why are we blaming Ford and not the dealers?

[Compta38]

You know that for fact? If so, then yes, it's on Ford. I still really have a hard time believing Ford said, oh you want to add 1000's of orders to your small dealership that normally sells 100's Ford's a year, go for it! We'll totally have no problem diverting Bronco's from our other big dealers that sell 1000's of Ford's every year for us, to you.

I doubt Ford cares. As I think we've all learned over the past few years, a lot of us live in these echo chambers and think we're the only ones being hit by something. As I said in my original post, we're talking less than 1% of Bronco orders getting pushed into 2023. Ford will sell that at other dealers, no problem. Ford isn't losing any business here. And all these so called 'enthusiasts' will still buy their Broncos and they'll love it. I don't think Ford loses any business here. Ford wants to keep their main distributors happy vs a few small dealers that, once this is over, go back to selling less than 50 Broncos a year.

As the saying goes 'if it's too good to be true, it probably is'. And I get it, people are pissed because they thought they beat the man. Well you did. You just need to wait longer than the rest of us. What's more important? Bronco now? or saving a few hundred dollars? Life is about choices. Nobody owes you anything.

Using an internet forum to inorganically drive up reservations numbers.
Yes, Ford is at fault for not foreseeing this issue. Good on those dealers for trying to take advantage of it. But they also should've verified with their supplier that they would match orders.

If it was such a great idea, why didn't the other 3000 dealers try to do the same? Maybe bc they knew that's not how it worked?


First Ford I'll have owned in 20yrs. My step father is retired from GM, so we usually only buy GM in this family.
Next, why is no one holding the dealerships accountable for not doing their due diligence? Last I checked you're the dealers customer. Not Ford's.

If amazon sold you an iphone, but then turned around and said Apple only gave us 200 iphones, but we have 300 orders. so 100 of you aren't getting iphones. Are you pissed at apple? or amazon? I'm pretty sure I'm pissed at amazon for leading me on. And now bc of supply and demand, I can't buy that new iphone anywhere.

do you know that for a fact? Ford told dealers do whatever you want and accumulate as many orders as you possibly can with no repercussions & allocations didn't matter? or did dealerships just assume that? I'm pretty sure it's the latter.

Yes, Ford said that to the public. Bc again, Ford didn't account for a few dealerships inorganically inflating their orders. And that is where Ford went wrong. But they aren't fixing it, or care, bc as I've said, it's such a small amount of orders in the end. I know everyone thinks B6G has every Bronco orderer as a member, but sadly that is not the case.

Your entire argument is asinine and has no legs...I asked multiple dealers even the one I was at before moving to a below invoice dealer if they could come close and I wasn't even promised MSRP at the time. These big dealers could have played ball but didn't want to.

You need to stop being a Ford apologist because they are screwing over the customer at the end of the day. We were told from the BEGINNING that our reservation timestamps was what determined when we got our vehicle, NOT what dealer had the reservation. It shouldn't matter if a dealer has 12 or 1200 reservations the TIMESTAMP and COMMODITY should be the determining factor in what gets built.

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[Aman]

You know that for fact? If so, then yes, it's on Ford. I still really have a hard time believing Ford said, oh you want to add 1000's of orders to your small dealership that normally sells 100's Ford's a year, go for it! We'll totally have no problem diverting Bronco's from our other big dealers that sell 1000's of Ford's every year for us, to you.

Yes, fact! No one cares what you "think". Facts are facts.

Ford would not be diverting Broncos from other big dealers. They will simply be fulfilling orders for reservation holders as they told us they would.

 

[PowPow]

Your entire argument is asinine and has no legs...I asked multiple dealers even the one I was at before moving to a below invoice dealer if they could come close and I wasn't even promised MSRP at the time. These big dealers could have played ball but didn't want to.

I don't think anyone's opinion is asinine. I think all people are entitled to their opinions and thoughts.
Name calling doesn't make you right.

Again, maybe because big dealers understood Ford better?

You need to stop being a Ford apologist because they are screwing over the customer at the end of the day. We were told from the BEGINNING that our reservation timestamps was what determined when we got our vehicle, NOT what dealer had the reservation. It shouldn't matter if a dealer has 12 or 1200 reservations the TIMESTAMP and COMMODITY should be the determining factor in what gets built.

