Ford should learn from Tesla about multiple reservation holders (person blacklisted)

[DriveAllNight]

Tesla is out of their minds, but I hate Elon and his over hyped, under delivered products.

With that said, I also hate the way the world is going with limited editions and hard to get products. I get it if you are buying an exotic car, but we are talking Ford here, they are (or are supposed to be) the car for everyone to be able to buy. The whole limited First Edition is complete and total crap if you ask me. If people want it, make more of them, your Ford ! - You know, 'assembly line' Ford! As in mass produce.
Offering the staybar disconnect in only the Badlands????? Stupid!! People will pay for the upgrade to their trim for things like that.
Then there is the, 'let's get rid of popular colors' because people want them- What the Flipping hell crap is that???

I've gone off on a tangent - sorry.
The point is, Ford helped create the culture in which people CAN flip vehicles instead of just making more. Granted, there was that whole pandemic thing that evidently caught Ford with their pants down, much more so than Stellantis for some reason, but that's their story, so who knows.

Bottom line, it sucks when people game the system, but if there wasn't people willing to dish out the premiums, it couldn't happen. Everyone could have said no, everyone could have told the dealers to go jam it up their backsides, but they didn't, instead people opened up their wallets because they had to have it. That also goes with all the highly over priced aftermarket parts, ($365 for shackles with only a WLL of 9,800 LBS) you have got to be kidding me!

This 'Got to have' culture we are living in is going to come back around and bite us hard.

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[HBTFD]

As long as ford has the current dealer
agreements ford could care less. The dealer orders the vehicle, not the individual.

Tesla has a different system that Ford is eyeballing. The split of electric vehicles was step one in getting to a Tesla like system.

 

[MileHighCitizen]

Capitalism and free markets without rules or it least guidelines is just chaos.

FTFY

 

[Bschurr]

Love it or hate it - Unless there is a specific purchase embargo agreement in place it’s a free market.

Ford has imposed a 2 year embargo for the Ford GT (40) and will for the Mustang GTD. Ferrari, Porsche and others also impose similar embargos - this is commonplace and NOT new.

Unless Tesla has an embargo agreement in place for Cybertruck buyers, a blacklist would be considered unfair sales practice and a violation of applicable FTC rules/regulations.

 

[Big Swede]

I just wish Ford would do like Tesla and have direct sales to individuals. Order what you want online and let them deliver it. I hate dealers trying to pile on fees. That’s suppose to be illegal now, but they still find ways to get around it. Ford said they were going to, but chickened out. Dealers agreed to stop over charging customers.

 

[MayhemMike]

Didn't Ford do something similar with the GT40?

They applied a set of three restrictions on the GT , not the GT40. The restrictions were the GT buyer had to maintain ownership for two years it could be resold. Two, the buyer had to be a proven Ford enthusiast ( history of buying Fords) and Third, they had to have the boat load of money required for the price of the car. I had two of those restrictions covered. Guess which restriction disqualified me…lol

 

[PrepVet]

I just wish Ford would do like Tesla and have direct sales to individuals. Order what you want online and let them deliver it. I hate dealers trying to pile on fees. That’s suppose to be illegal now, but they still find ways to get around it. Ford said they were going to, but chickened out. Dealers agreed to stop over charging customers.

Can't. It's illegal to sell normal cars that way.

And what is illegal now? Adding fees?

 

[Jhopkinson]

How about Ford just do something to stop the dealer ADM's then we can worry about the flippers.

 

[Glade Runner]

How about Ford just do something to stop the dealer ADM's then we can worry about the flippers.

Neither needs to be done. I can choose to do business with them or not. I’d much rather have capitalism and free choice than communism and “blackballing”.

 

[tourproto]

Love it or hate it - Unless there is a specific purchase embargo agreement in place it’s a free market.

Unless Tesla has an embargo agreement in place for Cybertruck buyers, a blacklist would be considered unfair sales practice and a violation of applicable FTC rules/regulations.

I agree with your first point. Once someone buys a car without any special agreements in place, the buyer can sell it the next day if they want for whatever they can sell it for and Forcan’t stop it.

But I don’t believe your second point is true. Unless you are a protected class, no business has to do business with any given customer.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/29/us/when-businesses-can-deny-you-service-trnd/index.html

Ford could unilaterally refuse to allow any pre-orders from specific individuals because they are determined to be a “flipper” just like Tesla is doing.

 

[C6ZZGT]

Ford already has a list of people (and dealers) that have been known to buy US spec vehicles and then ship them overseas -- Big no no.

 

[JohnnyBronco]

that is a fair point. But there is a warranty that should be to an identifiable individual. Ford corporate finds me for a recall notice. But still another layer to traverse that Tesla does not have to deal with.

But Ford does not install that warranty upgrade without your consent while you are sleeping. Yes there are software updates from Ford but nothing like what Tesla is capable of, which at one point included conversion to self driving.

 

[ChrisB351]

I remember Ferrari or Lamborghini did that too a few years ago to stop the flipping.

my wife works in an industry that has very desirable products with very limited production, and the lies and games that “customers” do to get those products is next-level ingenious.

But they don’t realize what the manufacturer knows and the retailer knows about the buyer in the internet age. The difference is they don’t directly blackball the customer to their face. They just get redlined and they never know it.

some still get away with it but the number drops every day. Some people just go to the aftermarket and pay the equivalent of ADM. But the supply from the sleazebags is slowly drying up.

there will always be people who legitimately sell for various reasons and there will always be profit to be made like with fine art, but the ability to profit from the source and flipping is slowly going away.

I work in a European service shop. 2 of my customers have new gt3s on order, 1 of them just took delivery of the new Dakar edition, and they were both telling us about it. They make them do a lease for the year and Porsche holds the title so they cant just sell it to anyone. And if anyone manages to do it they get restricted and the selling dealer loses an allocation. Fortunately neither of these guys plan to flip.

And that dakar 911 is sick. Pics on the internet dont do it justice.

 

[Coralhead]

The sad story is that there are people who willingly take a 10-20k$ depreciation on top of normal depreciation by going over MSRP and wonder why they owe more than the vehicle is worth.

 

[tourproto]

I work in a European service shop. 2 of my customers have new gt3s on order, 1 of them just took delivery of the new Dakar edition, and they were both telling us about it. They make them do a lease for the year and Porsche holds the title so they cant just sell it to anyone. And if anyone manages to do it they get restricted and the selling dealer loses an allocation. Fortunately neither of these guys plan to flip.

And that dakar 911 is sick. Pics on the internet dont do it justice.

thanks for your post!

If a legacy automaker can do this, Ford can do this.

and shut down the repeat flippers.

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