Costco Car Buying Service - Anyone Tried This Angle Yet?

[uturn]

Ahhh, but imagine the stress if you didn't have Costco on your side. My GTPE is about to be delivered to me. I'm buying it with X-plan, and have already provided the Sales Mgr. with proof of X-plan eligibility (my Ford-provided xplan pin number), and Mustang Club of America membership.

I'm going to go in with a video camera rolling, and inform the salesman, sales manager and finance that I'm going to record all aspects of the transaction. This is going to be FUN!

Enjoy your ride! I miss California where the State Attorney General has cajones!

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[ChuckA]

I don't know who does the Luxcare, it just says LUXCARE xt on the brochure and Assurant on the back, and that is that extended warranty company. 3 year appearance protection. No Ziebart mention. I've owned numerous new cars and never had any of them unravel on paint or interior during my time owning them, without adding any coatings to any of them.

I don't usually comment in long form. It was utterly insane and I wanted Ford to know about it. And I hoped when Tidelands reads it they will reflect on it from another perspective and not just do what they did while I was there, which is act like they are the high school football defensive line and resume attack mode, which will improve nothing. Otherwise why bother commenting at all.

You missed my sarcasm. It’s an age thing. Ziebart was the protection and under coating scam dealers packed in the 60’s and 70’s. The stuff was like driveway sealer and usually covered drain holes.

 

[RickMachE]

I'd comment on their Facebook page.

 

[RetiredDP]

It's supposed to arrive Oct. 20th-26th, but the dealer tells me that they often arrive a few days early. Interestingly, starting last night (Oct. 1st), the macheforum.com's tracker lost its ability to pull up any info from my car's vin number (it had been working fine for weeks). I have no idea if this is good or bad news...

 

[rcpd34]

I got X Plan, but they said Costco doesn't apply.

 

[RickMachE]

Costco is only for dealers that sign up with Costco. You won't find out pricing until you talk to the dealer. X-Plan beats it in my experience.

 

[JoeDimwit]

They haven't taken the order yet. I called them and asked if they accepted X Plan and they said yes. It was just a bait and switch. Once they said they accepted X Plan, I asked on the phone for their Doc Fees and they said $491 and I said, "but it is limited to $100," and they said, "state law allows it," and I said that the plan rules do not. I read the rules from Ford's website, which updated them May 2021. But they said that they knew more about X plan than I did, and that they could not charge more than $100 on the other plans but could on X Plan. But nonetheless I said that they were right down the street from my house, and times were tough, and I did not not mind paying a little more for the convenience of having a local small town dealer right nearby, who had many favorable reviews from locals on Google generally (although they have some about bait and switching regarding x-plan, which is why I asked).

So then I went in to place the order in person, and knew exactly what I wanted, so it should have been a quick 5 minutes, they had few cars in stock and no customers in the building. Anyway, they added another $750 Luxcare interior and paint coating and 3-year warranty on interior and paint surfaces from Assurant, and tire nitro, and floor mats, and it was mandatory. I said no-thanks but they would not remove it.

They were extremely scary about this stupid Luxcare thing, telling me that "You should be grateful to get X Plan at all," which really offended me because with $1200 in added fees the "X-Plan" pretty much equalled MSRP, and aside from that X-Plan is not a handout to welfare recipients but given to people who have corporate relationships or longstanding business and customer affiliations that Ford apparently VALUES but the internet manager and sales manager let me know DO NOT and expect MY GROVELING GRATITUDE and $1200 BUYOFF TO RECEIVE. This in addition to that intimidating opening salvo of, "I used to be a policeman and I resent you calling me a liar," for saying that they can't force me to pay $750 in unwanted warranties and $491 in doc fees under the plan rules. My reply to that was, "I'm a disabled veteran and I resent you lying to me." It was somewhat hilarious in its unexpected cringey ridiculousness but also, I have NO CAR!

I also advised them that they should not be sending some sales guy around to intimidate customers by claiming to be a policeman while throwing mandatory extended warranties at them. And the warranty is not even extended, it is the same three years on the paint that the car is already covered under warranty! $750!!! And I get free nitro at Costco. And again, I would be paying I am pretty sure MSRP for the car and not X Plan at all.

I shudder to think about broaching the topic with them of throwing the Disabled American Veterans version of X Plan down on their desk which has an additional amount off over X Plan! They might get out a crossbow or something. Anyway, they told me that if I didn't want to pay the $1200 in mandatory X Plan fees, and was ungrateful, "You can leave." So I did. They had NO CUSTOMERS and would rather continue to play dueling banjos amongst themselves all day, then sell a car at X Plan pricing. But they claim to take X Plan. Anyway. I can't buy a Ford and expect to have it serviced there either obviously.

