Granger Ford -2022 Bronco Allocation - No one said it was going to be easy

[Compta38]

Besides.........there's no inflation.

lol?

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[rugbysecondrow]

poaching? not a single damn thing stopped these other dealers from making a good deal and keeping business. Using a below invoice dealer has allowed me to move up multiple trim levels as well as options packages this giving Ford even more money. It just sounds like you just don't like the free market.

First, let's stop with the free market nonsense. This is a price controlled product being sold through a licensed dealer network...there is no "free market" in this scenario.

Second, call it what you want, but certain dealers actively sought to switch reservations to their dealership, away from others, specifically by offering the lowest prices in the country. They peppered internet forums with these deals and promotions. To pretend otherwise is to ignore the past 18 months of forum posts. Their goal was to sell a shit ton of low priced cars, acting as a discount dealer, rather than fewer higher priced cars. I'm not mad at them for trying, but apparently many folks (decision makers) disagreed with their model and tactics and it backfired. I can see why Ford wouldn't want their vehicles to be commoditized with a "race to the bottom" pricing strategy.

We aren't talking Ford competing against Chevy or Dodge, this was Ford competing against other Ford dealers. I wouldn't be surprised if price floors are put into place to prevent this in the future. Many other dealer networks do this.

 

[Drex]

poaching? not a single damn thing stopped these other dealers from making a good deal and keeping business. Using a below invoice dealer has allowed me to move up multiple trim levels as well as options packages this giving Ford even more money. It just sounds like you just don't like the free market.

Exactly right!

You know what is poaching? Changing the rules and flat out saying to switch to a bigger dealer just exactly like Levine did on his Tweet. The big boy dealers have Ford paying a spokesman to poach customers from their perferred dealer to Ford's preferred dealers. Since there were no customers until orders went in, there was, by definition, no way to poach/steal a customer until order time, at which point folks were essentially locked in.

 

[Ripcurl]

A few posts earlier mentioned this, but I can't imagine Ford being petty enough to further ding Granger for promoting a jeep alternative to the Ford off road vehicle because the customer may not see their bronco reservation for 1-2-3 years under the current allocation system.

Would Ford expect Granger to steer the customer into an explorer or something while they wait several years for the bronco or decide they can't understandably wait for the bronco that long? There isn't much else comparable in terms of what Granger sells.

Probably a good idea too and may slowly benefit some bronco reservation holders eventually since area jeep sales were part of the original allocation formula as I recall?

It also seemed we heard stories that some dealers were getting territorial about people inquiring about allocations/reservations and trying to switch early reservations into their dealership. Not all, of course, but some dealers didn't like people trying to switch and jump in front of the original or regular reservation holders. It's like you can't win either way with what Ford is telling you to do in this situation.

 

[HRnFW]

I had the distinct pleasure of steering a good friend of mine away from a Navigator over the weekend after discussing Ford‘s local dealer network and the virtues of the new Chevies. He also plans to drive an Odyssey . All ok choices. If his heart is set on a Ford I will steer him to Granger and perhaps help him drive it home.

It seems to me that surveying all order conversions from before 3/19 to assess the level of customer satisfaction with the dealer that they placed their order with and rewarding the upper 50% with increased allocations and the upper 5% with substantial increase in allocations would solve a lot of problems .

Sad that such a big company with lots of resources has to make so many unforced errors.

 

[PatientlyWaiting]

Those of us who received the email saying we are being pushed to 2022 because of the MIC top fiasco should be prioritized before any allocation model.

 

[Cheshire]

No chance, Ford will consider 'price locking' a previous offer and not allow it to be combined with any rebates. They will stick it to the reservation holders as per always.

I actually am seeing a little positive spin here. As a Grangetober order, I will get to see the new 4Runner first (which is a perfectly viable substitute for a Bronco for my use) and have a couple model years of Bronco to see how they are doing from a quality standpoint and any improvements.

As to Ford's apparent puzzlement over why people are furious that they backed off on building in order Nation-wide rather than per dealer (and more going to Ford's preferred dealer), they haven't seen anything yet. When people understand in their gut that the 2022 allocation means that Ford completely abandoned the promise to build reservations before stock orders, they will lose their shit.

People could deal with inequality on the time stamps, but that was because they believed there was an upper limit on waiting. That being production capacity in 2022. They knew they were getting one for sure before Summer ended (very high percentage anyway). Once they see people walking into dealers and impulse buying and that they will be pushed into late 2022, or 2023, or... to support big dealers having that stock will alienate them forever from Ford.

Blaming and punishing the end consumer for picking the 'wrong dealer' after touting the ability to select their preferred dealer in the reservation process is going to, and rightfully so, piss people off for a lifetime.

They only way out without a public relations disaster is to implement special allocations to finish the reservation holders in 2022 if not completely before stock orders, then mostly before. I have low faith in that outcome. During this process; Ford is making more bad decisions then they are making Broncos and I expect that to continue.

"Blaming and punishing the end consumer for picking the 'wrong dealer' after touting the ability to select their preferred dealer in the reservation process is"... WRONG

 

[RBF 1401]

Would Ford expect Granger to steer the customer into an explorer or something while they wait several years for the bronco or decide they can't understandably wait for the bronco that long? There isn't much else comparable in terms of what Granger sells.

