Ohio Roll Call

[Dirty Bronco]

Hi all! First BG6 post. I’m in the Akron area, but have purchased all of my vehicles thru Gillingham Ford.

wondering if any of you other Gillingham reservation-holders have heard from them yet (re: placing our orders).

Im torn between buying the 4-door BD / or leasing a 4 door Base Sasquatch and having some fun with it on the cheap while Ford works out all the kinks, then purchase in a few years.

Look forward to chatting with all of you OH Bronco fans/owners!

I am having my Explorer serviced by them tomorrow. They are going to give me an estimated trade in value. My company does a lot of work with them. I was disappointed when they wouldn't match some of the other dealership offers being made. However, hoping they can make up some ground in the trade in value. I really needed to email/call them multiple times to get responses. Once you talk to them they are good to work with. They just aren't very responsive.

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[Jelly81Raider]

I am having my Explorer serviced by them tomorrow. They are going to give me an estimated trade in value. My company does a lot of work with them. I was disappointed when they wouldn't match some of the other dealership offers being made. However, hoping they can make up some ground in the trade in value. I really needed to email/call them multiple times to get responses. Once you talk to them they are good to work with. They just aren't very responsive.

Yeah, I have reached out a couple times during our long waiting period for updates. So I’m trying not to pester them too much haha.

Also, FWIW, i can tell you that when we purchased my wife’s escape in October they said they had 72 Bronco reservations at that time.

 

[Dirty Bronco]

Yeah, I have reached out a couple times during our long waiting period for updates. So I’m trying not to pester them too much haha.

Also, FWIW, i can tell you that when we purchased my wife’s escape in October they said they had 72 Bronco reservations at that time.

When I walked in there and introduced myself their employee immediately said "You've got a bronco reservation don't you?" I'm assuming I was at the top of their list as I placed my order shortly after the ordering opened up on the 13th. I have since transferred to Stephen's Auto though.

 

[Jelly81Raider]

Hi All! I placed my order at Gillingham Ford this morning: 4 door Base/Sasquatch, MIC hard top, heavy duty bumper.

Here are their reservation & allocation numbers as of this morning:
-86 reservations
-22 allocations for MY 2021.

Order conversion was quick and easy. They printed out a one-sheet with my vehicle price out the door and had me sign as agreeing to the final price. No additional funds down or anything like that. It takes about an hour from the time they submit in the system to receive the confirmation from Ford. Since the Base model has no window tinting, they agreed that they’ll have that done and ready before I take delivery of the vehicle.

They hammered home the point about ensuring orders are being fulfilled with actual reservation holders. They also said they know of some dealers out west marking up over $5k MSRP.

They also said they expect to be “sold out” of Broncos for 2 or 3 years! I took that to mean, you wouldn’t be able to walk the lot/pick one out and drive home the same day as you would in a traditional automobile purchase. Which seems about right given what we know about 2021 reservations spilling well into 2022.

As always, the staff at Gillingham was awesome.

Just wanted to share my experience with the group. Have a great weekend guys.

 

[Dirty Bronco]

Hi All! I placed my order at Gillingham Ford this morning: 4 door Base/Sasquatch, MIC hard top, heavy duty bumper.

Here are their reservation & allocation numbers as of this morning:
-86 reservations
-22 allocations for MY 2021.

Order conversion was quick and easy. They printed out a one-sheet with my vehicle price out the door and had me sign as agreeing to the final price. No additional funds down or anything like that. It takes about an hour from the time they submit in the system to receive the confirmation from Ford. Since the Base model has no window tinting, they agreed that they’ll have that done and ready before I take delivery of the vehicle.

They hammered home the point about ensuring orders are being fulfilled with actual reservation holders. They also said they know of some dealers out west marking up over $5k MSRP.

They also said they expect to be “sold out” of Broncos for 2 or 3 years! I took that to mean, you wouldn’t be able to walk the lot/pick one out and drive home the same day as you would in a traditional automobile purchase. Which seems about right given what we know about 2021 reservations spilling well into 2022.

As always, the staff at Gillingham was awesome.

