Ford of Clermont Florida - I'm Out

[John Auer]

The dealership sales model is ripe for disruption. Franchise laws are being challenged across the country, with Tesla leading the charge. Ford aims to do the same thing with its EV’s. The next few years are going to be a very interesting time in the car business.

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[contented]

Well let’s see a picture of your new Bronco!

Don’t have it yet. Supposed to arrive 719. Here is a picture of an exact copy in terms of looks, courtesy someone here I believe.

Thanks to all for the kind thoughts and comments. Putting it nicely, it’s hard not to be cynical about today’s automotive industry. In the three days we were thinking Jeep, I learned a lot and was actually getting excited at the prospect of owning one. It’ll take some time to refocus on the Bronco.

Take care. Contented

 

[OCNORB1974]

“

I hate to hear that they put you through that process, but unfortunately this is the “Ford” we are dealing with. At least they changed their path and did you right and you got your Bronco.

It will be a cold day in Death Valley before we special order another Ford, and we may very well be done with them over this entire launch and their dismissive handling of Bronco buyers.

“Ford” is not the one marking it up, the dealer is.

There should be an option to order direct from the manufacturer. Here is the sticker this is what you pay. If you want to buy off the dealer lot, and maybe get some rebates, go ahead. But I'd gladly forgo that 1k$ rebate to not have to work with a sneaky salesman, a greedy dealership, and a crooked finance guy.

The problem is Ford pu is he’s the dealers who provide good deals for their customers, aka Granger, by cutting their allocation drastically, while most of these crap dealers rip people off. Going to hurt Ford in the long run. They think they are punishing the good dealer (which makes no sense), but they are actually hurting THEIR customer base.

 

[RHeinz]

Which States?

Texas

 

[RainbowStix]

Really? You'd pay 16.5K over and not want to complain about it a bit? Would you pay 25K over?

And FYI, you don't have unlimited time either. Tomorrow could be it for all you know.

Yup, because I know it’s most likely a useless activity other than to garner a support group, and would hope there’s better things to be doing with my time and mind at that age

and if tomorrow could be it for me, all the more reason to not waste any more time

MSRP is just a construct anyways. Since you could get it for under too, where would you draw the line at how much you’re willing to pay? Just a question of how long you’re willing to wait for one and if I’m old, my answer would be not long

 

[BroncoSarge]

Nitrogen filled tires...

I cannot stand when they try to sell me Nitrogen in my tires. I’m not paying $300 for 20% Nitrogen. What do people think air is?

 

[Tcbbronco]

Id probably just go with the $2500 upcharges. But, if you had $500 down and not just the $100 reservation fee youd have a legit shot at winning a legal case. Any sort of emails, texts, etc would help you out. In lieu of the $2500 see how many Ford points they can offer and request a warranty of something of the like.

 

[theserg]

As long as I've been a member here I've watched others express outrage over surprise dealer markups. Well, today It's my turn. Ford of Clermont, a small local dealer was purchased last month by the Morgan Auto Group which, if I'm correct, has 50+ stores in Florida. Late last week I caught a whiff that they were surprising order holders w/ substantial markups at delivery. My wife went on line and found multiple negative reviews about these markups.

Our Bronco is supposed to arrive next week, although it hasn't been shipped yet. After requesting, I received my closing numbers this morning. The short story is my out the door price has been increased about $16.5k from original documents. About $1,500 of that is an increase in sticker price from when I ordered. So the surprise increases are about $15k comprised of several different line items and the tax on them.

So I called Ford Bronco Support Team this morning. The story there is I don't qualify for any sticker price protection and although they don't like and wish dealers wouldn't do it, there is absolutely nothing they can do about ADM. I've read here some folks have gotten help from Ford, but there was none for me.

As BB King used to sing, "The Thrill is Gone". Surprisingly, I'm not angry, just very disappointed and tired. I'll request return of my $500 deposit and move on. NEVER, EVER another Ford. A Jeep 4 dr Wrangler Rubicon Xtreme Recon may be in my future.

I'm in my early 70's and one thing I don't have is unlimited time. Eight months into this and who knows how long to get a Jeep. So my Bronco internet friends, I'm out. It is what it is.

BTW, I will probably sell a brand new Rough Country Winch mount for the mod bumper and a brand new J-Tops bimini w/ pale blue and white flag. Oh, and a decal which says "This is not my husband's Bronco".

Take care. Contented

Update: Within four minutes of texting my sales advisor I was out, he called me and said make a counter offer and so I did - a minuscule amount. I know what a comparably equipped Jeep costs (at least $6k more) and I don't like to "bite off my nose.... " as the saying goes. About thirty minutes after that, sales advisor called me back again and said the whole $10k markup was a mistake and they removed it all. What they wouldn't take out is a $2,500 Advantage program which is the usual over priced high profit crap like fancy wax and fabric protection, roadside assistance, nitrogen filled tires, etc, etc. So with tax and everything else we're about $3k over original numbers. I'll live w/ that.

AS an aside, they were even discussing refunding the $10k to other customers that paid it.

