This is the worst dealer I have seen yet

[Razorbak86]

Here is another possible explanation…

Since the buyer is a reseller, the dealer may have a “suspicion” (whether legitimate or not) that the buyer intends to export the vehicle, which would violate the dealer’s franchise agreement with Ford and incur hefty financial penalties or even termination of the franchise agreement.

The fact that Mike Levine was involved and was attempting to help the buyer suggests that this is not a legitimate excuse, but the dealer may still be hanging its hat on this argument.

See below for more details…

MLG Automotive Blog

Over the last several years, automobile manufacturers have gone to great lengths to curb consumer exports of their vehicles to foreign countries. Manufacturers face millions of dollars in losses annually on the sale of high-end luxury vehicles to places like China and the Middle East, where the sales of luxury vehicles can fetch two to three times the U.S. sticker price.

At a loss for how to prevent these exports on their own, manufacturers are forcing dealerships to act as unofficial enforcers, imposing stiff penalties against any dealership that unwittingly allows one of their vehicles to be exported overseas.

In their effort to force dealerships to police the export of luxury vehicles, manufacturers now insert strict liability provisions in their franchise agreements, imposing financial penalties, chargebacks, reductions in vehicle allocations, and in some cases termination of a franchise, when a dealership sells a vehicle that ends up overseas in its first nine to twelve months in service.

In response, dealerships are forced to go to great lengths to investigate potential purchasers. For example, before selling a high-end luxury vehicle, a dealership seeking to avoid penalties may be required ask the buyer uncomfortable financial questions to determine whether they can afford a luxury vehicle. Some dealerships are now even going so far as to require purchasers to sign an “Agreement Not to Export” wherein the buyer agrees that they will not allow the vehicle to be exported in the first two years of service, or face severe liability to the dealership.

For dealerships, unknowingly selling a vehicle to an exporter can be disastrous. Some estimate that manufacturers have charged dealers selling vehicles to exporters, even inadvertently, tens of millions of dollars in penalties and chargebacks. Four of the largest manufacturers of high-end luxury vehicles, BMW, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, reportedly penalized their U.S. dealers with chargebacks totaling $30.4 million from 2008 through 2013.

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[Theherofails]

Shut up, nerd.

Exactly. What a tool.

 

[Aviboy97]

Here is another possible explanation…

Since the buyer is a reseller, the dealer may have a “suspicion” (whether legitimate or not) that the buyer intends to export the vehicle, which would violate the dealer’s franchise agreement with Ford and incur hefty financial penalties or even termination of the franchise agreement.

The fact that Mike Levine was involved and was attempting to help the buyer suggests that this is not a legitimate excuse, but the dealer may still be hanging its hat on this argument.

See below for more details…

MLG Automotive Blog

Over the last several years, automobile manufacturers have gone to great lengths to curb consumer exports of their vehicles to foreign countries. Manufacturers face millions of dollars in losses annually on the sale of high-end luxury vehicles to places like China and the Middle East, where the sales of luxury vehicles can fetch two to three times the U.S. sticker price.

At a loss for how to prevent these exports on their own, manufacturers are forcing dealerships to act as unofficial enforcers, imposing stiff penalties against any dealership that unwittingly allows one of their vehicles to be exported overseas.

In their effort to force dealerships to police the export of luxury vehicles, manufacturers now insert strict liability provisions in their franchise agreements, imposing financial penalties, chargebacks, reductions in vehicle allocations, and in some cases termination of a franchise, when a dealership sells a vehicle that ends up overseas in its first nine to twelve months in service.

In response, dealerships are forced to go to great lengths to investigate potential purchasers. For example, before selling a high-end luxury vehicle, a dealership seeking to avoid penalties may be required ask the buyer uncomfortable financial questions to determine whether they can afford a luxury vehicle. Some dealerships are now even going so far as to require purchasers to sign an “Agreement Not to Export” wherein the buyer agrees that they will not allow the vehicle to be exported in the first two years of service, or face severe liability to the dealership.

For dealerships, unknowingly selling a vehicle to an exporter can be disastrous. Some estimate that manufacturers have charged dealers selling vehicles to exporters, even inadvertently, tens of millions of dollars in penalties and chargebacks. Four of the largest manufacturers of high-end luxury vehicles, BMW, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, reportedly penalized their U.S. dealers with chargebacks totaling $30.4 million from 2008 through 2013.

If he’s paying taxes, it doesn’t matter. Once the car is titled and taxes were paid, the manufacturer has zero say in what happens to it and the dealer bears zero responsibility.

Also, he signed an agreement saying he wouldn’t sell it within 24 months.

 

[Wolfeman]

Each of you appears to be advocating to post false reviews as a customer of a business with the intent to harm their business reputation. That is also known as libel. Have a good time explaining to a judge about the legality of that if you get sued by said business for damages.

I bet you're a blast at parties

 

[Briley]

I think the worst part about this story, whether the guy is a flipper or not, is that Levine did nothing.
I know he couldn’t get the FE back after it was already sold or even get him a FE, but where is the punishment for the dealership?
Since this has been blasted on social media other dealerships are going to see that it’s ok to sell orders out from under us and that Levine will just step in and give us a “sorry bro, want me to put in another order for you? It won’t be the one you want or ordered though.”

 

[Mr_Scoutmaster]

Screw Tom. That’s not the intention of the reservation and there is no honor among thieves. Plenty of dealers doing the right thing and these guys getting a heads up gave Tom a little bit if his own medicine. I hate blatant profiteering.

That dealer sure as hell didn't mess with their status quo until that FE was on their lot though, right?

 

[hemiblas]

I cant believe Ford is powerless to help.

