Author Topic: Ford to eleminate dealership's.  (Read 1313 times)

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gregaba

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Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« on: August 02, 2022, 12:47:48 PM »
Ford's ceo said in an interview that he has had it with dealership's adding a markup on their popular model's. He said some dealer's are adding up to $45,000 to the msrp on the new lightening and maverick's.
He said they will go to an online ordering system where everything is upfront and quick.
They have had new policy's in place where if the customer order's a car the price is locked at the time of the order but the dealer's are still charging the markup or they won't deliver the car to the customer.
Instead of hour's to buy a car you can do it in minute's and the car will be delivered direct to you.
Ford is in the process of doing the change now.
You can see the interview on utube under Ford has had it with dealership's.
Greg

RustyCrankshaft

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2022, 04:39:07 PM »
Can you order warranty repairs and service work delivered to your door?

FrozenMerc

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2022, 04:51:16 PM »
Typical CEO bluster without much planning or details behind it, "Hay Tesla did it, why can't we?" mentality.  I wish him the best of luck, but then I like to watch dumpster fires just because.  It may be good news for all the small time mechanics, but only if Ford makes it easier to service their vehicles and starts eliminating the "Dealer Only" tools and other junk required for service on these "modern" cars.

Katz427

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2022, 06:39:29 PM »
Ford management tried something similar in the late 70's. The idea is not really new. This was before online buying. Service was to be handled by regional service centers. Some of the regional centers were built, and staffed, but the whole deal , was finally put aside, except for Ford trucks. The truck deal, actually wasn't  a bad idea, ( talking Louisville line, big trucks ) , and worked until Jacque Nasser, sold off the big truck line. I think Jim Farley , is trying too scare dealers, but I don't  see it happening  any time soon. Buying out the dealers would get expensive, history shows.

RustyCrankshaft

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2022, 07:00:55 PM »
Ford management tried something similar in the late 70's. The idea is not really new. This was before online buying. Service was to be handled by regional service centers. Some of the regional centers were built, and staffed, but the whole deal , was finally put aside, except for Ford trucks. The truck deal, actually wasn't  a bad idea, ( talking Louisville line, big trucks ) , and worked until Jacque Nasser, sold off the big truck line. I think Jim Farley , is trying too scare dealers, but I don't  see it happening  any time soon. Buying out the dealers would get expensive, history shows.

It's really unfortunate that they sold the Louisville line. Once Freightliner got ahold of it they stopped building the L series and to this day you can't buy a light spec class 8 truck with big power like you could get in an L9000. Although the cabs were small, they were comfortable - ahead of their time for ergonomics.

Katz427

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2022, 07:56:34 PM »
I agree, getting rid of the Louisville  line was a big mistake. There were several farmers and fleet owners at the following year stockholders meeting, they expressed their displeasure to management. Nasser just sat with a grin, spent the money on Land Rover, and Volvo, we know how that went down.

shady

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2022, 07:36:29 AM »
Was at my dealer yesterday to order a new truck. He heard nothing about it, but still impossible to order most 23s. I don't know how big dealerships are going to survive this. Another bail-out?
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cleandan

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2022, 08:14:25 AM »
Dealerships charging very high markups should be addressed and stopped....but they do need to make a useful profit to be a viable business.

When dealerships are able to keep a useful stock of product for the customer so the customer can walk in, purchase, and drive away, that dealership has a useful purpose.

When the dealership is little more than a middle man who manages the transaction between customer and manufacturer, while not having anything in stock to purchase on site, that dealership ceases to provide a useful service because the purchase and wait for product is the same when the dealership is little more than a delivery site.

When dealerships are providing other services like maintenance, upgrades, parts, and special offerings they do serve a useful purpose beyond the selling of new and used cars.

With the recent situation giving rise to less, or no, new vehicle stock and long, long, long wait times for new vehicles, it can give the impression that dealerships are no longer required.

But we will ALWAYS want to try something like a car before buying.
Sit in seats, play with the knobs, feel if the car is generally comfortable for you....and even things as simple as, will I fit (some cars are very cramped) must be done in person........If there is no dealership and thus, no way to effectively try one on, things would be very much different in the car buying world.

This particular subject does correlate with another on this forum and it gives some insight into the desire to turn vehicle ownership into something akin to appliance ownership, rather than car ownership as we once knew it to be.



