Ford CEO Finally Confirms New "Agency Model"

[P. A. Schilke]

Wow - you guys have a LOT more patience than I do. I think the longest it ever took me to purchase a vehicle was maybe a little over 2 hours. My Ranger was 15 minutes when I ordered it, and probably 30 (15 to sign all the papers and 15 to go over the truck with the salesman) minutes when I picked it up. They did most of the credit forms, etc before we even got there so everything was ready to go. When I ordered it, they had the order all ready they just had to get my deposit and ID, etc to submit the order. When we bought our C-Max 6 years ago it was probably a little longer than my Ranger, but not that much longer.

I refuse to waste more time than that buying a car - if they aren't willing to negotiate in good faith, require that many back and forth/"I'm leaving" scenarios, then I'm done - I'll find somewhere else that wants to treat me respectfully.

Hi Rob,

If you need an X plan, I have one for you on yorur next purchase. Just PM me as moderator you can do this...

Best,
Phil

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[Radioman]

Hi Folks,

I walk in after finding a Vehicle at Horne Ford in Nogales. I give them my Z plan pin...they pull the vehicle in for PDI and I visit the "closer" who tries to sell me paint protection etc. No dice!" He gives up and I sign some paperwork. Walk out and the salesman walks us to our dripping wet new vehicle and we are gone... Total time spent with all cards face up...about hour and a half to two hours. We usually go next door to Tito's (not my tortoise) for a malted beverage or two until we get the come and get it text... Old vehicle gets a pat on the nose and we drive home in the new vehicle, which is always an adventure as Margie looks at the dash and starts punching buttons (Yes...she is a button pusher to the 1st degree) and we drive home with flashers going..glove box door open heat on in 90° heat.

Okay...early Margie back story. Margie and I are dating but I sort of moved into her condo. Her handicapped daughter and significant other boyfriend Hagen are to travel to the daughters fatther's home in Florida for a winter visit...we get hit with a huge snow storm over night and my poor Escape in the driveway is snow encrusted. We are to drive them on the snow covered roads to Detroit Metro Airport. Me driving with Margie in the front passenger seat and daughter and Hagen in the back seats. We are driving along with Margie looking at the dash to see if she could increase the temperature as she was a bit cold. So she punches the sunroof button which starts to retract...there is no stop until it is fully open...There is 6 inches of snow on top of the Escape and it dunps thru the open sun roof into our laps while I am driving...we have snow everywhere in the front passenger area. I find a parking lot trying to not be totally pissed and we try to get as much snow out of the cabin as possible. Daugher and Hagen are trying mightly to not laugh. It doesn't work and they cannot contain themselves and bust out in laughter. Here I am driving in a snow storm with a lap full of snow and I look over at Margie...all I could do was smile as I knew that I was going to marry her after that stunt...

Best,
Phil

Great story Phil.

 

[RedlandRanger]

Hi Rob,

If you need an X plan, I have one for you on yorur next purchase. Just PM me as moderator you can do this...

Best,
Phil

Thanks Phil. I have xplan thru my work and I used it on my Ranger. I also used one for my brother when he bought a fusion.

I don't think I will ever not use xplan for any new Ford I might buy.

 

[JohnnyO]

Lotta blame to go around.
The dealers did it to themselves by grossly marking up vehicles and shoddy service.
At the same time, the dealers have bills to pay and have to mark up vehicles when they have many less vehicles to sell. That's on Ford.
Farley isn't blameless because the worse build quality, defects, and warranty claims are on him for shifting resources to EV's which realistically appeal to only a small portion of the country.

If you're going to have people order cars online directly, especially young people, then you'd better get their new cars to them pretty quick because 6-9 months isn't going to cut it when they're used to Amazon delivering the next day.

And if you don't have dealers then what are people going to do with their trade-ins? Carvana just going to take over all that? Selling a car on your own is a PITA and doesn't always happen quickly.

 

[Jhbryaniv]

next step, allowing me to pick my new vehicle up at the factory.

heck, volvo has this for their vehicles and it is an add on where you pay the manufacturer for the pleasure of going to europe to pick your car up and drive around for a month, and they still ship it home for you.

seriously, how much less work would it be if ford hired a handful of folks who could PDI vehicles and allow me to pick up my new truck from the side door of the factory.

hell, I might even pay for the ability to do this, say 500 bucks - and it includes a tour of the plant, and I can be sure that my truck isn't going to be joy ridden by the dealer and rolled over in a field . . . or sit in a railyard for 2 weeks waiting to be shipped.

 

[JohnnyO]

You're right it's not easy trying to find good service today anywhere. Unfortunately this happens and is happening more and more in every industry now. I gave up looking for someone to do some remodeling stuff I want to do here. The biggest project is I want to replace all the flooring and they either don't show up or their estimates are crazy high.

I manage our local office of a large national company. This time of year the morning sun is right in my secretary's eyes. Corporate office had two different blind companies come and measure to put blinds in the vestibule. Been three months now and no one has shown up to install anything.

 

[Motorpsychology]

I manage our local office of a large national company. This time of year the morning sun is right in my secretary's eyes. Corporate office had two different blind companies come and measure to put blinds in the vestibule. Been three months now and no one has shown up to install anything.

Maybe Corporate sent two Blond companies?

edit: Maybe corp. decided that, eventually, the sun will rise higher and further north in your lattiude; problem solved until fall. If you submit another request then, you might get a real blind company, and it can go on the next fiscal year's budget.

