FREMONT FORD PRICE GOUGING

[Cbiggs]

This is unbelievable that this shit happens. The original post wasn't all that clear, as others have suggested maybe the OP should update / clarify, so I will pose as a question: is this what happened??

1) 94Becerra made a reservation with Ford Motor Company which cost him $100 (he's the reservation holder).
2) His reservation was assigned (by Ford) to Fremont Ford of Newark, CA.
3) His res was converted to an order 3/19 (of 2021?).
4) His expectation was that on delivery he would pay MSRP (based on anything stated or in writing from dealership?).

So in this case, and unfortunately many others, is this what is happening?

1) Fremont Ford of Newark, CA (and others as noted on B6G) used his reservation as a way to essentially get a Bronco early which they could mark up and sell as their own, ignoring the customer's reservation?
2) In other words, Fremont Ford of Newark, CA gamed the Ford Motor Co Bronco Reservation System as a means to jump ahead of Dealer Stock orders??!!!

Contract or not, whether in a court of law, or in the court of public opinion, how can this be anything other than a blatant case of bait and switch?

Assuming all true, then Fremont Ford of Newark, CA and their ilk should be blacklisted, hands down, no question, full stop.

BUT, its really astounding that Ford Motor Company allows this practice to persist. The reservation system was a marketing tool designed and implemented by Ford Motor Company, not by the dealers, as a means to generate interest and draw in customers. Despite all the negative feedback, the system actually works, as evidenced by the fact that as far as Ford Motor Company is concerned, reservation holders still take priority over dealer stock orders. BUT, instead of the system putting specific customer builds in the hands of the customers who made the reservation then converted to order as designed / as intended, instead are they in fact turning a blind eye to these practices?? Almost makes them an accomplice and enabler of these greed - driven dealers, and in any case, reflects badly on them as an otherwise respected manufacturer.

YES to all from what I read. Well stated.

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[spada]

I left a 1 star review on Google, and told everyone to stay away unless they want to pay $15,000 over MSRP.

 

[UtahLars]

Coupla thoughts.

(1) Random people at a dealership will say any old thing that pops into your head. They seem especially fond of making legal conclusions. I'd be the last person to say that only a member of the bar can state a legal conclusion (and I am one), but a person at least should have some familiarity with the law before stating a legal conclusion.

(2) I've heard plenty of them. "You have to agree to an arbitration clause - state law requires it!" "We are legally required to keep cars in our inventory in our ads even though they're already committed until they're actually delivered - state law requires it!" "You have to take the enhanced alarm system - the lack of state law enforcement requires it!" So this is one more: "We can't have a binding contract until we have a VIN - state law forbids it!"

(3) All of this stuff is nonsense. Sure, there are state law requirements as to what must be in a contract, depending on what the item being sold is there can be lots of requirements or none. But two contracting parties can agree to a binding contract for a car in many ways, and no VIN is required if the car is otherwise described specifically enough.

(4) You can bet your ass that if we weren't talking about a hot item like a Bronco, but instead some dog of a car that nobody wanted, they'd be telling you "Hey man, you have to take this thing - you signed a binding DORA!"

(5) How can Ford let this go on? Well, keep in mind that the relationship between Ford and its dealers is extremely long and complex. There is much that Ford could be aggrieved about, and plenty that dealers could be aggrieved about. And Ford can discipline one or two rogue dealers, but it can't very well go to war with its entire dealer network. That would be suicide. If you could buy a GM a drink, he'd have plenty of stories about all the things Ford supposedly has done that take a chunk out of his hide, and he'd likely feel a moral justification to get margin anywhere he can to help his business survive - including ADMs on the occasional super hot vehicle that comes along.

(6) Are dealers the bane of Ford's existence? Well, Ford (and the other legacy car makers, I'm not singling out Ford here) have stuck with the dealer model in the US, despite being eager to be seen as "modernizing" in numerous other ways. When Tesla arrived and wanted to sell direct to customers rather than going through a dealer network, the car makers helped the dealers to litigate and lobby to fight off this threat. Tesla eventually had to close its physical "stores" in numerous, if not most, states. So maybe Ford feels hard done by by its dealers, and maybe it's trying to portray itself as a tech company turning to EVs, but there are no signs that its going to change its retail sales model.