Falcon67

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2022, 09:06:52 AM »
We bought two trucks last year.  One dealer "screwed' us with a markup, and by taking a Ford discount that was available to use but had not been communicated with us from either Ford or the dealer.  Wife's F-150, bought in October.  Discount was couched as "repeat customer discount".  I received a discount card from Ford about 3 weeks later (early November) claiming I had $3000 off if I ordered a new 2022 Super Duty.  So I did, from a different dealer.  That dealer did not do any markup, but I ordered in late November and Ford bumped prices in December.  They also put out a notice that any trucks ordered before December 8 2021 would have the order price honored.  When the F-350 Lariat Ultimate came in back in March, it was "invoiced" to the dealer at a higher number than the order price.  They had to make some calls to be sure they would get the difference from Ford and not from us.  I got a $2000 discount on the truck because that's when we found out the other dealer had taken the $3K to use on the wife's truck in October - the 3K discount I didn't know I had until I got a letter from Ford in November.  Having said all that, the selling Super Duty dealer put some kind of bullshit $750 coating on the truck's paint, so that pissed me off. 

As for Service, I always get ESP Premium and use my buds at a local Lincoln/Mazda dealer for service/warranty.  The selling dealer for the Super Duty is like 35 miles, so more convenient to take it to Lincoln.  Better service too.  I can drop one of the trucks for service or oil change and they'll ride me to work and come pick me up when it's all done.

Throwing all dealers under the bus doesn't sound like a well thought out solution.  Markups are controversial for sure.  I heard from my Lincoln guy that a lady sold her Lincoln SUV to buy an new one, made a deal with a big dealer in DFW.  Took a one way to DFW to pick up the car - got socked with $8K in upcharges.  I'd have walked the 160 miles home before I'd caved to that crap.
« Last Edit: August 03, 2022, 09:10:24 AM by Falcon67 »

driveamerican

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #9 on: August 15, 2022, 01:18:09 AM »
I wonder if he ever considered ford used to build all their stuff and if dealers could get inventory they wouldn't need to gouge, payroll don't stop the dealer's didn't stop building the focus and other fuel efficient cars. These are ideas and decisions made by over educated idiots build your own shit and you won't have the supply problems. Don't blame dealers for making a buck has he took a cut in pay he should stop sucking Gavin Newsomes dick and start running the company

CV355

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #10 on: August 15, 2022, 08:16:54 AM »
I was looking into potential replacements for our '18 Mustang GT.  The new Broncos were tempting, until I found out that almost every dealership around here puts a $15k-$25k ADM on top of MSRP.  No thanks.  I'd sooner buy an 80's Bronco and do a full restore and modern drivetrain swap than spend $80k on an EcoBoost Bronco that really should be in the $30k-$40k range to compete with Jeeps. 

I'm not a fan of Ford dealerships, especially the ones near me. 

TimeWarpF100

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #11 on: August 15, 2022, 11:26:18 AM »
Ford's ceo said in an interview that he has had it with dealership's adding a markup on their popular model's. He said some dealer's are adding up to $45,000 to the msrp on the new lightening and maverick's.
He said they will go to an online ordering system where everything is upfront and quick.
They have had new policy's in place where if the customer order's a car the price is locked at the time of the order but the dealer's are still charging the markup or they won't deliver the car to the customer.
Instead of hour's to buy a car you can do it in minute's and the car will be delivered direct to you.
Ford is in the process of doing the change now.
You can see the interview on utube under Ford has had it with dealership's.
Greg

Farley was supposed to be a “car guy” but he could care less. He is all Electric. Time he gets the boot 🥾

All talk no action. I ordered a new RaptorR at msrp and now seeing dealers are asking 100k over msrp.
Non MSRP dealers at minimum 20k, 30k, 50k, 80k is the norm.

Seems some have very large non refundable deposits on 100k over in SoCal.
Many dealers taking large deposits without having a allocation.

machoneman

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #12 on: August 15, 2022, 11:38:32 AM »
Many here may not know it but many states have laws against auto makers selling direct.

These laws go back pre-WW2 and were enacted to prevent the makers from taking all the profits from local business men. I no longer have a list but recent moves by Tesla have been restricted in those states that mandate local and independent dealerships. I think that regardless of what Ford wants. they will run into a wall of resistance in many states. 

Here's a current list and details on franchise laws:

https://michiganstopsmartmeters.com/how-many-states-allow-direct-to-consumer-car-sales/
« Last Edit: August 15, 2022, 11:42:10 AM by machoneman »
Bob Maag

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Re: Ford to eleminate dealership's.
« Reply #13 on: August 19, 2022, 07:14:25 AM »
Woke CEO maybe should try to run a new dealership himself so he could really tell us how good he is .