Ford Loyalty...What A Joke!

[ScrappyLaptop]

I have solar, as well as a Tesla Powerwall for my home, don't even need the grid much. My generator is LPG or Propane, depending on the setup, a 30lb tank lasts several days. When I had a gas generator I would have to spot it downwind 100' from the RV or I would get a headache from the fumes. All of my yard equipment is battery powered. But I do feel for the commercial guys, the switchover cost is going to be huge.

I've long been a proponent of solar, and I much prefer LPG/Propane generators, especially if they're only sporadically used. Less power density but so much easier on the engine.

I'm not sure propane/LPG/LNG/CNG "small off road engines" like generators will be allowed when the bill kicks in. Although much, much better than gasoline, they are not zero emissions, especially nitrogen oxides, CO and VOC's. But they can be made to emit pretty close to zero.
There will be assistance available for commercial switchover costs, btw. Here's the bill if anyone is curious: CA AB1346

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[Gerder]

Ford, a mega corporation catering to those with mega pockets? Color me shocked.


Sucks man, I'm glad I didn't order a bronco.

What did you expect? They have the same strategy here in europe. The endeffect is, the small dealerships give u a poor service… that was my 2nd and last Ford, indeed… maybe other manufacturers did a better service… capitalism reached its end. Marx was right, the market doesn‘t rules nothing when companies get to big to fail?

 

[Gerder]

Sounds just like our government give big corporations whatever they want and screw the little man.

That is not ur government. Every government is addicted to the big companies. That‘s the system the world choose after 1990…

 

[AzScorpion]

Saw this on B6G. That didn't take long for the memes to start. lol

 

[AzScorpion]

Something else to think about which goes farther than Ford just going back on their word. We all love competition right? Well what Ford is doing is rewarding big corporate dealers and punishing the smaller ones, kind of like Amazon. Now we're all hooked on Amazon because of their fast shipping but They're slowly pushing small business to close because most cant compete with them. Plus in case anyone hasn't noticed Amazons prices are not that great anymore. I often find I can get a better price searching the web. Do we really want Ford doing the same to their small dealers because this is exactly what they're doing. With their new allocation system, dealer cant compete.

A small dealer in IA can not compete with these larger ones especially ones like Auto Nation who have dealers nationwide. So be careful what you wish for because one day soon most of your smaller dealers might be gone and we'll all be stuck paying msrp plus ADM's

 

[Motorpsychology]

Something else to think about which goes farther than Ford just going back on their word. We all love competition right? Well what Ford is doing is rewarding big corporate dealers and punishing the smaller ones, kind of like Amazon. Now we're all hooked on Amazon because of their fast shipping but They're slowly pushing small business to close because most cant compete with them. Plus in case anyone hasn't noticed Amazons prices are not that great anymore. I often find I can get a better price searching the web. Do we really want Ford doing the same to their small dealers because this is exactly what they're doing. With their new allocation system, dealer cant compete.

A small dealer in IA can not compete with these larger ones especially ones like Auto Nation who have dealers nationwide. So be careful what you wish for because one day soon most of your smaller dealers might be gone and we'll all be stuck paying msrp plus ADM's

There are very few one-rooftop-only family dealerships left in any brand. The majority are now owned by publicly traded dealership groups, even in small towns. Penske Automotive Group is the largest in America, operating over 300 dealerships here, plus dealerships in Canada, Australia, and Western Europe and employ over 23,000 people, or about half the total of what Penske's other operations employ. Even moderately sized dealer groups are being bought up; big fish eats little fish.
The name on the store may not change, and in many cases the dealer principal(s) stay on to manage the store, but increasing overhead for shop equipment, data management, legal compliance and the shrinking profit margins- half or less than thirty years ago- is forcing a lot of mom & pop stores to sell.

 

[halligan1201]

There are very few one-rooftop-only family dealerships left in any brand. The majority are now owned by publicly traded dealership groups, even in small towns. Penske Automotive Group is the largest in America, operating over 300 dealerships here, plus dealerships in Canada, Australia, and Western Europe and employ over 23,000 people, or about half the total of what Penske's other operations employ. Even moderately sized dealer groups are being bought up; big fish eats little fish.
The name on the store may not change, and in many cases the dealer principal(s) stay on to manage the store, but increasing overhead for shop equipment, data management, legal compliance and the shrinking profit margins- half or less than thirty years ago- is forcing a lot of mom & pop stores to sell.

