Serramonte Ford Bronco Specialist to Answer Your Bronco and Ford Questions

[SeventyOne]

Sean's not an engineer, he's a salesman at a dealership. I think we should just stick to the reservation/ sales aspects specific to Serramonte for the moment.

Sean my question echos Matt Boston's. I received this from your GM, so this is now changed?

Sponsored

 

[lenitech]

Sean's not an engineer, he's a salesman at a dealership. I think we should just stick to the reservation/ sales aspects specific to Serramonte for the moment.

Sean my question echos Matt Boston's. I received this from your GM, so this is now changed?

This is a really odd reply since the customer has the reservation for the first edition and not the dealer. The customer can move the reservation to any dealer.

 

[Natai]

I'll certainly be watching this thread closely.
A written public commitment to no markup on reservations and honoring X-plan is certainly a start.

• What about requiring dealer packages?
• As others have mentioned, how about matching some of the other dealers like Granger, or offering some sort of discounted group buy?

A lot of us are looking for a good deal and a good dealer in Northern/Central California.

Also, how about a discount for a customer that shares your name? I did a double take when I read your first post.

 

[Gloff]

This is a start. It would help if you cleared up a few other things though.

Once the allocation information dropped, some dealerships came on here to spin the details to their favor, and with no official word from Ford to clarify those details and rebuke the misinformation, people became very frustrated and confused. They only have a few weeks left to pick a dealership, yet people are still coming on this forum acting like the voice of authority and saying things like "Those that got in (switched dealerships) early will probably be fine. Those that recently switched, probably not. They'll be waiting a while. This is like a freight train that they didn't see coming," and "You would likely have a better chance to get a Bronco order fulfilled if you choose a large dealer in a major market." These are actual quotes from people whose posts tend to follow the same repetitive theme, possibly in an effort to convince people that they're speaking facts - what we used to call "drip marketing" back in the day.

I haven't seen anything at all that lends credence to these types of statements, yet they appear again and again on this forum - often from the same people (big dealerships trying to scare people in large markets away from moving their reservations, while scaring people in smaller markets into moving their reservations to large ones?). One person even listed all the biggest dealers, suggesting people should switch their reservations. I realize that Ford can't track down every dealership owner and salesperson on the internet and control their messaging, but they could maintain a presence on forums like this one to keep this kind of spin at bay.

This misinformation really sucks for the smaller dealerships that have been providing local, personalized service to people they know in their small towns - people who have trusted them for years to give them a good deal, good service, and sensible delivery date. Meanwhile, the larger dealerships - many of which don't know the meaning of "friendly," "honest," or "timely" - are benefitting from the cavalcade of confusion. And the customer doesn't know which way to turn. They want to stick with their small, local dealer - or switch to a new dealer they just met and trust - but the continuous "spin" that has been left unchecked by Ford has them feeling pressured to go with a bigger dealer that they don't trust, and who may or may not give them the best deal. Otherwise, they're told, they could be waiting forever for their Bronco.

I don't know why someone from Ford can't just step up and clear this up for everyone. It seems you're "the guy" on here now. Can you tell us what's going on?

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for the questions. I can only speak to things that are not confidential, and for that I'm sorry. I'm going to approach this from a slightly different perspective. Consider for a moment that Ford has 165k reservations on Bronco. If we spread them evenly, that's about 50 Broncos per dealer. But we know that they won't be spread evenly, big dealers are big for a reason. Galpin Ford sells to the Greater LA area of nearly 20m people. My store serves an area of less than 10 million. It stands to reason that dealers in smaller areas will have less people buying Broncos, and areas with more people more. That's just the plain surface, then you have things like demographics that change what vehicles are popular. I haven't looked at any numbers (I'm too low in the system to have that kind of access), but I would logically think that bigger dealers in big markets are going to have more reservations with a few exceptions along the way. Thinking about it from this perspective, a lot of people would have to switch their reservations from multiple regional dealers to one dealer to be anything other than a small anomaly. Likely hundreds of customers. Off the top of my head, in our Market we have Serramonte, San Leandro, Towne, Marin, James, Morgan Hill, Capitol, Frontier, Sunnyvale and Mission Valley. If we took the average, that's 500 Broncos. But the SF Bay Area is a Major metro, so I suspect there's probably much more than 500 reservations. 50 customers switching in this scenario would still only be 10% of the total. That would grab attention, but you'd have to organize 50 people to put their faith in one dealer all at the same time. If I had that power...

