Ford Warns Dealers Against Additional Deposit / Payment Requirements For Lightning Orders. Supports No-Resale Provisions in Purchase Contracts

[Blainestang]

If you buy and sell it right away as the original owner would you still qualify for the $7500 when tax season rolls around?

The wording of the tax credit is that you can't take the credit if you have the "intent to resell" or something like that.

So, can you buy it planning to keep it, then change your mind and resell it because someone offered you $20k over what you paid? Yes.

Can you buy it from the outset with the plan to resell it... and still take the credit? Legally, no.

Can anyone prove whether you were planning to keep it at some point or not? Probably not... unless the buyer posts on a public forum that they're planning to just buy and flip it. haha

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[broncojohn]

I placed a Bronco order in March last year (online) and the assigned dealer is now telling me they are going to charge me another $5K as a "dealer mark-up". Don't have a promised delivery date yet, but last fall Ford corporate sent me an email guaranteeing that the "price" would not change... Is this even legal? I thought I locked down my order AND price back in March with the deposit I put down. Deceptive marketing/pricing... this has class-action written all over it. Most certainly bad customer experience...

 

[vandy1981]

Felt the same to me as a slapped on ADM. Started reading into all their price jumps over the years and turned me off of them.

Imagine if you had to spend hours at multiple dealers negotiating with salespeople before you could get the out-the-door price. Even if you were satisfied with the price, how do you know you couldn't have gotten a better price at the dealer a few miles down the road?

With Tesla and Rivian, it takes less than 60 seconds to discover your price and it's locked in when you place the order. If the price goes down, you can just cancel and reorder. If the price goes up, they're still going to honor the original terms.

 

[F150ROD]

But Tesla arbitrarily increases the prices of their vehicles all the time. Demand is such that they can price it however they want and sell them all. Pretty much an ADM but it applies to all Tesla.

Except when your Tesla order is placed the price you ordered at is the same, big difference

 

[PA Lightning]

I placed a Bronco order in March last year (online) and the assigned dealer is now telling me they are going to charge me another $5K as a "dealer mark-up". Don't have a promised delivery date yet, but last fall Ford corporate sent me an email guaranteeing that the "price" would not change... Is this even legal? I thought I locked down my order AND price back in March with the deposit I put down. Deceptive marketing/pricing... this has class-action written all over it. Most certainly bad customer experience...

Ford is talking about not increasing the MSRP for your order. Dealer ADM is a totally separate issue.

 

[xtraman122]

I placed a Bronco order in March last year (online) and the assigned dealer is now telling me they are going to charge me another $5K as a "dealer mark-up". Don't have a promised delivery date yet, but last fall Ford corporate sent me an email guaranteeing that the "price" would not change... Is this even legal? I thought I locked down my order AND price back in March with the deposit I put down. Deceptive marketing/pricing... this has class-action written all over it. Most certainly bad customer experience...

This type of scumbaggery is usually solved with a quick call to your local news station who will typically love to do a story on how a car dealer is playing with its customers and trying to swap prices on them last minute to reap extra profit during trying times. First call from the reporter to the GM of the dealership asking for comment will likely get that fixed.

 

[RavenYZF-R6]

Imagine if you had to spend hours at multiple dealers negotiating with salespeople before you could get the out-the-door price. Even if you were satisfied with the price, how do you know you couldn't have gotten a better price at the dealer a few miles down the road?

With Tesla and Rivian, it takes less than 60 seconds to discover your price and it's locked in when you place the order. If the price goes down, you can just cancel and reorder. If the price goes up, they're still going to honor the original terms.

I get it lol. I’m just saying how I see them, either way someone is getting more $$ for nothing whether it’s adm or Tesla jacking up prices throughout the year. Dealer sucks for sure. I usually get everything set up by email and if they don’t honor it when I show up with paperwork ready I bounce.

