The ridiculous Bronco markups led Ford to threaten dealership allocations.
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Apparently Kia and Hyundai dealers are the worst.
Not just about markups. Love my car (which was a good deal in a much friendlier market for buyers a few years back) but good grief with those folks.
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It’s bucking futs. The dealerships seem to be doing this because they know, especially for the Lightning, they have a stranglehold on the market right now - i.e. because they can.
This particular dealer inundated me for the better parts of two days with texts and emails until I politely told them no way in hell am I paying $20k over the MSRP and I’m happy to wait until Ford’s production increases to the point its successfully meeting demand (and bringing pricing closer to MSRP). Haven’t heard anything since.
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Simple supply and demand.
People are happy with the S in MSRP as long as dealers are negotiating down from it, but not so much when the shoe is on the other foot.
The worst part about the F-150 Lightning situation is that the available models are likely ones that had been pre-ordered in good faith but, when they showed up, the dealer tried to pile on the markup so the buyers walked away.
The business model survives because the dealership lobby draws a lot of water with legislators.
And Ford is not selling direct to the public. There are still laws against that. They are requiring their dealerships to institute a “no-haggles” policy and publish a final sales price of every vehicle, and stick to it. Furthermore, they’ll require dealerships to accept sales online, so that consumers do not have to physically visit the dealership if they don’t want to. In short, they are standardizing product pricing and service, so that dealerships are essentially all equal. This is similar to what GM did with Saturn many years ago, without the online part, of course.
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Talk to me when there’s a f250+
This reminds me of the early 90’s when Acura came out with the NSX. I remember reading that demand for the car was so high that some people literally were telling a dealership to name a price.
I’m sure there are folks today who want a Lightning so much that they’ll pay $20k over MSRP. I’m happy to wait.
@Lefty For my job, that would be a hell of a good thing.
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This is exactly what Ford is trying to avoid. There will be a published price for an electric vehicle, and it will be the same, no matter which dealership you purchase it from. I’m not sure if the model of having multiple vehicles in their inventory will change, or if will be an “order from the factory” model. This is how Saturn operated, at least in the early days. You went to a dealership and ordered the vehicle you wanted. I want this color exterior, this color interior, I want this engine and transmission, A/C, radio with CD player, sunroof…etc. There was a list of prices for everything, and they placed your order for you. A few weeks later, your car showed up and you went to pick it up. There was not a lot full of “deals” they were trying to liquidate to make room for new inventory! You couldn’t just go buy a car that day, but you got exactly what you wanted, and you knew the price and didn’t have to search for the car you wanted. It was actually the best new car buying experience I ever had. The car itself was another matter, however.
I think the stink with Ford dealers and those of other marques is not that they’re upcharging people who walk in off the street looking to buy the latest hot thing. It’s that they’re gouging people who pre-ordered a car to their own specification, and then, when they go to pick it up, get told the price has gone up $30k.
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I’m not sure how that happens if there is any sort of written contract.
I think the way it works is that you give the dealer your specs and the dealer orders the vehicle. So, when it shows up, it’s their vehicle, not (yet) yours.
Therein lies the problem that Ford is trying to solve. No more of that nonsense. It will be a fixed price.
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If true, Musk still has no idea what the value is of a social media platform.
Another rumor is that tweetdeck is going behind the Blue paywall.
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He’s trying to force everyone to pay for it, which - if that’s your goal, you might want to keep the product operational.
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But here’s the fundamental misunderstanding: he thinks Twitter is the product when the product actually is the engagement by its users.
Despite all that has happened since last fall, I would be stunned if any of this is true.
I’ve lost capacity for surprise with him
(“Capacity” was not intentional in the EV thread)
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