(7) Yet. There's no doubt there must be people in Dearborn who understand the whole Bronco launch did not go well, and not just because of lockdown-caused supply chain issues. There was talk of Bronco being more than a car, but being a new "brand" within Ford. At this point, that kind of talk is just that, talk. But maybe it will portend an attempt to do a Lexus or an Infiniti, and establish a new retail sales model separate from the old one. There is a new sheriff in town, after all. But I think on the basis of the current evidence you'd have to consider that a long shot.

 

[Biggwrm]

Sorry to hear.. capitol Ford , was awesome.. no markup on my FE.. picked it up 11/4.
I was so paranoid they were going to play games, but nope. Great experience from start thru finance and delivery..
Stephen GSM, Jesse SM, and Gerry- sales were great.

 

[cclkramer]

Yes, I handpicked Fremont Ford after a few excellent service department experiences there. my order was placed on 3/19/2021 with Michael pollum (prev GM?) after never receiving an update about turning reservation into a order I took matters into my own hand and contacted them. Once He received it, never heard back from Fremont Ford again only updates I received were from FordMoCo themselves. I would regularly call to ask about pricing once I heard about rumored ADM, would constantly receive “nothing to worry about, you’re vehicle needs to arrive first”. I even called in to update my order and add tow package, was not notified about ADM then either. Bronco arrived 12/24 the day I left town for a couple days for holiday, FINALLY they initiated contact with Robert the salesguy, he even sent me some pictures. NOTE. He excluded the aftermarket price in the pictures, have pics with proof. When I arrived 12/28 to purchase we went on a quick test drive for about 3 mins then they said they weren’t going to let it go for anything under 66k (15K ADM, MSRP IS 51K), they also noted that I was lucky they didn’t sell it while I was gone, we allegedly have 24 hours to purchase. Got them to lower it to 8K over MSRP but still way too much. Sat outside while I contacted Mike Levine, and ABBAS “sales manager” came outside came to offer water and then told me at this time the GM wouldn’t ever sell it to me anymore because I won’t agree to the price. Still currently sitting at the dealer. Nuke Fremont Ford (Fremont CA)

Update: while I sat outside the sales manager came up and said they would never do business with me again (because I contacted this forum and Mike Levine) and handed me my refund for my deposit.

Attn. ROBERT “SALES”, ABBAS “SALES MANAGER” & TOO BUSY FOR YOU “GM”

FREMONT FORD
39700 Balentine Dr
Newark, CA 94560
United States

Are there any updates about you getting you truck yet?

 

[stratego]

I remember the last guy that made a post like this that specifically said to dump a ton of negative reviews was threatened with a lawsuit. Good luck.

I don't care, if the moderation team allowed it, I would post a bunch of *actually* legally actionable statements about Fremont Ford and its staff. Otherwise, posting factual events/accusations about a business or person is 100% legal in the USA.

 

[TyGuy40]

I don't care, if the moderation team allowed it, I would post a bunch of *actually* legally actionable statements about Fremont Ford and its staff. Otherwise, posting factual events/accusations about a business or person is 100% legal in the USA.

Let them burn.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/fremont-ford-newark?sort_by=date_desc

 

[stratego]

Also, what Bronco6g members should do is a classic tactic of dealing with ebay scalpers: waste as much of their time as possible and use fake offers to potentially screw over their opportunity to deal legitimately.

Send them fake offers for increasing amounts over MSRP. They will believe they have a bidding war but the noise will drown out legitimate buyers. It will also force errors when they treat a real customer badly because they think they are part of the organized harassment.

 

[tapritchettAREA51]

Take of a test drive and bump something with it!

 

[BigRed13]

I emailed the dealer and got a response back. Of course I used the "hide my email feature" which creates a dummy email account that forwards to your actual email, so they would not have my email address. Anyways, after the initial contact, I specifically asked if "the cactus grey, 4 door hardtop was still available, and what was the "todays price?" I then received a message back saying my email was now blocked from messaging them. Just an idea.

 

[bman3000]

Paging @stratego and @bman3000 as they have also apparently had surprise ADM experiences with the same dealer.

At this point, Fremont should be considered a known bad faith dealership on B6G. We really need a list of them.