The best deal is subjective, if this were handled as a normal vehicle in Fordland, we'd be talking markups all over the place, but this format gives the customer a lot of control, and dealers know that, hence the low rate of markups among dealers. That said, anything below MSRP would be a win in my eyes. If you're getting X-plan, be happy, that's a steal for the most anticipated vehicle since the original Mustang. FWIW X-Plan to invoice is in the range of $50-$200 on most models.

While I'm not the guy, and I don't claim to know absolutely everything, I'm aiming to help here. We're still very early in the process. The only thing I can preach is patience, we're all anxious to get our Broncos, but that won't make it any faster! Ford has already been more transparent on this model than many of the other enthusiast vehicles I've seen launched in the past.

 

[Gloff]

@Gloff x plan has been mentioned a lot, but what about a/z plan? My local dealer said he was told it should be accepted, but this has not been stated by Ford. I can see maybe the FE not being a/z eligible; but Ford wouldn’t block the whole lineup from a/z, would they?

Also, I get the reasoning for pricing the Base 2 door below 30k. But why the huge price jump from Base 2 door to 4 door? The price jump for other trims is about 2k less. And that is with a soft top and now manual tranny standard.

A/Z falls under the same program rules as X-Plan, so you may be right about FEs not being eligible. I don't see any reason Ford wouldn't offer AZXD on standard Broncos, but it's too early in the process to know for sure. Once the order bank opens up and we can convert, we'll likely have that information ready.

Pricing strategy is something Ford doesn't really share with us, other than to compare it to competitor pricing. May have something to do with standard equipment in 4 door being higher than 2 door in the base, but that's a stab in the dark as equipment isn't finalized. Once I have a full order guide, I'll be able to compare and maybe draw a better conclusion.

 

[Gloff]

@Gloff There are a lot of people in Norcal with reservations looking to switch their reservations to the first dealer that comes up with an offer for Bronco6g members similar to Granger and Stephens auto. There is a tally started here: https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/what-if-a-northern-california-dealer-matched-granger.5692/

Also, a lot more discussion in the Sac Bronco Club and Bay Area Bronco club on this site. Is Serramonte Ford willing to put some offer together for the West Coast?

Multiple discussions on this in PM and Bay area threads. Will speak to Matt on it.

 

[Gloff]

The issue with that is that order conversion is in December and cutoff for dealer switch is October 31st. Can you commit to any kind of pricing or deal to make me want to go to Serramonte, knowing I have a first edition that might not be eligible?

I would discuss this with you over PM. We'd be willing to commit to a price should X-plan not be available on your FE.

 

[Gloff]

@Gloff So are you saying that it doesn't matter who our dealership is, we will get our order in a timely manner vs. having to switch to a larger dealership? To me, to be very honest, it does matter which Apple Store I go purchase a MacBook from, it should arrive in the same time as someone who purchased their MacBook from a larger store (or Flagship store).

Could you please shed light on this? I think the main confusion here for a lot of people, including myself, is that we feel if we don't switch to a "bigger" dealership, we will get screwed.

In theory, yeah, but we're potentially talking about 100k plus vehicles all with different options. There's only so much variablity in macbooks, there's going to be thousands of ways to build a Bronco. Timing will be impacted by options and features, same as any model Ford makes.

Its still very early in the process too, and as a salesperson, I don't know the answer to everything, but think about it logically. Hopefully a Ford Rep can chime in on more specific order timing later down the line, or share that with us to tell consumers.

 

[Gloff]

What are the odds of seeing a 4 door bronco in person before placing our order? I have a wildtrak reserved and id like to sit in one before placing my order.

Don't know, but should we get a Bronco for show, you'll find out about it here, as I'll be posting it.

 

[Gloff]

@sjp excellent post, last time things got really out of control Ford's Mike Levine actually responded here on the forum.

What do you say @mike_at_ford can you please help with some clarification?

This thread link below has blown up and you have a lot of upset Bronco customers because Ford broke its promise to deliver Broncos on a first come, first served basis.

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...ons-ordering-dates-build-date-estimates.5793/

I'd love for Mr. Levine to chime in with some higher level information. A lot of these questions are not information that's at the dealership level, and as such I won't be able to answer them fully.

 

[Gloff]

This compromise is what a max tow package would be for then. And we're only talking 4500-6000lbs here, certainly nothing close to proper truck numbers.