Just wanted to share my experience with the group. Have a great weekend guys.

I am happy you had a good experience. I wasn’t so lucky. I have a long winded post incoming about my previous two days experience with them. I hope you dealt with Scott Lockhart and not Eric Vazquez. Cliff notes version of what I dealt with: Eric is uninformed about the reservation process and kept lying to my face. When I countered him with known information from Ford he literally turned and walked away mid conversation.

my company/family has been doing business with Gillingham for years. It was shocking and totally disrespectful. Dude made a total ass of himself. Scott was nice and able to save face but Eric left a horrible taste in my mouth.

 

[Jelly81Raider]

I am happy you had a good experience. I wasn’t so lucky. I have a long winded post incoming about my previous two days experience with them. I hope you dealt with Scott Lockhart and not Eric Vazquez. Cliff notes version of what I dealt with: Eric is uninformed about the reservation process and kept lying to my face. When I countered him with known information from Ford he literally turned and walked away mid conversation.

my company/family has been doing business with Gillingham for years. It was shocking and totally disrespectful. Dude made a total ass of himself. Scott was nice and able to save face but Eric left a horrible taste in my mouth.

Wow, sorry you had a bad experience. Maybe folks just having a bad day/flustered.

 

[Dirty Bronco]

All,

My family company has been doing business with Gillingham Ford for over 10 years. My current vehicle is from them. We have a fleet account with them and all our cars/trucks are serviced there. Up until now I have had nothing but good things to say about them and was telling everyone that they should give Gillingham a try. Well that is no longer the case...

Early on in the Bronco reservation process I stopped in and talked to their floors sales rep Eric Vasquez. This is who their customer service put me in touch with after I told them I wanted to talk about the Bronco. I had just put a reservation in and the moment I got there Eric knew who I was. I am assuming this was because I was towards the top of their reservation list (first few hours of 7/13). The first thing I did was show him the Granger deal and asked if he'd match. I told him that if Gillingham would then I'm sure they'd have hundreds if not thousands of sales.

"Oh god, we can't do that!" was his response.
"We are selling at MSRP until I hear otherwise from my higherups. There is simply nothing official from Ford yet on pricing."

I then presented him with the Invoice and MSRP price breakdown for the trim levels. He balked at it and said he couldn't trust such a document. I then asked if considering our relationship with Gillingham if he'd consider going below just for me. Keep in mind they service our fleet and we buy multiple vehicles from them all the time, not to mention I myself have X-plan. He said we need to sit down again once official pricing comes out. I agreed and left disgruntled but hopeful considering all the official information had yet to be produced.

Over the past several months I asked Eric to price a few vehicles for me to see how an Explorer and F150 would compare to the Bronco. I never heard back. I had to ask our fleet manager to provide this.... thank god he was lovely to work with compared to Eric.

Fast-forward to this past week when the ordering banks opened and Ford released the Invoice pricing. I emailed the fleet rep and Eric asking to sit down to go over pricing. The hope was that they could make up some of the difference in a trade-in. I had since moved my reservation to Stephen's Auto since the difference was around $3k and I was more than willing to travel 4 hours for this difference. That being said, I wanted to give Gillingham my business. They are a family owned and operated business just like my own... Well when I got there it was a complete shit show. I had taken the time to email Eric all the details of my build and the pricing analysis I had done comparing the two dealerships. (Stephen's Auto and Gillingham).

In typical car salesmen fashion it was almost impossible to get a word in from the start... Eric wouldn't let me explain my knowledge and exactly what I was asking for.

Eric - "What's your last name?"

Me - "Brad ****** I emailed you ahead of time and have been talking to you for months
about price matching a Bronco from another dealership"

"Oh, yeah sorry I don't really check my email that often"

(I had emailed and text him multiple times over the months with barely any kind of response)

"So what is your last name again? I am not seeing you in our list of reservations"

"I was in there, we talked about this back in July. I switched dealerships though because I found a better deal elsewhere. I was hoping you guys could match or just get a little closer so I can stay local"

"Well when was your reservation? We have 23 and our cutoff time was at 3PM"

"I was at 10 PM the night of."