I can certainly agree that they are a bit shady. I’ve never purchased a new car before and only thought I would be paying the sticker price. Later on I received an email from a them stating they had a Bronco and wanted 30k over MSRP. After posting it here on the forums I found out it was another members cancelled order because he refused to pay the mark up. I then emailed Fremont Ford asking if mine would be marked up 30k. The response was “all reservation holder orders would be marked up 5k”. Once I realized there was little I could do I decided to pay the mark up as it seemed to be common practice and 5k was not nearly as bad as others were subject to. Next thing was to get that price in writing but upon doing this I was told they could not provide a purchase agreement until the vehicle arrived. I also made an attempt to switch colors but was told it’s not necessary to do until you have a production date and that would not be likely to happen until 2022 even if I was lucky. At this point I was not confident all I would be getting my bronco even at 5K over MSRP. Then weeks later I got an email with a Vin number and a production date. When I called to inquire about making the color change they said it was too late and cannot be done once there was a production date, which was obvious to me. Also they still would not give me anything in writing regarding the price And only provided me with a copy of the window sticker with 5K additional markup written in pen plus a print out with estimated costs and payments with the APR my bank provided me but no PA. When I asked to sign they refused. Long story longer my bronco finally arrived they told me to come in and it would be 5K over MSRP, yes I did pay it as I really wanted the Bronco and couldn’t stomach watching them happily sell it to somebody else at an even higher mark up. But I tell you the truth, until I signed the last document and walked out to drive away I thought for sure they were going to try to screw me out of this deal.
It was a very nerve-racking process with little transparency and shady tactics. It was bittersweet every step of the way not knowing if I was going to get my bronco or be in the same position as the OP.

And the cherry on top now is I have a broken tie rod and no availability of parts.

Best of luck.

 

[phocion]

I can certainly agree that they are a bit shady.

Thanks for the detail of your experience. I think there's enough evidence that Fremont is intentionally deceptive about Bronco pricing. Most Ford dealerships aren't being so coy about what the ultimate price of the vehicle will be. The idea that someone reserves a customized Bronco and can't find out how much it will cost until it is delivered 18+ months later is slimy as hell.

 

[94becerra]

Are there any updates about you getting you truck yet?

Update is that they told me to kick rocks, insisting THEY own it and can do as they please, they won’t do business because “I WENT TOO FAR” with the whole reviews thing lol (have video evidence of this interaction) I also contacted the local NBC responds/consumer report, hopefully they do a piece on it.

 

[94becerra]

I can certainly agree that they are a bit shady. I’ve never purchased a new car before and only thought I would be paying the sticker price. Later on I received an email from a them stating they had a Bronco and wanted 30k over MSRP. After posting it here on the forums I found out it was another members cancelled order because he refused to pay the mark up. I then emailed Fremont Ford asking if mine would be marked up 30k. The response was “all reservation holder orders would be marked up 5k”. Once I realized there was little I could do I decided to pay the mark up as it seemed to be common practice and 5k was not nearly as bad as others were subject to. Next thing was to get that price in writing but upon doing this I was told they could not provide a purchase agreement until the vehicle arrived. I also made an attempt to switch colors but was told it’s not necessary to do until you have a production date and that would not be likely to happen until 2022 even if I was lucky. At this point I was not confident all I would be getting my bronco even at 5K over MSRP. Then weeks later I got an email with a Vin number and a production date. When I called to inquire about making the color change they said it was too late and cannot be done once there was a production date, which was obvious to me. Also they still would not give me anything in writing regarding the price And only provided me with a copy of the window sticker with 5K additional markup written in pen plus a print out with estimated costs and payments with the APR my bank provided me but no PA. When I asked to sign they refused. Long story longer my bronco finally arrived they told me to come in and it would be 5K over MSRP, yes I did pay it as I really wanted the Bronco and couldn’t stomach watching them happily sell it to somebody else at an even higher mark up. But I tell you the truth, until I signed the last document and walked out to drive away I thought for sure they were going to try to screw me out of this deal.
It was a very nerve-racking process with little transparency and shady tactics. It was bittersweet every step of the way not knowing if I was going to get my bronco or be in the same position as the OP.

And the cherry on top now is I have a broken tie rod and no availability of parts.

Best of luck.

This was my interaction every time but over the phone, wouldn’t ever commit to a price even when I went to update my order with another add on option.

 

[lasttj]

Please post the video!

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