Ford's new allocation formula bases 25% of allocation on Bronco Sport sales. This is completely unfair of Ford to not have told dealers this sooner. While Zach at Granger and other small dealers were selling Escapes and Explorers and F-150s to their customers, they could have been pushing them toward Sports if that's what Ford wanted.

Where I live, the Sports seem to be concentrated in the affluent areas of our metropolis. Granger is a very tiny, rural community. I doubt a ton of local folks said, Hey, let's order one of those newfangled Bronco Sports to replace our old, reliable F-150. Ford didn't tell the mom and pop dealers that they should push people toward Sports when they come in asking for an Escape.

No, Ford, likely through pressure from their good old boy dealer network, looked at what they could put in their formula that looked fair on the surface, but would make their preferred mega-dealers get all the Broncos while cutting our Stephen's and Granger and every small dealer out there.

This is comparable to how I and other teachers curve tests. We grade all the tests and plot all the scores. We look at the mean and the median. We have a lot of flexibility with how to use that data to decide of final grades for these teenagers. Nothing in our job requirements says that we have to use a certain formula for curving, but it has to be fair.

What Ford has done with there new allocation formula would be like me looking at the data and coming up with a formula for curving that looks fair, but gives A's to the kids who brought me Dutch Bros a few times this semester, and F's to the kids who wore NY Yankee logos on their shirts (I grew up going to Fenway Park).

Ford looked at the data and said, what can we put in the formula that looks fair, but will undercut Stephen's and Granger. "Oh, look," Ford excitedly says. "Granger and Stephen's sell a lot of F-150s, so we can't let that be part of the formula, but ooh, lookie, yay, neither of them has a ton of Sports sales. Let's put THAT in the formula!"

It is my hope that somehow in the next month or so Granger and Stephen's both sell a record number of Bronco Sports. If I had a ton of expendable income, I would buy 1000 Sports from each of them just to prove to Ford that in this modern hyper-connected world, they need to change their sales model, not try to force consumers into buying their product from their preferred, albeit unscrupulous dealers.

Anybody know some altruist billionaires who want to buy a few thousand Bronco Sports?

 

[Username_not_found]

If I'm not driving my Bronco off the Granger Lot by summer 2022, then I'm won't be driving any Ford in the future. Simple as that.

 

[Zach@Granger]

Waited AGES on hold to just eventually leave a message asking to move my reservation. I doubt I'll hear back.

I'm not letting this one go.

I believe you can't move it until the 13th anyway. I'd give them a call Thursday/Friday. We'll do our best to help.

 

[motocane]

First, let's stop with the free market nonsense. This is a price controlled product being sold through a licensed dealer network...there is no "free market" in this scenario.

100% THIS! The "free market" references all over this board are absurd. Free market would likely result in most Broncos for the first few years being exported to the middle east.

 

[History]

Just to be clear, anti-trust laws prevent Ford from telling independent businesses how to price. And as I understand it the dealer principles have a lot of pull with Ford and the local governments for that matter, but if any of the reasons for the allocation formula mentioned in this chat were true I will be willing to sign a class action lawsuit alleging collusion. I am not a legal counsel but did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

[gammaguybronco]

First, let's stop with the free market nonsense. This is a price controlled product being sold through a licensed dealer network...there is no "free market" in this scenario.

Second, call it what you want, but certain dealers actively sought to switch reservations to their dealership, away from others, specifically by offering the lowest prices in the country. They peppered internet forums with these deals and promotions. To pretend otherwise is to ignore the past 18 months of forum posts. Their goal was to sell a shit ton of low priced cars, acting as a discount dealer, rather than fewer higher priced cars. I'm not mad at them for trying, but apparently many folks (decision makers) disagreed with their model and tactics and it backfired. I can see why Ford wouldn't want their vehicles to be commoditized with a "race to the bottom" pricing strategy.

We aren't talking Ford competing against Chevy or Dodge, this was Ford competing against other Ford dealers. I wouldn't be surprised if price floors are put into place to prevent this in the future. Many other dealer networks do this.

The only reason I went with Granger was because they were transparent. I'm not sure how the experiences of others went during the reservation process, but I couldn't get an answer about anything regarding my reservation from the big dealers in my area. Half of them wouldn't even return my call. Call what Granger did poaching or whatever, but I never would have looked at a dealer outside my area had they just been transparent and communicated in the first place. If Ford doesn't value customer service any longer and only rewards dealership sales numbers, then this rewards system they announced makes sense. I don't think you should punish smaller dealerships just because they would actually talk to the customer and make them part of the process.

The point about Tesla not allowing negotiation is also correct, but I'd be less willing to negotiate if a Ford held it's value like a Tesla when you drive it off the lot. What's going on with the Bronco right now and their ridiculous prices has more to do with it's supply issues. Ford will make more and more trims and variants as time goes on and flood the market with these vehicles eventually. I'd expect a low mileage First Edition to be only trim to hold it's value in the long term once the supply chain issues are worked out.

 

[Bison]

100% THIS! The "free market" references all over this board are absurd. Free market would likely result in most Broncos for the first few years being exported to the middle east.

I am pretty sure a bunch of Canadians got their bronco before me. Does that count?

 

[Toccoa]

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