Farley: Ford is Going to 100% Online, Fixed-Price Sales For EVs

[yngwenli]

I feel exactly the same way. Ford's long-term reputation has taken a direct hit as the result of the experience people have had with their dealers, ether through buying or poorly informed service departments.

This is not limited to Ford...You can google Mercedes eqs youtuber mark up and mark ups/ADM is rampant over all car makers. Rav 4 prime, Prius Prime, anything limited/in short supply because that's how many car dealerships generally work.

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[Rfehl62]

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a40175990/ford-online-sales-no-negotiation/

https://www.freep.com/story/money/c...online-sales-non-negotiable-price/7468899001/

"We've got to go to nonnegotiated price. We've got to go to 100% online. There's no inventory (at dealerships), it goes directly to the customer. And 100% remote pickup and delivery," he said in New York during Bernstein's 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference streamed live."​

As someone who works for Ford, I can tell you this idea is close to impossible. Ford can barely handle the way things are right now. They put 99% of the responsibility on the dealer already and to think they can take up what the dealer does is ludicrous. He will not be in that position much longer.

 

[Bodyshopguy]

Dealerships have argued for decades that the reason they exist isn't to sell the vehicles, it's to support and service them - they are there for "our benefit" as customers, to protect us from Big Bad Manufacturing after the sale as well as to be able to "focus on the little guy car buyer" with the "great local support".

Either they service the vehicles still, and do a good job at it, or they die. They are going to have all of their arguments thrown back at them and will either need to actually do what they say they do, or they will go away. Either result is a good result.

p.s. there's whole threads on this argument on here already and I've already written my dissertation on another one of them, so I won't repeat myself. But there's not really any new arguments or discussion points around the car franchise dealership model at this point.

Unfortunately, with EV's, there is no maintenance for the dealerships to profit... the brakes don't need replacing due to the 1-pedal mode.... no oil changes or upsells for belts, hoses, etc. The Toyota Prius was a first dealer service killer... there are no belts... they hardly ever need brakes because of the regeneration. The A/C pump is electric, electric steering gear, etc... nothing to service... tires??? This is the reason the dealerships are capitalizing on this moment... they have no cars to sell... when they do... they make a mint... I really don't blame them. My thoughts... My loaded 22 MME GT PE will end up around 60k after all the incentives (I've seen my car 20k over MSRP at 92K... that's nuts). Anyone paying over MSRP... that is lost money... it's bad enough you can't negotiate down from MSRP. Just order what you want... and wait... I ordered the Mach E GTPE in October 21' ... it arrived in April 22'... lots of MME complaints on dumb stuff... just enjoy the car... it's a beautiful design... and super fast... and you don't have to drink the Tesla Kool-Aid... My 2 cents...

 

[yngwenli]

Cadillac has already bought out/closed hundreds of dealerships not willing to play the EV game.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/gm-offers-dealers-buyouts-money-to-ditch-cadillac/

Dealerships have been consolidating a lot since covid started. There is your thinking that dealers will never go away, but honestly, I don't think dealers will really be needed that much nor will they even survive if the majority of the car world is going electric (Audi, GM, Ford, lots, nearly all have plans to phase out ICE and many have stopped development of ICE engines already).

I had a Bolt earlier and never had to ever go back for any service. Since dealerships don't survive on new car sales (proven/posted many times over here), in 10-15 years when many manufacturers go all EVs, either the dealerships have to play ball or they will just go belly up since there is little/no service anymore for cars on the road.

It's simply unavoidable.

 

[Motomax]

I’ve never paid MSRP or higher for any of my vehicles. I don’t use dealerships for anything outside of warranty work. I do my own research on financing before going to the dealer.
I see no benefits to me by going to this model. In fact I see it being worse. If you think Tesla doesn’t charge ADMs you should probably look at their price history.
I don’t see a ford service only center make much financial sense for EV that practically don’t need service. Most financially smart people don’t use dealership for consumables like tires/brakes or even aftermarket modifications for that matter. Why pay higher prices for subpar skills. Dealerships screwing up oil Changes is a big running joke on Car forums, how do you even manage that??

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

You won't see this, supposedly (I guarantee you will read it, and I don't expect you to admit it), but I was very careful with my grammar on my post for this very reason.

This site is not one where picking a fight with me in particular will prove to be a productive strategy for you. I'm loved here. You, however, are a new-ish poster posting a defense of car dealerships. You're very much on the wrong side of the forum and the wrong side of history, here.

Also, excellent job completely avoiding me taking down every single one of your "points" with well-reasoned counter-arguments.

You have failed, miserably, here.

p.s. not to rub salt in your wound, but here's reactions to your post:

and here's the reactions to mine, a newer post posted at the start of a work day, when a lot of people aren't actually wasting their time on here:

p.p.s. I ended my post wishing you luck, but congratulations, your personal attack to avoid my factual counterarguments means I now look forward to your eventual dealership failure. Jerk.

p.p.p.s. See, I know the word "jerk" too. Very strong argument you made, there.

p.p.p.p.s. The really cool kids say "TL,DR" or "TL;DR", not "TLDR", but the comma or semicolon aren't mandatory. Just pointing it out for your future knowledge.

p.p.p.p.p.s. it just occurred to me, did you really reply to someone addressing your long post with a "TL;DR" reply? so, your take is, "my post is worth reading but anyone else's isn't"? wow... now THAT is being a jerk.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Farley also promised me a frunk button and BlueCruise. Still waiting. So… I’ll believe direct sales when I see it.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

Farley also promised me a frunk button and BlueCruise. Still waiting. So… I’ll believe direct sales when I see it.

some of us have gotten BlueCruise at least.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

I think it's also supply issues. Outside of Tesla, there was very little supply of any other EVs out there. I don't think Ford wants to ever have thousands of cars sit on lots anymore. They like the model of a customer ordering a car, they build it, sell it instantly. There is little/no need for dealerships in that model and many people bought a MME without even a test drive (there was a poll here earlier).

Also, with talks/news reports of gas prices not going down anytime soon (we see $6-$7 in CA now), EVs will be a hot commodity for a while. There is talk of a 70s style gas shock coming and when you have solar/EV, you aren't worried at all about that.

Since dealerships know so little about EVs, the consumer is the one doing their research here, on youtube/videos, etc....Most EVs sorta sell themselves and you can bet a lot of cars salesmen weren't interested in pitching any EV since they make little/zero $$ on them.

This is I believe all fair.

I'd argue that it's also somewhat Ford using the move to EVs as a semi-artificial reason to make the break - "this is a totally new kind of thing, so the old way of doing things doesn't make sense any longer".

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Really? Your anger is rather uncalled for I’d say. While you’re entitled to an opinion about dealers and their practices, there’s no requirement the rest of us agree nor even respect an opinion based upon half-truths and omitted information.

The gravy train from manufacturers is over. Your dealership is simply going to have to learn how to survive and thrive in a new environment. The writing has been on the wall for decades, did you miss seeing the shift to direct sales models in every other sector? If your dealership fails to adapt it will soon be forgotten and not missed by anyone save you.

 

[Garbone]

Sears is to big to fail .

 

[Rfehl62]

Yes sir you are correct. Not a lot of people know about that. The whole experiment lasted about 1-2 years before they pulled the plug. Ford makes a great product but their logistical ability is no where near what it would need to be to pull off what Farley is saying. They need to quit shooting for the stars and start actually trying to fix the massive amount of issues they already have.

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