to my house

 

[robbob]

That's not what Zach from Grainger said in a piece I read. They sold over 1000 Broncos at 1k under MSRP and didn't think their would be allocation.. He said he found out about their being allocation TWO months after.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...eeps-bronco-customers-waiting-for-red-hot-suv

My takeaway from this article: FORD stands for Fu**ed Over Rural Dealerships

Just checked in with Granger, and I am now 105 on their list. I was at 129 back in early December, so I moved up 24 places in 4 months. At that rate, I should get to the top of the list by Fall of 2023!
On the other hand, so much depends on what was ordered vs. what Ford decides to build, so the list does not mean a whole lot. I know that Granger has delivered way more than 24 Bronco's since December.

 

[Axxlrod]

Maybe I missed it in this (huge) thread, but how exactly does the price protection work when I go to pick up my Bronco?

I was a day 2 rez, and then initially ordered in Feb 21, so my order was in before the March 19, 2021 PP deadline. I then had to re-order in Oct 21 since my order didn't get picked up.

Now, my Bronco has finally been built, and should arrive in a few weeks.

I emailed my salesman about the price protection since I ordered early, and he said he didn't know much about it.

I believe the price protection is a rebate from Ford. So do I get a certificate to bring to the dealer?

How do I force them to honor the initial price?

Also how do I get credit for the $100 reservation fee from June 2020?

My dealer promised no ADM so I hope it all goes smoothly.

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