 

[Mr_Scoutmaster]

I think the worst part about this story, whether the guy is a flipper or not, is that Levine did nothing.
I know he couldn’t get the FE back after it was already sold or even get him a FE, but where is the punishment for the dealership?
Since this has been blasted on social media other dealerships are going to see that it’s ok to sell orders out from under us and that Levine will just step in and give us a “sorry bro, want me to put in another order for you? It won’t be the one you want or ordered though.”

This 100% - Each and every case where this happens is one more in the bucket to make this the status quo. The needle moved in this very thread! I watched people debate what a "signed purchase agreement" actually was vs. a valid contract, and eventually it rounded on...nothing is a valid contract for us. So every time this happens and it becomes more common, we all are more likely to suffer. This guy owning a classic car website is just an excuse for the dealer - that and their lobbyist-formed laws about selling your car to a terrorist. BTW - everyone knows terrorists prefer Toyotas anyway.

If Ford can't do anything, what else can we do?

 

[Briley]

This 100% - Each and every case where this happens is one more in the bucket to make this the status quo. The needle moved in this very thread! I watched people debate what a "signed purchase agreement" actually was vs. a valid contract, and eventually it rounded on...nothing is a valid contract for us. So every time this happens and it becomes more common, we all are more likely to suffer. This guy owning a classic car website is just an excuse for the dealer - that and their lobbyist-formed laws about selling your car to a terrorist. BTW - everyone knows terrorists prefer Toyotas anyway.

If Ford can't do anything, what else can we do?

Can’t and WON’T are two different things. Plenty they could do to penalize the dealership.
We already know they weren’t punishing them when their policy was 80/20 name match. I don’t think anyone actually believes they will punish them with the new and improved 60/40 name match.

It will be interesting to see how well my signed order that is circled and says “this is the price you will pay” holds up. I can’t wait to hear excuses about how that was for the ‘21. Now that it’s a ‘22 we can’t possibly sell it to you for that.

 

[DEC]

A drive by with a hand full of pachinko balls seems to be in order for this dealer.

 

[Lagrange 6g]

Caught this on Facebook, it’s by far the worst dealer yet.

Good for Levine stepping in I think he cares about the res holders but is limited In what he can do Seems like a scumbag dealership There’s other threads on here that are similar

 

[Defyfate11]

Each of you appears to be advocating to post false reviews as a customer of a business with the intent to harm their business reputation. That is also known as libel. Have a good time explaining to a judge about the legality of that if you get sued by said business for damages.

Don't lie about the review, just repost Tom's dilemma and advise people to stay away until the dealer has cleared up the confusion. I mean it would be best to hear the other side first but that may never come to light, so forcing the dealer to make a statement is acceptable. This would make Tom accountable to libel damages should he have lied to the public and the public tarnished the dealers credibility and reputation.

 

[Daktari]

if you sign a contract that’s an agreement for them to order a specific car for you to purchase from them and the dealership signs that contract, especially if it has an agreed price and they took A deposit, that’s a binding deal they should be legally required to complete unless there are agreed conditions that are not met. If they take your money with a written agreement to get the car and they deliberately refuse to sell it to you, that sounds like fraud to me. Especially if they never intended for you to get the car.

Well, I disagree, but good luck with that. So far I have not read of one single instance where anyone or their lawyer could push this though though, so there's that. You don't have an agreement to buy THAT particular car, just to get one LIKE that you have on paper. No VIN, no nothing, car belongs to the dealer and shady ones do what they want with it it seems. But until you sign during the final sales process, hand over the money and they give you the key, you have nothing but a deposit to get back.

Not defending these scumbag dealers one bit, but they know how to play the game, they designed it and had their lobbyists pay the politicians for laws in their favor. Sucks, but that's the way I see it, nothing anyone can do under the current system. Pure bloody relentless and ruthless capitalism everybody seems to like so much unless it works against them.

Anyway, that's just how I see/understand how this system works, if there's a contract lawyer on the board here or a DA, maybe they can chime in and cite some law resources to enlighten us all.

But since I never heard of anyone winning against the scum dealer in cases like this....

 

[Daktari]

Shame about all the one star reviews this dealership is getting on Google

I doubt they care and I doubt the reviews of people that clearly didn't buy there or ever set foot into the place will stick for long. Or maybe they'll just pay to have them removed. but usually those review sites take action once something goes 'viral' and remove reviews of people that just read something somewhere on the internet. Which in the end is a good thing I think. Or anybody and their buddies could ruin a business they compete with by slamming it with bad reviews for example.

 

[UberGadgetFreak]

A few things bug me here:
1. The DORA has a hand-written Rock Rails, but the First Editions come with them (per Ford.com - look at the Equipment Group Features - last item shown here):

2: The DORA is only a "price agreement" if both parties sign it with it noted 'agreed purchase price' or "price will include a $xxxx markup" first. If not, they can do whatever they want. You sign it? Great. It doesn't mean they signed it to actually agree to it. Get a Purchase Agreement filled out, line by line, and get them to sign it when you order. Anything less leaves you open to this sort of thing.

3: With MY22 order banks opening, the Raptor teaser, the Heritage Edition, a possible mansquatch, the pull-out tailgate and other features that didn't make it into a 21, plus being end of calendar year coming soon, these extreme ADMs may cause an unintended abundance of lame stock because people will want new-new, not last-year-model-new.

4: Live & Learn. It may suck now, but a lot of dealerships are not like this and will give you good deals, and honor them, too. As noted, dealerships have lobbied to have laws lean in their favor, not yours. Until that changes, you have to do everything you can to protect yourself and your wallet.

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