Dealership bidding war with customers?

[Dadofjax]

I am assuming I'm not the only "customer" who recieved this email.

My guess they are looking to see who will offer the most for their "1" lightning coming in. I thought Ford told dealerships they are not allowed to markup or deal in this type of behavior (if they are looking for a bidding war)?

The Lightning is already way over priced, my 2021 is very similar to this one and I paid over $20k less pre markup, $50k post markup. Why are people spending $50k more (with markup) on identical trucks with 50% less range?

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[Mosey]

And I thought Ford was going to crack down on this - yeah right. Direct purchase is looking better and better.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

And I thought Ford was going to crack down on this - yeah right. Direct purchase is looking better and better.

They are. They are rolling out a certification process that dealers must buy into to be able to sell the EV's and giving the dealerships two months to get it completed. Cost to the dealerships are up to 1.2million. What were seeing is dealerships trying to cash in before they get cut off if they don't plunk down a huge amount of cash to get the new certification.

Ford dealers have until the end of October to decide if they want to keep selling electric vehicles. And they'll have to agree to some new conditions if they do, including transparent, set pricing, available online.

It may cost up to $500,000 to become Model e certified and $1.2 million to become Model e Elite certified.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/0...ic-vehicles-must-have-transparent-set-prices/

Not only are they having to shell out a crap ton to get the certification but they also have to have charging stations installed for customers as well. So many dealerships will be out a ton of money up front just to have the ability to sell Ford EV's.

 

[Zengineer]

They could do what Rolex does...but be careful what you wish for. Rolex will not allow their dealers to charge over MSRP. If you want a hot model you just have to buy a bunch of overpriced jewelry or wait 2-5 years. Some dealers just sell out the back door directly to resellers who can and do charge inflated prices. Excess money is either paid under the table or the resellers take slow selling models off the dealers hands as part of the package deal.

As long as supply is way short of demand there will be games. If Ford solves that then the current dealer model works just fine.

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