So far all the dealerships in my region are all still locally, single owner or family owned, even the "group" dealers. Go in towards Chicago and we hit the corporate dealerships but head west of there until you hit the Mississippi are you will find are dozens of privately owned Ford dealerships. It all depends on the market.

 

[halligan1201]

First article I've seen on it but it sums it all up nicely.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/42716/some-ford-bronco-reservations-could-be-delayed-for-years

 

[AzScorpion]

First article I've seen on it but it sums it all up nicely.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/42716/some-ford-bronco-reservations-could-be-delayed-for-years

I was just on B6G and saw the same article from MSN. I'm glad the media has picked this up as Ford will have to face this one way or another now. Fix the broken system and go back to the original timestamp or forever be know as a LIAR and if the later happens I'm done with Ford forever!

To the few who doubted what was posted here hopefully you now see this is a big issue and you too could be on the receiving end of this mess next time you buy a new Ford. This allocation system is a complete mess and should never have been put in place for any vehicle. Time will tell what's going to happen but Ford cant dodge this bullet much longer.

 

[halligan1201]

I was just on B6G and saw the same article from MSNBC. I'm glad the media has picked this up as Ford will have to face this one way or another now. Fix the broken system and go back to the original timestamp or forever be know as a LIAR and if the later happens I'm done with Ford forever!

To the few who doubted what was posted here hopefully you now see this is a big issue and you too could be on the receiving end of this mess next time you buy a new Ford. This allocation system is a complete mess and should never have been put in place for any vehicle. Time will tell what's going to happen but Ford cant dodge this bullet much longer.

I was just on B6G and saw the same article from MSNBC. I'm glad the media has picked this up as Ford will have to face this one way or another now. Fix the broken system and go back to the original timestamp or forever be know as a LIAR and if the later happens I'm done with Ford forever!

To the few who doubted what was posted here hopefully you now see this is a big issue and you too could be on the receiving end of this mess next time you buy a new Ford. This allocation system is a complete mess and should never have been put in place for any vehicle. Time will tell what's going to happen but Ford cant dodge this bullet much longer.

My friend is a sales manager for a Dodge/Jeep dealership and says they play the same game; undercut the price to sell lots of customer order high end trucks and Rubicon's, which gives them more allotments for the dealer orders that they use to put the entry level trims on the lot. As a result, customers drive a good distance to buy from them. Dodge and Jeep see it for what it is and allow it. Not only did Ford screw patient customers who thought they would see their Broncos a year ago and are still waiting, they doubled down and extended this to the thousands of customers waiting for F150s and Rangers. It'll be interesting to see how many orders become Jeeps, Rams, and Tacomas or Frontiers in the next 6 months.

 

[AzScorpion]

This sums it up well for those that don't want to read the whole article.

"Ford said, hey we're gonna fulfill all reservations and pre-orders before we build stock units," an employee from the Ford dealership in question told The Drive. In a nutshell, stock for dealers would come second, and the enthusiasts--the people who wanted a Bronco ASAP--would come first. To support this notion, Ford unveiled an allocation model that rewarded a higher rate of reservations. This got the gears at this dealership turning, a dealer employee told us.

According to information provided to The Drive by the dealership employee and supported by posts on the Bronco6G forums, Ford reportedly allocated Broncos as such: 25 percent of allocation was decided by the dealership's share of national sales, 25 percent was decided by market area responsibility (how many potential customers the dealership served) and, vitally, 50 percent was based on a snapshot of the total reservation holders a dealership had. This snapshot was taken back in September when the dealership in question allegedly had roughly 600 reservations to fill, according to the dealer. (For some perspective, Ford sold 3,396 Broncos in September, so 600 trucks is a big number.) In theory, if Ford held up this enthusiast-friendly allocation model, this meant that people who reserved or ordered Broncos from the dealership would get them sooner. And from the dealership's perspective, more reservations meant more allocation, and more allocation meant more sales.

For some context, the franchise in question's share of national sales and its market area responsibility is, according to it, relatively low, so you can see why it wanted to boost its reservations with the previous allocation model. As such, it decided to attract as many reservations and orders as possible. One component of that was promising that its customer-ordered Broncos would be sold at below invoice. This is not just a nice thing to do, it's good business. The dealer would end up having sold more units than its competitors, its national market share would grow, and its allocation of Broncos would be higher for the following years.


Now that the model has allegedly changed, the dealership--as well as its customers--are in a tight spot. Vitally, that 50 percent of the allocation based on reservations has been cut in half to just 25 percent. The remaining three quarters have reportedly changed as well.