 

[Ranger_Pawl]

next step, allowing me to pick my new vehicle up at the factory.

heck, volvo has this for their vehicles and it is an add on where you pay the manufacturer for the pleasure of going to europe to pick your car up and drive around for a month, and they still ship it home for you.

seriously, how much less work would it be if ford hired a handful of folks who could PDI vehicles and allow me to pick up my new truck from the side door of the factory.

hell, I might even pay for the ability to do this, say 500 bucks - and it includes a tour of the plant, and I can be sure that my truck isn't going to be joy ridden by the dealer and rolled over in a field . . . or sit in a railyard for 2 weeks waiting to be shipped.

Don't I wish. I live less than 10 miles from MAP, but still paid something like $1,500 for delivery. ):

 

[Bsthroop]

Lotta blame to go around.
The dealers did it to themselves by grossly marking up vehicles and shoddy service.
At the same time, the dealers have bills to pay and have to mark up vehicles when they have many less vehicles to sell. That's on Ford.
Farley isn't blameless because the worse build quality, defects, and warranty claims are on him for shifting resources to EV's which realistically appeal to only a small portion of the country.

If you're going to have people order cars online directly, especially young people, then you'd better get their new cars to them pretty quick because 6-9 months isn't going to cut it when they're used to Amazon delivering the next day.

And if you don't have dealers then what are people going to do with their trade-ins? Carvana just going to take over all that? Selling a car on your own is a PITA and doesn't always happen quickly.

I was wondering the same about trade- ins, will Ford set up a similar group to Carvana and make the dealer accept them?

 

[AzScorpion]

I was wondering the same about trade- ins, will Ford set up a similar group to Carvana and make the dealer accept them?

I have the feeling this is where the dealers will make their money. With all the others out there now like Carvana they'll have to give you a decent trade. But I'm sure they'll be free to sell (Ford won't restrict them) at whatever price they want to. There's still a lot of unanswered questions but it's a step (so far) in the right direction.

 

[TXRangerTim]

next step, allowing me to pick my new vehicle up at the factory.

Chevy has been offering that with Corvettes for a long time.

 

[Ranger X3]

You're right it's not easy trying to find good service today anywhere. Unfortunately this happens and is happening more and more in every industry now. I gave up looking for someone to do some remodeling stuff I want to do here. The biggest project is I want to replace all the flooring and they either don't show up or their estimates are crazy high.

I had a company come by a few weeks ago and quoted me $44K for LVP flooring! When I questioned him about it he said they could do it for $32K and I said no way. Long story short they've called a few more times each time lowering the price and yesterday he was down to $13K. I hate it because having been in construction for 40 years and having friends in all fields back east this is what I (and most) have to deal with now.

Check out Rosie on the house, it's like This Old House for AZ. We listen to their weekly radio show (channel 92.3) or podcast. Everything for you home, castle or cabin!

 

[Alpinist]

The only reason this has become an option is due to the pandemic/supply chain crisis, not Tesla or any of the other direct sales manufacturers. The main issue here is going to be the financial drag this will place on FoMoCo, as they will have to eat the inventory expense, not the dealers. That was the reason for the dealer model- they took on the risk of sitting on all that inventory, and the motor company allowed them pricing flexibility in exchange.

Now, almost all dealers are just used car lots. There's very little new inventory on any lot, industry wide- as such, the prospect of carrying all that inventory has become more palatable for the manufacturer. Ford has wanted this forever.

Farley's biggest challenge now will be to completely revamp the mass production model to meet this new type of demand. People will want a ton of different configurations, and they'll want them instantly- Bronco/Lightning have really shown Ford isn't nearly nimble enough to exist off of a custom order model- this is where Ford is going to fail. Financial conditions change rapidly. What someone can afford now, might not be the case a year down the road. People will cancel orders, then dealers will have some shiny new unattached inventory to gouge people on....

 

[AzScorpion]

Check out Rosie on the house, it's like This Old House for AZ. We listen to their weekly radio show (channel 92.3) or podcast. Everything for you home, castle or cabin!

Thanks I've seen the show a while back. The only reason I'm reluctant to take his advice is I know a few who have used contractors he's recommended and have been screwed badly. One is a friend who recently used a HVAC company for his new units. It costs him over $35K (way overpriced) for a 2100 sq ft house and he's had nothing but problems with the system and the company coming back to fix it.

You probably have better contractors up there because it's a smaller area where the valley is huge and there's so many of them here. They just don't care because there's so many people down here they can keep doing this and just move on to the next. My guess is up there if they pull this they'd be out of business sooner because they'd run out of people to mess with. lol

 

[Ranger X3]

Thanks I've seen the show a while back. The only reason I'm reluctant to take his advice is I know a few who have used contractors he's recommended and have been screwed badly. One is a friend who recently used a HVAC company for his new units. It costs him over $35K (way overpriced) for a 2100 sq ft house and he's had nothing but problems with the system and the company coming back to fix it.

You probably have better contractors up there because it's a smaller area where the valley is huge and there's so many of them here. They just don't care because there's so many people down here they can keep doing this and just move on to the next. My guess is up there if they pull this they'd be out of business sooner because they'd run out of people to mess with. lol

Good to know! The contractors up here suck too, nobody calls us back, we look outside of our area for good people. I guess is sucks everywhere.

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