Ford thinking they can do what Tesla could do was definitely a mistake. And as I keep saying, that is on them. They didn't foresee this happening. and now a few hundred customers are pissed. But definitely not the majority.

 

[PowPow]

Yes, fact! No one cares what you "think". Facts are facts.

dude, c'mon. You don't know who I am. I don't know who you are. Anyone can spit 'facts' on the internet.

What can you show to prove me wrong? Or yes, you're right. Everyone should take your word for it over mine. Bc you used an exclamation mark after fact. That definitely makes it true.

So until then, I'll happily share my opinion. Once proven wrong, I'll gladly eat crow. Just like I said in my original post.

 

[Jdc]

I don't think anyone's opinion is asinine. I think all people are entitled to their opinions and thoughts.
Name calling doesn't make you right.

Again, maybe because big dealers understood Ford better?

Ford thinking they can do what Tesla could do was definitely a mistake. And as I keep saying, that is on them. They didn't foresee this happening. and now a few hundred customers are pissed. But definitely not the majority.

Where is the poll that you're getting your info from? How do you know it's only a few hundred?

 

[moisea]

Now, with that said, Ford isn't totally innocent here. They tried the Tesla sales model, but didn't account for the dealer loophole and didn't expect some dealerships to do what they're doing. So while a lot on here think it's a big deal, it's maybe, what? 1% (if that) of all orders that will fall into 2023. You're pissed, but Ford isn't losing any sleep over it.

The main issue here is that Ford created a whole customer class AKA "reservation holders" and in so doing was obligated to cater for the interest of the new stakeholders(reservation holders) instead of leaving them to the whims of the legacy system they currently have AKA the "dealership mode". Now, if they could make that system work with the new reservation model, then fine and good, but if they could not, it was incumbent on them to fix it because they created reliance by, again, introducing the reservation model. Therefore, this issue at its core has two parties - Ford and reservation holders; dealerships are third party beneficiaries/victims and if Ford is directing reservation holders to go to dealerships to seek for solutions then they are shirking their responsibilites. That's my 2 cents.

 

[Rough Rider]

Can you elaborate on why it should matter?
No snark just curious about another point of view

The argument every dealer has made from the dawn of time is that the dealers all matter as they know the customers best and can adapt to local situations and build local relationships. If anyone says a dealer doesn't matter...then the franchise laws they have put in place to protect themselves will go away. EVERY dealer will fight tooth and nail to protect that investment.

 

[cowman]

Your entire argument is asinine and has no legs...I asked multiple dealers even the one I was at before moving to a below invoice dealer if they could come close and I wasn't even promised MSRP at the time. These big dealers could have played ball but didn't want to.

You need to stop being a Ford apologist because they are screwing over the customer at the end of the day. We were told from the BEGINNING that our reservation timestamps was what determined when we got our vehicle, NOT what dealer had the reservation. It shouldn't matter if a dealer has 12 or 1200 reservations the TIMESTAMP and COMMODITY should be the determining factor in what gets built.

Here again the only customers Ford has is DEALERS..... The money you put up went to the dealers ... not Ford.... Ford changed the rules on the dealers.... where as the dealer were to inform you.... the reason big dealers are big is because they have been down this road before.... they know everything is subject to change without notice from any manufacture... including Ford.... just like in my business.... I can't give you the price of beef of what it will cost in 6 months ... depends on the market....but I can give you a price when it is ready to be delivered to you....

 

[Rough Rider]

The main issue here is that Ford created a whole customer class AKA "reservation holders" and in so doing was obligated to cater for the interest of the new stakeholders(reservation holders) instead of leaving them to the whims of the legacy system they currently have AKA the "dealership mode". Now, if they could make that system work with the new reservation model, then fine and good, but if they could not, it was incumbent on them to fix it because they created reliance by, again, introducing the reservation model. Therefore, this issue at its core has two parties - Ford and reservation holders; dealerships are third party beneficiaries/victims and if Ford is directing reservation holders to go to dealerships to seek for solutions then they are shirking their responsibilites. That's my 2 cents.