Thanks for this info. I live within 15 minutes of this dealer and thought about taking my Bronco for an oil change there, but they definitely wont be getting my business, even with them trying to fix the markup issue. Glad you got it done, but in the future, I would recommend anyone in Central Florida to go to Brandon Ford. Kept their word and no markups for me when I received my Bronco last October

 

[JaxGtc]

Sad this is happening to so many Bronco enthusiasts. While it is dealers who are putting the screws to people Ford could simply tell them, "we can't dictate what you charge people but we can damn well make sure you don't get any more vehicles." That would solve things. But they chose to ignore the problem.
To be honest, if it weren't for the novelty of the Bronco, I would probably never purchase a Ford. I moved on from them and the big 3 long ago.

 

[mcinfantry]

I cannot stand when they try to sell me Nitrogen in my tires. I’m not paying $300 for 20% Nitrogen. What do people think air is?

A better question I always pose
If nitrogen molecules are larger and oxygen ‘may’ seep out the tire, wouldn’t years of adding breathable air eventually filter to almost pure nitrogen in the tire anyway?

 

[M&M Beer]

Well I hate to said this but your first problem is your in Florida. I feel that most dealerships in Florida think everyone is made of money and they are greedy to take it from you. Glad you were going to walk until they blinked. Just this if you didn't walk and paid the mark up would they given you're money back?

 

[flip]

I like this guys channel and I think he pretty much sums it up here



I do think in time a lot of dealerships will be going under and not just ford

I agree with the majority of his video and want to expand on a few things.

1. A lot of consumers have short term memories when it comes to vehicle purchases and I have personally witnessed the cycle of getting hosed, "never going back there again" and 4 years later hearing, "they were thousands cheaper than you". Yea, but no.

Dealers hosing people won't get the wrath because when the customer goes to trade in 4 years and finds out they're "under water", they blame the bank/KBB/NADA but never the dealer that put them in that situation. I hope it catches up with these guys and it impacts their business to the point they change how they do things but I have doubts.

2. I agree lots won't be full of new and I'm good with that for some of the same reasons he mentioned but in order for an equilibrium to return, manufacturers are going to have to fix some problems. Farley or someone else in leadership said they want to get to a consistent 6 week order to delivery window. Until supply chain issues get handled, this isn't possible so in the near term, they need to start practicing this with current orders. Is it 12 weeks or 12 months?

3. Select vs. Contact dealers. Ford has been saying it's prioritizing retail orders over dealer "stock". We checked locator yesterday and found many of the local contact stores have tons of "stock" (order code 2) sitting on the ground. The smaller or select dealers are getting mostly retail orders and maybe one or two pieces of stock here or there. Yes, the bigger dealers are going to get the greater share of what they can produce but this new model should only consider orders, not what size store you are.

4. The EV push for the mfgrs. is primarily due to ZEV standards adopted by California and east coast states. In order to sell other product (ICE) in those states, mfgrs had to sell a certain number of EVs to "offset" carbon emissions. As these states accelerate these plans to run themselves off a cliff since the plan is unsustainable due to underlying infrastructure and energy supply problems, EV will either be a niche or hit an adoption plateau. EV currently, IMO, is regressive and fine for a second or third vehicle but not practical for a primary.

5. Ford is going to drop the bomb on dealers in Sept at the national meeting. It will either go well or turn into a complete chair throwing melee. Lots of details and Ford has gone completely ghost on info. concerning EV requirements.

6. Dealers need to stay involved in the ordering process. Ford isn't going to hire thousands of order "consultants" to make sure someone ordering on-line built it right and has all the right options. Last thing anyone wants is the surprise of a vehicle showing up with the wrong options. This is when the finger pointing begins.

7. Ford needs the dealer network to support the EV product. This is the competitive service advantage they have over EV competitors. The concern I see coming are the dealers that can't sell EV either by choice or other circumstance, what motivation will they have to invest in training and equipment to service them?

Our dealer is all in but it can't just be Ford dictating how this is going to go down. If there isn't some margin built in, a lot of dealers aren't going to survive because of the reliance on sales. All the dealers putting the screw to customers is a big part of the justification Ford is using to support the direct sales model. It's not about cutting the middle man out and being able to reduce prices, that's not going to happen. This is about process control and data, remove the dealer, remove the variable.

 

[Flip17]

Until Ford does direct sales to consumers (which will require many states to change the laws to allow direct sales) then this practice won't change.

 

[rayhil67]

Until Ford does direct sales to consumers (which will require many states to change the laws to allow direct sales) then this practice won't change.

Not sure that is the path they want to go as in carvana or Vroom. the dealership would still be a point of contact and pick up, But you would order on line from ford, Ford would then "assign" you a dealership based on your location and send the order to them (this would change DS attitudes)
Then you would either goto the dealership to complete process (verify order details and down payment) or do it online with said DS , this way everything is nice and legal, then if upon delivery DS decides to deviate from original contract one would hope Ford would punish. This process would create a need for less Ford DS (there are 7 Ford DS in a 15 radius of my home) and make the smaller dealerships more of a used vehicle sales and service centers rather then new sales.

In the end I think dealerships that play by the rules could be more profitable by not having to have a ton of every new vehicle in inventory, just sitting on lots waiting to be bought. The way the "New world order" is going I think future generations are not going to want to step foot on DS lots anyway.

 

[Mrpenn46]

I cannot stand when they try to sell me Nitrogen in my tires. I’m not paying $300 for 20% Nitrogen. What do people think air is?

Exactly! The miniscule difference in expansion rates only matter in controlled racetrack conditions.

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