 

[Maquis]

I placed a Bronco order in March last year (online) and the assigned dealer is now telling me they are going to charge me another $5K as a "dealer mark-up". Don't have a promised delivery date yet, but last fall Ford corporate sent me an email guaranteeing that the "price" would not change... Is this even legal? I thought I locked down my order AND price back in March with the deposit I put down. Deceptive marketing/pricing... this has class-action written all over it. Most certainly bad customer experience...

If you have documentation proving your original price, contact Mike Levine at Ford on Twitter. I know this worked for some Mach-E buyers in your situation.

 

[RavenYZF-R6]

Except when your Tesla order is placed the price you ordered at is the same, big difference

It is a difference. Not that big to me since I don’t deal with the dealers who tack on a bunch of extra $$. We only had 7 months to call around and find out who the good dealers are. Just read some bronco and Mach e forums. It’s the few dealers that do this that are the problem. Not dealers themselves.

 

[Stephen8810]

Dear Ford,

Really?

At least for me, the Ford brand and Dealer Reputation was already negatively impacted when Ford implemented the 'dealer prioritization' to the reservation system without putting any brand reputation guideline / safeguards in place and some dealerships reacted by contacting reservation holders offering 'their jump to the front of the line' ADM tickets.

As for the 'No-Sale' provision.... Did you really think this through? Words like 'offering support' and 'may add' will just have any profit seeking resellers shopping around for dealerships that don't require the additional no-sale purchase agreement. Dealerships with friends, family, employees and/or owners who may be holding some of those reservation prioritized 'golden tickets' may decide not to implement the Ford supported agreement, or worse yet, be selective on which purchasers they may or may not ask to sign the agreement. So, I see this as impacting only your average retail purchaser like me. Adding another document for me to read, sign and stress about possibly having a litigious situation down the road will do nothing but negatively impact my Ford customer satisfaction experience.

I suggest a much better solution would be for you to ramp up production and get lots and lots of Lightnings on the street as quickly as possible. Market supply and demand will solve your re-sale issue.

 

[vandy1981]

This type of scumbaggery is usually solved with a quick call to your local news station who will typically love to do a story on how a car dealer is playing with its customers and trying to swap prices on them last minute to reap extra profit during trying times.

Unless said dealer buys a lot of advertisement slots from your local news station

 

[jaykoolzboy]

Ford,

How about you fix this issue by

1. Ensure no ADM will be applied on the F150L for all the domestic dealers (using post sale survey to provide extra incentives to the top dealers)

2. Ensure this is really a first come first service situation (no priority list, no under-table payment) simply by sending the conversation opportunity with the original sequence?

 

[khatch]

I'm trying to understand why one document says (I'm paraphrasing) "Dealers, stop damaging our reputation by screwing customers with markups" and also includes "Customers, you can't resell the lightning". Are these things related?

To me, the reason that a dealer shouldn't mark up this car is that they didn't sell it to me. I researched, selected it and ordered it through Ford and am willing to pay the Ford price. The dealership added no value but I guess they have to be part of the sales process due to the dealership/manufacturer structure. Perhaps a straight fee for their time?

But I'm still trying to understand why Ford would support limiting the customer's ability to sell the car. Who benefits from that?

 

[Clickbeast]

But Tesla arbitrarily increases the prices of their vehicles all the time. Demand is such that they can price it however they want and sell them all. Pretty much an ADM but it applies to all Tesla.

What a terrible argument... oof

The price you pay for a tesla NEVER changes after you order. Yes, the price has gone up for people who hadn't ordered yet, but you go in eyes open. Not sure why this is so difficult for anti-tesla people to understand

 

[RavenYZF-R6]

What a terrible argument... oof

The price you pay for a tesla NEVER changes after you order. Yes, the price has gone up for people who hadn't ordered yet, but you go in eyes open. Not sure why this is so difficult for anti-tesla people to understand

Oof. I understand and will cede the point no problem. I was just pointing out that from my view point of being on the fence trying to decide what I wanted and watching it go up was as much of a turn off for me as a dealer experience. That’s all fella.

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