"oh well you're too late then! Sorry."

"Hold on, the reservation system was open at 8PM, I was in at 10PM that night. So technically isn't that before 3PM the next day? If I were to transfer back to Gillingham I should be one of those 23 allocations no problem."

"Ford would never let you do that"

...... At this point I tried to explain to Eric what I knew and how the reservation system vs allocation allotment worked. Mid sentence in explaining how I had until March 19th to switch, Eric then promptly turned and walked away mid sentence. Whether he was frustrated or simply uneducated in the process, it is poor business ethics to simply walk away from someone when they are speaking to you. This was nothing short of a cordial conversation too... we weren't yelling or arguing. I was dumbfounded by the result.

The fleet manager ended up running and grabbing their Sales Manager to talk over my request. His name was Scott, he was much nicer but had the same issue where he just could not let me talk and explain my stance. He kept telling me that even though I'm getting below invoice I would be getting gouged on dealer add ons. Finally when he stopped I told him how I had it in writing that this wasn't the case. It was a legit offer. I have X-plan (even though it's not valid) a vehicle currently from you guys, a family business who has multiple vehicles from you, a fleet account with you and have all our vehicles serviced here. Can't you help me out a bit to get this below MSRP?

"Sorry, but like you said, you're a member of the forums. I cannot give you anything better than anyone else because if you ran off and told everyone then we'd have to match it".

Excuse me? Okay, let me show you my history of saying you guys were great to work with and that I was recommending you to people on the forums. You probably have reservations here because of me! Also, why on earth would I spew to people that you cut me a deal? You do realize I don't pay until I take delivery. Nothing is set in stone until then. You could 100% reneg and go back to MSRP if I didn't hold up on my end. he Sales Manager finally told me the following... by cutting my price down that much Eric would essentially only make $15 off the sale as opposed to $800. We have more reservations than we have allotments so we are going to sell them regardless. This now explained why Eric was so keen on not having me transfer back in and was lying to me about everything.

Simply put... it was one slap in the face after another. Gillingham who prides themselves on being family owned and operated wasn't willing to help out another family business. Despite our 10 years of business together, they were looking for the immediate gratification of a sale rather than a continued relationship of business. I've gone back and forth on whether to leave a google/yelp review detailing my experience. We still have our accounts there but it was a total punch in the gut with how I was treated and the responses I was given. If you do choose to go with Gillingham then I recommend you ask to work with someone other than Eric.

 

[KareBear]

I'm in the Youngstown area, and placed my order through Fred Martin Ford in Austintown. 2DR Badlands MT, 2.3L, Mid Package, Non-Squatch. Straight MSRP plus $1495 destination & delivery, was not asked for a deposit because if I backed out at the last second, they could easily sell it above MSRP. He wasn't sure of the number of reservations, but he said they have more Broncos allocated than they have reservations for, so I don't know if anyone is looking to switch dealers - they might be worth looking at. Not sure how they got more allocated to them than reservations, but worth a call if you're considering switching dealers anyway.

 

[Alpha1_Silverback]

I'm in the Youngstown area, and placed my order through Fred Martin Ford in Austintown. 2DR Badlands MT, 2.3L, Mid Package, Non-Squatch. Straight MSRP plus $1495 destination & delivery, was not asked for a deposit because if I backed out at the last second, they could easily sell it above MSRP. He wasn't sure of the number of reservations, but he said they have more Broncos allocated than they have reservations for, so I don't know if anyone is looking to switch dealers - they might be worth looking at. Not sure how they got more allocated to them than reservations, but worth a call if you're considering switching dealers anyway.

I believe your sales guy or Bronco Specialist is mistaken....NO dealers will have more allocations than reservations. Most dealers have somewhere around 30% allocations to reservations. More than half of reservation holders will have a 22MY.

After getting to ride in a 4 door on thursday, I can appreciate the delay and Ford wanting to make sure everything is right. Spoke to an exec. from ford that is in charge of the accessories. A lot of areas were and continue to be affected by Covid. But the vehicle is BADASS to say the least! They have done an amazing job, bringing back the iconic name plate. It fits the name no doubt. Everyone who ends up ordering and purchasing a BRONCO, will be impressed and happy!

