Bought Demo Car & Dealer Wants me to Assign (Give) it Ford’s $7500 Incentive One Month After Sale with Backdated Signature

ZuleMME

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This is actually pretty simple if you bother to read what they are asking you to sign:

Ford Mustang Mach-E Bought Demo Car & Dealer Wants me to Assign (Give) it Ford’s $7500 Incentive One Month After Sale with Backdated Signature 1631886959910


If you haven't received this amount reflected in your paperwork you CAN NOT LEGALLY SIGN IT.
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Are you sure the dealer isn't asking you to sign it so they can get the incentive for you? Have they said that they intend to keep the $7500?
If that is the case, I would expect they would also have him sign a "We owe..." form. I've had to sign those forms when I've had the dealer install accessories as part of the sale. If he signs that form and doesn't sign anything else with the dealer promising to give that money to him, I would be very skeptical.
 

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This is actually pretty simple if you bother to read what they are asking you to sign:

Ford Mustang Mach-E Bought Demo Car & Dealer Wants me to Assign (Give) it Ford’s $7500 Incentive One Month After Sale with Backdated Signature 1631886959910


If you haven't received this amount reflected in your paperwork you CAN NOT LEGALLY SIGN IT.
This looks like a winner
 

generaltso

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If they wanted to give me the money, they’d have filled out the right side of the form. The left side is applicable if they’d already give me the $7500 off in price or issued me a check already. Neither has happened. I’m quite sure of their intentions here.
I think you should make them come right out and clearly say that they intend to keep the $7500 so there's no chance of misunderstanding or ambiguity.

If you don't sign it, they get nothing. But if you do sign it and they give the $7500 to you, they also get nothing (except a happy customer). Maybe you should propose sharing the $7500. Like $7000 for you and $500 for them? That's better than the zero they'll get if you don't sign.
 

ZuleMME

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I think you should make them come right out and clearly say that they intend to keep the $7500 so there's no chance of misunderstanding or ambiguity.

If you don't sign it, they get nothing. But if you do sign it and they give the $7500 to you, they also get nothing (except a happy customer). Maybe you should propose sharing the $7500. Like $7000 for you and $500 for them? That's better than the zero they'll get if you don't sign.
That would be fraud. The paperwork requires you to acknowledge you received the entire amount. To strike a deal where Ford gets any amount of it is committing fraud.
 


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Do not sign or anything take to corporate or a lawyer. You already have a signed contract that by the dealer from a month ago. Once you sign this that one become Null. They are trying to get some of the money back from the discounted rate they sold the vehicle for mileage. However, that is not how the credit rebate system works. It goes to the first customer to buy the vehicle not to Ford dealers as they are not technically bought as a retail vehicle for them but more as an intended retail purchase so technically they do not qualify for the credit unless they buy a vehicle for personal use.

So I will contact the proper people before doing anything.
 

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That would be fraud. The paperwork requires you to acknowledge you received the entire amount. To strike a deal where Ford gets any amount of it is committing fraud.
Would it be fraud if the dealer cuts him a check for $7500 and then he separately cuts them a check for $500? I genuinely don't know.
 

ZuleMME

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Would it be fraud if the dealer cuts him a check for $7500 and then he separately cuts them a check for $500? I genuinely don't know.
It would depend on intent. The definition of fraud: " wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain. "

I believe the only acceptable way to have them get a cut and it NOT be fraud is to reimburse any amount credited from MSRP for high mileage. If the deal was $500 to the dealer to facilitating the customer getting $7000 it would still be fraud by definition.
 

generaltso

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It would depend on intent. The definition of fraud: " wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain. "

I believe the only acceptable way to have them get a cut and it NOT be fraud is to reimburse any amount credited from MSRP for high mileage. If the deal was $500 to the dealer to facilitating the customer getting $7000 it would still be fraud by definition.
So if the original discount he received was returned to the dealer, and the dealer then gave him the $7500, that might pass the sniff test?
 

ZuleMME

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I'd say that's fair, or just the dealer writes him a check for the difference. Then it's all kosher to sign.
 

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Did they give you $7500 off the MSRP when you purchased. If so, that is basically what this paper is talking about. Ford allows the dealership to give 7500 rebate for demo and loaner vehicles that are not eligible for the tax credit.

