Why is Dealer Allocation even a thing?

[Efthreeoh]

I'm sorry I don't really follow what you're saying. Once the order is in, it's not in the dealer's hands any longer. So I don't understand 'holding off accepting'. The dealer is notified of a vehicle being built or not. I'm probably a bit dense but I don't follow the train of thought.

I'll use an extreme example (non-plausible at this point).

So, if a 7/14/20 hour-1 reservation holder orders a 4-door OBX Bronco with a Modular top, that Bronco will be built sometime in 2023 based on the availability of the modular top. If Grainer has a 7/15/20 reservation holder who orders a 2-door OBX with a standard MIC top, the later 7/15/20 order will be built first based on commodity availability.

The Ford reservation timestamp protocol (flowed down to the dealer level) should dictate that Grainer, to be fair to its customer, should wait until 2023 to deliver the 7/14/20 hour-1 Modular top OBX first BEFORE it delivers the 7/15/20 timestamp OBX with a MIC.

Grainger is not strictly following the timestamp protocol and neither is Ford.

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[RBF 1401]

Totally agree and I’m not a Granger orderer. Granger did what I presume Ford should want any dealership to do: sell a shitload of product. And Ford shit on them for it.

Ford also underestimated that when they allow their dealers to do whatever they want (including rediculous ADM and "stealing" reservations) in this modern hyper-connected world, a large chunk of the potential Ford product customers are becoming loyal to the dealers they can trust rather than to Ford. If Ford makes it take too long to get a Bronco from the guaranteed honest dealers like Granger and Steven's and a handful of other dealers who have earned our trust, then some of those customers will be buying Jeeps and Rams from those dealers.

I'm not in a hurry to get my Bronco, it really is an extra "toy" for me, but it is tempting to buy something else if I have to wait until 2025 for my toy because Ford decides to fill the mega-dealer's lots with extra Broncos to sell before they finish filling all their reservations.

When I've called Ford's customer service, they claim all the 2020 reservations will be filled in 2022. They went so far as to say the people who put actual orders in for MY2021 and got pushed to MY2022 will get priorty. But this goes in direct conflict to what Mike Levine tweeted about MY2022 allocations.

As I see it, Ford's only mistake was to allow reservations if they were not going to treat them as "reserved" vehicles. If a couple shows up at a restaurant without a reservation and there's an extra table open, I won'tget made at the restaurant for seating them just because I reserved a table a week in advance. But if I reserved a table a week in advance, and that restaurant refused to seat me and a half-dozen other reservation holders because they decided they don't really want to honor the reservation system and filled all the tables with a bunch of their friends. If you want to fill the restaurant with your friends, then DON'T TAKE RESERVATIONS for that night!

Ford, if you couldn't fill that many reservations for 2021, you shouldn't have taken that many reservations!!!

 

[NC_Pinz]

I'll use an extreme example (non-plausible at this point).

So, if a 7/14/20 hour-1 reservation holder orders a 4-door OBX Bronco with a Modular top, that Bronco will be built sometime in 2023 based on the availability of the modular top. If Grainer has a 7/15/20 reservation holder who orders a 2-door OBX with a standard MIC top, the later 7/15/20 order will be built first based on commodity availability.

The Ford reservation timestamp protocol (flowed down to the dealer level) should dictate that Grainer, to be fair to its customer, should wait until 2023 to deliver the 7/14/20 hour-1 Modular top OBX first BEFORE it delivers the 7/15/20 timestamp OBX with a MIC.

Grainger is not strictly following the timestamp protocol and neither is Ford.

That makes no sense. Yes extreme but it makes no sense. The MOD is just not available. Just like EG wasn't a color for 2021. A dealer holding delivery because something is just not available to build is idiotic.

The crux of the issue is not commodity constraints. The issue folks have is the exact same build at two dealerships having vastly different delivery times due to allocations. My buddy has the SAME BUILD as i have. He has been DRIVING his for two months. Two different dealers. I don't have a VIN. My reservation was almost a week before his. That is the problem. Has nothing to do with dealers other than Ford and their allocations.

 

[Bt_ostate]

I disagree that dealerships are unnecessary. They are no different than a hardware store, grocery store or drug store, with the exception that they usually only carry the products of one manufacturer. If manufacturers only sold direct to the consumer they would only service major centres and that would leave millions of people without access to new vehicles. Tesla is an outlier because they are a boutique manufacturer who do not cater to the general public; and their customer base is in major urban centres.

Exactly. Works for boutique products and cities. Not so much for non boutique and especially rural America.

 

[Bt_ostate]

They weren't expecting the # of reservations that they received. Huge... miscalculation on their part. Did it to gauge interest and determine commodity needs, but it backfired in a huge way with the enormous amount of reservations that were made. In retrospect the reservation process was a giant blunder and shouldn't have been used.

 

[Ares]

That makes no sense. Yes extreme but it makes no sense. The MOD is just not available. Just like EG wasn't a color for 2021. A dealer holding delivery because something is just not available to build is idiotic.

