Issue with Dealer

[Nichmurray]

So I was a little late to this party and finally decided on MME in November 2020.
I had intended to place an order however the dealership said "we already have that exact car ordered for stock and it should be here in December, pay $500 deposit and its yours"
Cue the wait...
The car arrived on 3/11, and I had hoped to pick it up 3/13. Sorry we cant have it ready for 3/13.
Today (3/15) the dealership is saying Ford is requiring them to place the vehicle they have had my deposit on since November into FCTP.
Some other inventory is available but nothing that I want, to use the state rebate program the vehicle has to be below $51,100 so the extended range does not work and I do not want a select.

does anyone know if the dealer or Ford can reassign a different vehicle as the demo unit?

would contacting a Ford Rep. help me at all? Does anyone have suggestion on who to contact?

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[Kandiru]

Bait and switch captive market tactics. Go to a large Boston dealer with many surrounding competing dealerships, you will be treated like a king, make sure you read Google and Cars.com reviews on both the place and the specific dealer, do not set foot into the place unless they are willing to deal over the phones, a sure sign of a large sales volume place.

 

[Nichmurray]

Bait and switch captive market tactics. Go to a large Boston dealer with many surrounding competing dealerships, you will be treated like a king.

I wish I could, I don’t want to give up the rebate. It has to come from a Maine dealer

 

[sockmeister]

So I was a little late to this party and finally decided on MME in November 2020.
I had intended to place an order however the dealership said "we already have that exact car ordered for stock and it should be here in December, pay $500 deposit and its yours"
Cue the wait...
The car arrived on 3/11, and I had hoped to pick it up 3/13. Sorry we cant have it ready for 3/13.
Today (3/15) the dealership is saying Ford is requiring them to place the vehicle they have had my deposit on since November into FCTP.
Some other inventory is available but nothing that I want, to use the state rebate program the vehicle has to be below $51,100 so the extended range does not work and I do not want a select.

does anyone know if the dealer or Ford can reassign a different vehicle as the demo unit?

would contacting a Ford Rep. help me at all? Does anyone have suggestion on who to contact?

That's horrible. Yeah, they were basically misinformed. Whoever told you they had it "on order" already, didn't realize that was the FCTP car. You might get some help from Ford if you complain to them about what happened. Worth a try.

I never trust dealerships to give me accurate information on anything. They are always misinformed it seems like, especially on new models. It might simply be an accident here, and I'm sorry that it happened to you.

 

[Nichmurray]

That's horrible. Yeah, they were basically misinformed. Whoever told you they had it "on order" already, didn't realize that was the FCTP car. You might get some help from Ford if you complain to them about what happened. Worth a try.

I never trust dealerships to give me accurate information on anything. They are always misinformed it seems like, especially on new models. It might simply be an accident here, and I'm sorry that it happened to you.

Any idea how to contact Ford?

 

[TheVirtualTim]

When a dealer orders a car for 'stock' (available for sale on their lot) they buy the car from Ford and then re-sell it. They can sell that car as soon as they have it.

When a dealer gets a demo car (FCTP) Ford "allocates" the car to dealer inventory, but the dealer does not "buy" the car (it's not like a car ordered for dealer stock). Technically Ford owns that car and is placing it at the dealer so it can be used for demo purposes.

When the demo period is over (for this car I think it's 4000 miles or 4 months -- whichever comes first) the dealer THEN buys the car (but at a reduced rate) and that's when they can sell it.

The demo car was ordered for the purpose of being a demo car (the dealer knew all along it was going to be a demo car). The dealer doesn't order a car for 'stock' and Ford surprises them by telling them that they want the stock-order to be treated as a demo unit. The specific salesperson might not have known it was the FCTP car ... but somewhere at the dealer (e.g. the inventory manager) DID know.

So basically you're dealer pulled a stunt.

 

[sockmeister]

Any idea how to contact Ford?

I'd start with the Ford Customer Service line. I believe there is one specific to the Mach-E as well, but you will likely get there if you ask about it at their customer service line. Be persistent. Good luck!
1 (800) 392-3673

 

[sockmeister]

When a dealer orders a car for 'stock' (available for sale on their lot) they buy the car from Ford and then re-sell it. They can sell that car as soon as they have it.

When a dealer gets a demo car (FCTP) Ford "allocates" the car to dealer inventory, but the dealer does not "buy" the car (it's not like a car ordered for dealer stock). Technically Ford owns that car and is placing it at the dealer so it can be used for demo purposes.

When the demo period is over (for this car I think it's 4000 miles or 4 months -- whichever comes first) the dealer THEN buys the car (but at a reduced rate) and that's when they can sell it.