You should have gotten 7600 off msrp or a check for that amount based on the incentives listed on the paper.


source: Bought a demo/loaner vehicle and received those incentives.
 
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I don't get it -- what leverage does the dealer have over you here to "get" you to sign this? I don't think you have much chance of getting the $7,500 off at this point (in my recent experience, the normal Ford customer support channels try as best they can to do nothing to step in the middle of dealer shenanigans -- they know the dealers are generally shady but its in their business interest to remain neutral).

But the scummy dealer here has no leverage over you at this point -- you could negotiate the dealer splitting this money or giving you something else you might want such as accessories. Or you could just ignore the dealer and try and forget about your purchase experience (where the imbalance of information cost you $7,500) and enjoy your car.
 

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The rebate form the dealer is asking you to sign is not for them to be reimbursed by Ford, it is a document that they need to keep on file for 2 years incase of an audit. This document shows signed acknowledgment by you that either the rebates were applied to the contract or that the rebates were given to you in the form of a separate payment. ( direct to Customer )

When the contract is signed between you and the dealer, the dealer will apply rebates to the contract in good faith that Ford will reimburse them. If you choose not to apply the rebate to the contract then they will issue you a separate form of payment in the amount of the rebate. After the contract is signed and you have taken delivery of your vehicle the dealer will send in the contract to Ford to fund and the rebate will be claimed by the dealer online while reporting the vehicle sold.

The dealership has most likely already claimed this rebate online and now they just need you to sign the form for them to keep in their file incase Ford Audits them. There are times when Ford requires some form of proof of eligibility before they will reimburse the dealer for the applied rebates, but those rebates are college student rebates and first responder/military rebates, farm/club rebates etc.

There can only be two ways I could see this happening, the first would be the dealer didn't know about the rebate at the time of sale so they did not apply it to the contract. The majority of the "Finance Managers" at the dealerships don't know anything about financing or programs offered as they don't take the time or effort to research programs offered. The second would be that they knew about the program and chose not to apply it to the contract or make you aware of it so they could claim and keep the rebate amount.

I worked in Finance for a Ford dealership for many years and mistakes do get made. I have seen this exact mistake made a few times because somebody did not run a vin though Fords Vincent and print a sheet showing available rebates before printing the contract. Whenever this mistake was made and caught by our business office we would issue the customer a check for the rebate amount. The dealership could keep the money but this would be completely unethical and in violation of Fords dealership agreement.

In this case if the rebate was not applied to the contract at the time of the sale then you should direct them to have the rebate amount sent to you in the form of a check. Do not sign the form and do not make any changes to it, I would speak to the dealer and point out that the rebate was not applied so you would like direct payment and sign the form at time of payment. If they can not give you a direct payment or provide a reasonable explanation for this then contact Ford corporate and the DMV, the DMV is who actually holds the power over the dealership and holds them accountable for their actions.
 

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I signed a document similar to this and the dealer provided me a separate document promising to issue me a payment of $7,500 once they received the cash incentive from Ford. The only reason this became an issue is because they were so unfamiliar with the process and understanding what was happening. It seems like they were all trained about when the tax credit came up was to say: talk to your accountant.

For states that had to title the courtesy vehicle due to laws/regulations in their state, the dealer becomes the first owner and are eligible for the Federal Tax Credit. Since the person who buys the car is no longer the first owner they cannot claim the tax credit, Ford offered this program narrowly as a cash incentive only for cars in that very specific scenario.

I brought it up to the dealer when buying their courtesy car, they were willing to get it but really apprehensive I think because it was so unfamiliar to them. We agreed that they could reimburse me via check versus taking off of MSRP as long as they wrote it out and we signed on it, which we did. I kept poking them for about two weeks after the sale and received a $7,500 check in the mail.

It's great for the dealer, Ford provides the $7,500 for the consumer plus the dealer can still claim the tax credit. I may have missed it, but did the dealer say what the plan was with the $7,500, were they planning to pay you back? If so, make them put in writing in a separate document. If they won't then I wouldn't sign because they are trying to basically keep $7,500 from you that Ford intended for the consumer, plus pocket another $7,500 tax credit that the government intended for the buyer.
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