Can not wait until summer to get mine and start delivering these to customers!

 

[KareBear]

I believe your sales guy or Bronco Specialist is mistaken....NO dealers will have more allocations than reservations. Most dealers have somewhere around 30% allocations to reservations. More than half of reservation holders will have a 22MY.

After getting to ride in a 4 door on thursday, I can appreciate the delay and Ford wanting to make sure everything is right. Spoke to an exec. from ford that is in charge of the accessories. A lot of areas were and continue to be affected by Covid. But the vehicle is BADASS to say the least! They have done an amazing job, bringing back the iconic name plate. It fits the name no doubt. Everyone who ends up ordering and purchasing a BRONCO, will be impressed and happy!

Can not wait until summer to get mine and start delivering these to customers!

Yeah, it doesn't quite make sense to me based on what I've learned in here. The dealership doesn't have a dedicated "Bronco Specialist" like other dealerships have had. My salesman is nice, but he just got back from shoulder surgery, and is really out of the loop on a lot. He didn't ask me for a deposit, then his manager had me come back with $400. Keeping my fingers crossed on this whole situation!

 

[Broncogoat]

Im from Enon, right between Dayton and Springfield, but I live in Maui now.

Anyone familiar with Casanos, Marions, or LaRosas Pizza? Whats your favorite? Anybody hate Cousin Vinnys but buy it anway casue its cheap as hell?

Live in Kettering and it Marions all the way. The children now young men love that nasty cousin vinnys and buy everytime they are in town

 

[Broncogoat]

I believe your sales guy or Bronco Specialist is mistaken....NO dealers will have more allocations than reservations. Most dealers have somewhere around 30% allocations to reservations. More than half of reservation holders will have a 22MY.

After getting to ride in a 4 door on thursday, I can appreciate the delay and Ford wanting to make sure everything is right. Spoke to an exec. from ford that is in charge of the accessories. A lot of areas were and continue to be affected by Covid. But the vehicle is BADASS to say the least! They have done an amazing job, bringing back the iconic name plate. It fits the name no doubt. Everyone who ends up ordering and purchasing a BRONCO, will be impressed and happy!

Can not wait until summer to get mine and start delivering these to customers!

Karebear is correct there are over 194,000 reservations and ford has production capability of around 84,000 in 2021. My dealer has 82 reservations, but only allotted 22 broncos in 2021. I was lucky enough to be #2 so hoping for midsummer delivery the sooner then better.

 

[Alpha1_Silverback]

Karebear is correct there are over 194,000 reservations and ford has production capability of around 84,000 in 2021. My dealer has 82 reservations, but only allotted 22 broncos in 2021. I was lucky enough to be #2 so hoping for midsummer delivery the sooner then better.

Karebear is correct there are over 194,000 reservations and ford has production capability of around 84,000 in 2021. My dealer has 82 reservations, but only allotted 22 broncos in 2021. I was lucky enough to be #2 so hoping for midsummer delivery the sooner then better.

as I had said. Somewhere around the 30% allocation to reservations. That’s great you are in the short list! I promise you will not be disappointed when your Bronco arrives!

you may want to ask your salesman or bronco specialist when he/she expects to have the ford training team come to the dealership with a bronco for training! Where they train all salesman about the bronco. You will be able to look touch and sit in when it’s at the dealership! No driving but you can look at it in person. Training teams are heading out sometime in March and April just an FYI!

 

[MaverickMan]

Live in Kettering and it Marions all the way. The children now young men love that nasty cousin vinnys and buy everytime they are in town

Yeah Marions is the best, literally of any pizza anywhere. Cousin Vinnys does have a special place in my heart thought at 2am you can get hot pizza. I used to work second shift so that was dinner time. But as a fat guy whos diet is atleast 25% pizza. No one does it like Marions Piazza!

 

[Jelly81Raider]

Morning all! Will report back tmrw with pics from this weekends NEO Ford Dealers Bronco showcase. If interested - It’s up on the east side of CLE. Still looked like there were some time-slots open last I checked.

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