The demo car was ordered for the purpose of being a demo car (the dealer knew all along it was going to be a demo car). The dealer doesn't order a car for 'stock' and Ford surprises them by telling them that they want the stock-order to be treated as a demo unit. The specific salesperson might not have known it was the FCTP car ... but somewhere at the dealer (e.g. the inventory manager) DID know.

So basically you're dealer pulled a stunt.

I just had another idea. Since it's the FCTP car, and it needs to rack up 4000 miles before they can sell it.... Just "borrow" it every day and drive it for your daily errands. Get it up to 4000 ASAP and then buy it from them. ? Maaaybe!

 

[SteelMach]

Whoever told you they had it "on order" already, didn't realize that was the FCTP car.

You're far more charitable when it comes to dealers than I am. There's no reason they should not have known it was FCTP.

 

[Nichmurray]

I just had another idea. Since it's the FCTP car, and it needs to rack up 4000 miles before they can sell it.... Just "borrow" it every day and drive it for your daily errands. Get it up to 4000 ASAP and then buy it from them. ? Maaaybe!

The dealer is a 5 hour round trip from home! I already thought about a very extended test drive. Lol

 

[SteelMach]

So I was a little late to this party and finally decided on MME in November 2020.
I had intended to place an order however the dealership said "we already have that exact car ordered for stock and it should be here in December, pay $500 deposit and its yours"
Cue the wait...
The car arrived on 3/11, and I had hoped to pick it up 3/13. Sorry we cant have it ready for 3/13.
Today (3/15) the dealership is saying Ford is requiring them to place the vehicle they have had my deposit on since November into FCTP.
Some other inventory is available but nothing that I want, to use the state rebate program the vehicle has to be below $51,100 so the extended range does not work and I do not want a select.

does anyone know if the dealer or Ford can reassign a different vehicle as the demo unit?

would contacting a Ford Rep. help me at all? Does anyone have suggestion on who to contact?

Contacting Ford couldn't hurt. Explain the deception your dealer attempted, and see if they can override the FCTP hold on the car, or if they can find you the same car at a better dealer.

 

[sockmeister]

The dealer is a 5 hour round trip from home! I already thought about a very extended test drive. Lol

Eeep. Well, Complain to the dealer that someone told you you could have this car (written proof helps), and complain to Ford as well that you were misinformed. In the meantime, why don't you put another order in or check around for the same car? It might pop up.

 

[Nichmurray]

Eeep. Well, Complain to the dealer that someone told you you could have this car (written proof helps), and complain to Ford as well that you were misinformed. In the meantime, why don't you put another order in or check around for the same car? It might pop up.

I have everything in writing and I keep searching the inventory!

 

[v8318cid]

The unit I test drove turned out to be an allocated demo unit. The dealership indicated it was 4000 miles, although they didn't say anything about time. They did, however, somewhat jokingly suggest I stick around for the rest of the day to see how many miles we could rack up in that short time. They also said that the car originally shipped in as a saleable unit, but Ford updated the data in the system a couple of days after receipt to indicate that it was a demo unit. Given the small trend I'm seeing in this thread, I cannot help but suspect there is some truth to the "we didn't know" idea. Probably not in all cases, but this instance the dealer didn't even know I was coming to look at the car and had no incentive to try to bait-and-switch on me. Granted, I was disappointed. I went there (2hr drive from home) with the express purpose of cash-and-carry. Even cleaned out the truck I was going to trade. Oh well.

 

[bpp]

So I was a little late to this party and finally decided on MME in November 2020.
I had intended to place an order however the dealership said "we already have that exact car ordered for stock and it should be here in December, pay $500 deposit and its yours"
Cue the wait...
The car arrived on 3/11, and I had hoped to pick it up 3/13. Sorry we cant have it ready for 3/13.
Today (3/15) the dealership is saying Ford is requiring them to place the vehicle they have had my deposit on since November into FCTP.
Some other inventory is available but nothing that I want, to use the state rebate program the vehicle has to be below $51,100 so the extended range does not work and I do not want a select.

does anyone know if the dealer or Ford can reassign a different vehicle as the demo unit?

would contacting a Ford Rep. help me at all? Does anyone have suggestion on who to contact?

I had order my MME GT back at the time of its introduction. I changed my mind in December and moved over to a Premium which put my build date into June. My problem was my lease turn in is in early May. I started to call the locate dealerships in my area looking for a MME. I left my name with several salespersons at the different dealerships. Within a week I started receiving call of available vehicles. i Was able to find the exact vehicle I had ordered and will be receiving it next week or so.
The reason for the sudden availability of these MME per the salespersons is that customers are walking away from their orders for various reasons. Some are getting sticker shock,, some where worried about the economy and one customer never gave much thought to their home charging situation And back out. The MME are out there and if you look you might find what you are looking for.

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