Dont forget "capabality" is a bit of a subjective term. Some people need it to be able to crawl huge rocks forit to be "capable", some need it to be able to take sand dunes at racing speeds for it to be "capable", but personally I won't find it very "capable" at all if it can't tow at least 4500lbs up a logging road to my favourite campsites and hunting grounds. We have Badlands for crawling and Wildtrak for baja, so why can't we have a max tow package (even if it's only available on four-door lower end models with a modified suspension) for a reasonable towing capacity?

Candidly, I don't know exactly why. My best guess is that the take rate would be low, as many of those customers would be looking at Ranger to fill that need.

 

[Gloff]

Sean's not an engineer, he's a salesman at a dealership. I think we should just stick to the reservation/ sales aspects specific to Serramonte for the moment.

Sean my question echos Matt Boston's. I received this from your GM, so this is now changed?

Yes, it is now changed. Matt and I are aligned on this forum.

 

[Gloff]

I'll certainly be watching this thread closely.
A written public commitment to no markup on reservations and honoring X-plan is certainly a start.

• What about requiring dealer packages?
• As others have mentioned, how about matching some of the other dealers like Granger, or offering some sort of discounted group buy?

A lot of us are looking for a good deal and a good dealer in Northern/Central California.

Also, how about a discount for a customer that shares your name? I did a double take when I read your first post.

We don't require any additional purchases/features (I assume you mean vin etching, undercoating, antitheft et. al.)
Haven't looked into it, heard a lot about it, and will be discussing with Matt (the GM). Granger is offering quite the deal.

Ha, if your middle and last names are the same, we'd have to talk!

 

[Gloff]

Ladies and Gentlemen

Thank you for the questions today. This far exceeded my expectations (seems to be a theme with Bronco). I'll be wrapping it up tonight, and I am scheduled off tomorrow and Tuesday. I'll probably be checking in tomorrow, as I'm sure there will be more.

@Boston182 brought up an oft-forgotten rule of car sales that you should never be afraid to say you don't know. I hope to answer as much as I can as we journey toward our Broncos, and understand that some information I don't have, and may never have. Know that first and foremost, I'm an enthusiast, and am doing this to help those in the community and hopefully be friendly enough that others will join our community and further the love of automobiles. So please keep that in mind when posting, as most of you are here for the same reasons I am.

Thank you,

 

[Bronc-O]

This is a start. It would help if you cleared up a few other things though.

Once the allocation information dropped, some dealerships came on here to spin the details to their favor, and with no official word from Ford to clarify those details and rebuke the misinformation, people became very frustrated and confused. They only have a few weeks left to pick a dealership, yet people are still coming on this forum acting like the voice of authority and saying things like "Those that got in (switched dealerships) early will probably be fine. Those that recently switched, probably not. They'll be waiting a while. This is like a freight train that they didn't see coming," and "You would likely have a better chance to get a Bronco order fulfilled if you choose a large dealer in a major market." These are actual quotes from people whose posts tend to follow the same repetitive theme, possibly in an effort to convince people that they're speaking facts - what we used to call "drip marketing" back in the day.

I haven't seen anything at all that lends credence to these types of statements, yet they appear again and again on this forum - often from the same people (big dealerships trying to scare people in large markets away from moving their reservations, while scaring people in smaller markets into moving their reservations to large ones?). One person even listed all the biggest dealers, suggesting people should switch their reservations. I realize that Ford can't track down every dealership owner and salesperson on the internet and control their messaging, but they could maintain a presence on forums like this one to keep this kind of spin at bay.

This misinformation really sucks for the smaller dealerships that have been providing local, personalized service to people they know in their small towns - people who have trusted them for years to give them a good deal, good service, and sensible delivery date. Meanwhile, the larger dealerships - many of which don't know the meaning of "friendly," "honest," or "timely" - are benefitting from the cavalcade of confusion. And the customer doesn't know which way to turn. They want to stick with their small, local dealer - or switch to a new dealer they just met and trust - but the continuous "spin" that has been left unchecked by Ford has them feeling pressured to go with a bigger dealer that they don't trust, and who may or may not give them the best deal. Otherwise, they're told, they could be waiting forever for their Bronco.

I don't know why someone from Ford can't just step up and clear this up for everyone. It seems you're "the guy" on here now. Can you tell us what's going on?

Thank you for listening.

I posted that list of the biggest dealers because someone asked if there was such a thing. I never suggested anyone to do anything.

Sponsored