The crux of the issue is not commodity constraints. The issue folks have is the exact same build at two dealerships having vastly different delivery times due to allocations. My buddy has the SAME BUILD as i have. He has been DRIVING his for two months. Two different dealers. I don't have a VIN. My reservation was almost a week before his. That is the problem. Has nothing to do with dealers other than Ford and their allocations.

dealers have a lot of power, they have contracts with ford that say they invested in a facility to sell ford vehicles, and in turn ford will sell them vehicles. States will always side with the dealers because they pay the tax and hold the jobs, not a corporation 10 states away.

So when 1 dealer reaches beyond its territory offering steep discounts to entice people to not buy local, thats a problem.

1. short term, it devalues the product through steep discounts
2. Long term it may bankrupt dealers who cant compete with those discounts
3. longer term, the few remaining dealers have less competition and will become less interested in discounting
4. It leaves regions without a local dealer, some wont shop with a dealer in a different state for a typical car purchase, or you may lack service options in your area.

So auto makers use allocation to insure all the dealers get a fair share of high demand products and discourage drastic pricing variances knowing that just because you sell a bunch, doesnt mean you will get a bunch.

 

[Analog Kid]

Well, those people must have never had a root canal before.

I have and can tell you I like my dentist 10x better than any car dealer.

 

[AbsoluteFord]

I disagree that dealerships are unnecessary. They are no different than a hardware store, grocery store or drug store, with the exception that they usually only carry the products of one manufacturer. If manufacturers only sold direct to the consumer they would only service major centres and that would leave millions of people without access to new vehicles. Tesla is an outlier because they are a boutique manufacturer who do not cater to the general public; and their customer base is in major urban centres.

This is actually a really good point that I never thought of. Guess it is because I live in a highly populated area.

 

[Tilzbow]

It’s a thing for the same reason companies give customers who purchase in large consistent volumes discounts. It’s a thing for the same reasons that governments give large corporations tax breaks for relocating or building a large scale facility in their state. It’s a thing for the same reason most will help out friends in a time of need.

 

[tyrobronco]

So in hindsight:

1) Ford should have sent an interest level survey to dealerships to see 'how many' Broncos they wanted to order.

2) Announce the Bronco. Tell customers to go to their local dealerships and get on their lists.

3) Seeing numbers, decide if it is possible to increase any dealer's order number.

4) Build Broncos and send them to their dealerships for them to do with as they please.


It really was a massive mistake to tell "me" to reserve "my" Bronco from Ford. Tell me the time I reserved would matter. Tell me what the MSRP is. Tell me "my" Bronco is scheduled to be built. Tell me "my" Bronco is built. Tell me "my" Bronco is shipped. Tell me "my" Bronco has arrived.

Then say, "It is the dealer's Bronco to do with what they want. Why u mad, bro?"

 

[okbob]

So from now on, for your new car purchases, you are going to buy every future car sight unseen?

That has nothing to do with the comparison in my post.......and as a matter of fact, my bronco is EXACTLY the same. I reserved and ordered it sight unseen and won't see it until it gets here, if I ever get a vin lol. No different that me researching a weed eater on line, ordering it sight unseen, it gets delivered and if I like I keep it, if I don't I send it back.

 

[Booback]

If you haven’t seen it, go tell Ford how you feel about the allocation system and what it‘s doing for those of us who’ve been waiting forever.
500+ days now…
https://www.research.net/r/broncosurvey
Do it - have a voice.

 

[tyrobronco]

dealers have a lot of power, they have contracts with ford that say they invested in a facility to sell ford vehicles, and in turn ford will sell them vehicles. States will always side with the dealers because they pay the tax and hold the jobs, not a corporation 10 states away.

So when 1 dealer reaches beyond its territory offering steep discounts to entice people to not buy local, thats a problem.

1. short term, it devalues the product through steep discounts
2. Long term it may bankrupt dealers who cant compete with those discounts
3. longer term, the few remaining dealers have less competition and will become less interested in discounting
4. It leaves regions without a local dealer, some wont shop with a dealer in a different state for a typical car purchase, or you may lack service options in your area.

So auto makers use allocation to insure all the dealers get a fair share of high demand products and discourage drastic pricing variances knowing that just because you sell a bunch, doesnt mean you will get a bunch.

How does ADM fit into this?

Legitimately curious.

 

[edernest]

General question. Why is Dealer Allocation even a thing?
If a hundred thousand people walked in over the next month and ordered a thousand Ford vehicles Ford would build them without regard to the dealer that they were purchased at, right? So why are Bronco orders being handled differently?

Like other folks said, the dealer is Ford's customer, not us. They let the cat out of the bag once they allowed us to do online reservations and we saw how great it could be if we could buy direct from the manufacturer. And now they're trying to reign that back in with dealer allocations which most benefit the large dealers and screw reservation holders that didn't know that the dealer they chose would impact when they could get their vehicle.

The big auto companies need a plan to phase out dealerships longterm. Most people do not enjoy the experience of working with them, and new companies like Tesla are able to cutout the middleman by selling direct.

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