Fords responsibility to you as a reservation holder is a moral one. They have a legal obligation to the dealers based on franchise laws...and supply of product is part of that franchise law.

If anyone though that they would break a legal obligation to dealers that have invested millions in the franchise and sell the rest of Ford's product for a reservation system for 150K people...well I have ocean front property in Iowa to sell you.

 

[Al Cowlings]

Sooo I decided to check the receipts. I’m a Granger customer and am outraged by this whole thing. However, Ford plainly left itself some wiggle room on this from the get-go. Shame on me for not reading more carefully.

 

[ATLColonial]

It seems to me like Ford is having a hard time with the reservation system because it's a complete 180 from their typical model. It makes sense to me to allocate it the way they are in 2022 if these were being sold pursuant to the old system: mostly people buying off the lot and a few special orders. If you're Ford and that's how you expect to sell the car, then you want to send them to the places that have traditionally sold the most Ford cars because you can reliably predict that they'll be efficiently off the lot. When there's no known end purchaser, that makes sense to me.

But the reservation model inverts this: it's all special orders, with a few being sold by people walking onto the lot. So you should, theoretically, not have to worry about whether a car you're sending to a particular dealership is going to get sold because it's basically already been sold when the order is placed. That assumes a strong correlation between converted reservations and sales (which I believe there is), but if that's the case, then it doesn't make sense to me to base allocations on how many Mustangs or Super Duty's a dealer has sold in the past couple of years instead of the number of converted Bronco reservations a particular dealer has. There are known end purchasers even before the car is built, so you should be able to use that as a reliable indicator of how many Broncos that dealer will be able to sell. If Granger has sold 100% of its converted reservations and has a 1,000 more, then it seems more likely that they'll be able to sell those 1,000 Broncos than a big dealership that's only sold 60% of its converted Broncos, especially as the market is flooded and the "newness" of the car wears off.

My takeaway is that Ford did not anticipate (i) this many reservations, (ii) not being able to fulfill all the reservations in the first model year, and (iii) that dealers would try and compete for customers on price in order to hoard reservations (isn't it nice to have dealers compete for your order, rather than you compete against other customers for the same car?). I think they expected like 60k reservations that would take them through the first several months of production, after which they could go back to sending random builds to dealer lots for walkup purchasers. Obviously it didn't work out that way, and they're now trying to fit a square peg (the direct order setup associated with the reservations) into a round hole (the normal dealer allocation method).

 

[Vigor]

The argument every dealer has made from the dawn of time is that the dealers all matter as they know the customers best and can adapt to local situations and build local relationships. If anyone says a dealer doesn't matter...then the franchise laws they have put in place to protect themselves will go away. EVERY dealer will fight tooth and nail to protect that investment.

Dealerships have shown throughout this process that they care less about their customers. The good ones STAND OUT and get the business, as they should.
If Ford is to have a reservation system, they need to honor their original commitments regardless of which dealership the customer ordered through.

 

[Atomicdog]

Where is the poll that you're getting your info from? How do you know it's only a few hundred?

He has a VIN so from his perspective anyone that has issues with Ford is in the minority.

 

[Bustinbronco]

I made reservation within 12 hours of Bronco being released. My dealership who apparently is the largest?? volume dealership in MO said wi was number 8/80ish orders. Put in order and then one email after another until now Bronco may be built in 2023? I was already on fence about a 60K plus unproven ride, but now even more so. Crickets from my local dealership for over 6 months. The kicker, I get GMC family pricing and can get a loaded pickup for around the same price. I may be out at this point.

 

[ATLColonial]

Here again the only customers Ford has is DEALERS..... The money you put up went to the dealers ... not Ford.... Ford changed the rules on the dealers.... where as the dealer were to inform you.... the reason big dealers are big is because they have been down this road before.... they know everything is subject to change without notice from any manufacture... including Ford.... just like in my business.... I can't give you the price of beef of what it will cost in 6 months ... depends on the market....but I can give you a price when it is ready to be delivered to you....

People will order beef from you 6 months in advance without agreeing to a price?

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