There is another dealer in town about 30 miles away. But they actually told me that the guy who "has my name as dealing with me" is on vacation until next week or something and would get back to me. TO SELL ME A CAR. NEXT WEEK. lol. They don't have kids to feed I guess. ASTOUNDING. Do their owners care at all? That guy said all that in a live chat that I printed out!

Thanks for the opportunity to explain, I didn't know Ford was here. I thought that Ford would like to know. I really am very put off by this to the point of stepping back off of buying the car now for awhile. It has fried my nerves to have sales guys yelling at me, jumping up in righteous indignation and announcing their bullsh*t police authority, really rattled my cage more than I realized. Physically aggressive. I am publishing this out loud. That was totally insane behavior toward a female customer. Totally inappropriate and illegal under the X Plan contract and also obviously under South Carolina law to spring that police officer crap on a female alone in a dealership with a bunch of good ol' boys. CRAZY TRAIN. REEVALUATE YOURSELVES FROM YOUR WIVES' PERSPECTIVE. Don't raise your voices. Don't march around in circles aggressively with shoulders up like bulldogs. Don't say "If you don't like it you can leave" and other such nonsense to a lady alone in a room with five guys. BE PROFESSIONAL. TIDELANDS FORD.

You need to send all of this in writing to Ford.,the Better Business Bureau, and possibly to the attorney general for your state. That is completely unacceptable, and they are likely doing the same things to other potential customers too.

this reeks of them needing to be investigated.

 

[yngwenli]

You need to send your issue to that Ford exec on twitter or something I've read here.

Bottom line is these are independent franchised dealerships and IMO, the writing is on the wall for a lot of dealerships with the lack of cars to sell, EVs and low maintenence, no income/sales at all for salepeople, etc...

In 5-15 years, I think a ton of dealerships will go belly up and my guess is your salesperson/dealer is probably half way out the door and really doesn't give a rat's %%$^@$*! what people complain about. His thinking is you can't fire me if my boss is my highschool friend (small town) and I'd quit anyways.

They have so little to sell already and if it doesn't put food on their table and if it lowers their own financial stress, they are more than happy to lash out at anyone else who doesn't want to directly feed them.

 

[RetiredDP]

You should send your text to Jim Farley and Mark Kaufman at Ford.

 

[uturn]

You missed my sarcasm. It’s an age thing. Ziebart was the protection and under coating scam dealers packed in the 60’s and 70’s. The stuff was like driveway sealer and usually covered drain holes.

I bought my current Fiat Spider from Carvana and they dropped it off on a flatbed to my house.

I got X Plan, but they said Costco doesn't apply.

Yeah they are mutually exclusive but sometimes Costco is cheaper. I don't know about ordering though, what that would look like.

You need to send all of this in writing to Ford.,the Better Business Bureau, and possibly to the attorney general for your state. That is completely unacceptable, and they are likely doing the same things to other potential customers too.

this reeks of them needing to be investigated.

It does really, unfortunately, at least by Ford (the AG in SC doesn't do anything to protect consumers that I can tell). But this is especially bothersome to me if you are doing it to disabled veterans. I was using the Mustang Club X Plan, but there is DAV (Disabled American Veterans organization) version of X Plan as well that offers additional discount, and many vets have traumatic brain injuries and PTSD, or are just older and trusting that they are getting the promised deal, and I have a soft spot for ensuring they don't get screwed over. So for that reason I probably will make it known through those channels that that promise is not being upheld at that dealer. Especially since the DAV website has all these FORD ads all over it about how much they care about veterans, blah blah blah, come on in, we'll take care of you. Blah.

 

[RetiredDP]

It's supposed to arrive Oct. 20th-26th, but the dealer tells me that they often arrive a few days early. Interestingly, starting last night (Oct. 1st), the macheforum.com's tracker lost its ability to pull up any info from my car's vin number (it had been working fine for weeks). I have no idea if this is good or bad news...

I GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oct. 15th delivery, I picked it up the evening of the 15th, 10 miles on the odometer, 94% charge. Plugged in when I got home, with a 79% charge. Woke up to a 100% charge (the default limit)... tried to set charge limits, with no luck. I'll change to 90% when I can. My Alpha EV Charger works great in manual mode.

 

[ChuckA]

I GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oct. 15th delivery, I picked it up the evening of the 15th, 10 miles on the odometer, 94% charge. Plugged in when I got home, with a 79% charge. Woke up to a 100% charge (the default limit)... tried to set charge limits, with no luck. I'll change to 90% when I can. My Alpha EV Charger works great in manual mode.

Congrats…finally.

 

[GW Shark]

Congrats and welcome!! Just looking at websites you can see the difference in dealer approaches to current market conditions. Tidelands' website has MSRP + ADM of up to $10K on some models or just states "call for pricing" rather list MSRP. The dealer I used not to far up the road in Gastonia NC (Tindol) currently is listing at MSRP minus modest discount amounts. They also had informed sales staff and no pressure for add-ons at time of sale.

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