"[The remaining] 50 percent is the share of national sales, and 25 percent is the share of Bronco Sport sales," the dealership employee told us. That means that all of a sudden, 75 percent of its allocations are much harder to get a handle on. As a small dealership, its national sales are considerably less than franchises located in, say, a major metro area. The Bronco Sport detail throws a wrench in things, too. Ford sold more Bronco Sports in September than the Escape it's based on. That's due at least in part to a better stock situation for the company's "C2" platform-based Bronco, as a Ford representative told us last week. It may be that the Blue Oval is trying to leverage the product it has in relative abundance, and reservation allocation may have been the easiest thing to take a bite out of in order to facilitate this change in strategy.

This change in strategy is obviously set to be trouble, though. The dealership in question allegedly had 600 pre-orders and reservations back in September. Now it's reporting over 1,000, and its allocations have seriously declined. Even if it gets hundreds of Broncos a year--it reportedly got less than a dozen in the first month of MY2022--it could still be a long while before reservation holders get their trucks. "We're gonna get 120 to 200 [Broncos] this year, and last year in six months we got more than that," the dealership employee told us. "In my opinion, they are reverting to the traditional allocation system to the detriment of the consumer."

 

[AzScorpion]

My friend is a sales manager for a Dodge/Jeep dealership and says they play the same game; undercut the price to sell lots of customer order high end trucks and Rubicon's, which gives them more allotments for the dealer orders that they use to put the entry level trims on the lot. As a result, customers drive a good distance to buy from them. Dodge and Jeep see it for what it is and allow it. Not only did Ford screw patient customers who thought they would see their Broncos a year ago and are still waiting, they doubled down and extended this to the thousands of customers waiting for F150s and Rangers. It'll be interesting to see how many orders become Jeeps, Rams, and Tacomas or Frontiers in the next 6 months.

Which is a great idea because these smaller dealers can not compete with the larger ones. No manufacturer should have an issue with this because they're still selling their product. It comes down to the big dealers complaining because now won't make more money because their sales are going elsewhere. Simple then treat your customers better and sell your product at a reasonable price and people will be glad to shop with you and keep their money in their hometown.

Most people traveling to Granger IA aren't just doing it just for the savings, they're doing it because the dealership has been completely honest and transparent through the whole process. Those who have already received their Broncos from Granger said the process was smooth and easy and everything was exactly as promised.

 

[halligan1201]

Which is a great idea because these smaller dealers can not compete with the larger ones. No manufacturer should have an issue with this because they're still selling their product. It comes down to the big dealers complaining because now won't make more money because their sales are going elsewhere. Simple then treat your customers better and sell your product at a reasonable price and people will be glad to shop with you and keep their money in their hometown.

Most people traveling to Granger IA aren't just doing it just for the savings, they're doing it because the dealership has been completely honest and transparent through the whole process. Those who have already received their Broncos from Granger said the process was smooth and easy and everything was exactly as promised.

Yep. Ford is rewarding price gouging, I'm sure no small part due to how much the finance arm makes from the higher sale prices at the larger dealerships. Otherwise there's no reason for Ford to placate those dealerships; what are they going to do, stop being Ford dealers?

 

[JimG_AZ]

Yep. Ford is rewarding price gouging, I'm sure no small part due to how much the finance arm makes from the higher sale prices at the larger dealerships. Otherwise there's no reason for Ford to placate those dealerships; what are they going to do, stop being Ford dealers?

Maybe the financing arm has something to do with it, but it appears that a lot depends on what other vehicles the dealership is ordering. It sounds like if the dealership wants additional Broncos or Mach-E’s over the base allocation, they had better be agreeing to orders for additional Ecosports, Escapes, Explorer’s, etc.

 

[wanted33]

Thanks for the info Josh! I haven't driven a Jeep in a very long time so I will have more time next week to go out and hopefully find one similar to what I'd order. The one I configured was msrp of $58,375 and after discounts $52,844 which is right on par with a loaded Badlands.

Dave, I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes, but I do have flashes of intelligence ever so often. I just remembered, if you do test drive a Jeep makes sure the dealer has the air pressure in the tires set properly (mine has 42-43 in the tires). I've found with my 255/70R18's 35-37 is the best. If the air pressure is to high it will wander all over the road because the pitman arm steering has a small amount of play. If the pressure is to high in the tires it will be an adventure to keep it straight, because it will be riding on the crown of the tires. Ask me how I know......lol

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