Dealership attempted markup and then sold my reserved MachE to someone else in under 48 hours

[lindseybp]

Wow, this dealership has some guts to tac on $15k to a $45k select. That is insane.

Sponsored

 

[MrsZuko]

Omg! I made a mistake of ordering my Mach E through the same dealership! just checked with the sales director , this is the response I got:

He said there will be 5-10% ADM! guess I have to figure out how to get my deposit back now.

Is it too late for you you to change your delivery dealership through Ford directly? I'm sure another dealership would be happy to take their business. I think this all depends on where you are at in the process. This is so frustrating, I really feel for people going through this.

 

[SuperRob]

the car belongs to the bank and Ford Credit is the holder it actually belongs to Ford. This is possibly an act to break advertising and business laws in the state of California.

As far as I’m aware (and I could be wrong) this isn’t correct. Even if Ford were loaning the money to the dealership temporarily to pay for the car, the dealership still owns it. Otherwise, how could they sell it? Just like when you buy a car, your loan may be through Ford, but you own it. The only exception to this is leasing, where you are effectively renting the car from the bank.

Now the loans may be collateralized, meaning the bank has the right to repossess the car for non-payment. And I believe this is how dealerships work … the inventory purchased is collateralized this way. But that’s not the same thing as ownership.

 

[Eagertrader]

You may want to contact Mike Levine (@mrlevine on tweeter) and bring your situation up with him. He’s the Director of Communications w/Ford corporate. He helped me an I believe others with similar situations.

 

[Mach1E]

When you reserve a Mach E online, you pay the deposit, there is price (MSRP + $ for Options + even Ford option discount) on the reserved car along with the configuration （trim, options, colors, etc). Do we all have to be an certified attorney to shop at Amazon.com or other online shop?

It's Ford and its dealers to be blamed, not the buyers. Ford has to regulate their dealers on how to handle these orders, or to ruin its brand.

Ah……. You didn’t read any of the fine print then.

It clearly states things like “deposit is no guarantee of purchase, final price will be negotiated with the dealership blah blah and so forth.”

Even the name “MSRP” has the word “suggested.”

It most definitely is NOT a contract.

 

[VittalaP]

Thanks for sharing the details, i will never ever go to this dealer and i will never recommend to anyone...

 

[mateo]

Deceptive Trade Practices are by definition things that deceive consumers... You cannot simply put important stuff in fine print that contradicts clear, common language things in more prominent places and claim it's always the buyer's fault.

The "estimated MSRP" actually is followed by a line that states "this is replaced by the dealer selling price." And what is the "dealer selling price"? According to Ford:

Price the dealer is willing to sell the vehicle for in a purchase transaction and corresponds to the estimated dealer selling price for the vehicle displayed in the Pricing Summary. Excludes available incentives (including AXZ-Plans Pricing for qualified customers), governmental taxes and fees, title or registration fees. All current available incentives (including AXZ-Plans Pricing), taxes and fees will be applied at purchase. See dealer for details, residency restrictions may apply.

There's no reasonable person who would take that language to mean the dealer may add additional fees at their whim. It literally says the "dealer selling price." Elsewhere in a different fine print, it says it excludes dealer installed options. But that's not the problem we are talking about. The language implies that the unknown additions are taxes (as expected). A better description would be:

The minimum price the dealer will sell the car for. If you refuse to pay on-the-spot an undisclosed-until-time-of-purchase additional, substantial price gouging fee, the dealer may sell the vehicle to anybody else.

You have to have intrinsic knowledge of how car dealers operate to understand nothing on the pricing page means anything. And yes, you can easily make the point that if you are going to spend $50k+ on something you better really make sure you know what you are doing.

The standard for deception that the FTC would apply would basically be (in non-lawyer language) "are regular consumers likely to be deceived by the advertising?" I'm not in the law profession; I have no great expertise on this topic. But personally it seems like the regulatory bodies are turning a blind eye to Ford and any other company that operates this way.

I get that Ford has to operate within the dealer model. But they shouldn't make claims (no dealer markup) they cannot keep.

 

[yazoo888]

Ah……. You didn’t read any of the fine print then.

It clearly states things like “deposit is no guarantee of purchase, final price will be negotiated with the dealership blah blah and so forth.”

Even the name “MSRP” has the word “suggested.”

It most definitely is NOT a contract.

You may be right -- But these kind of sh1tty practice by dealers is just disgusting.

 

[Mach1E]

Deceptive Trade Practices are by definition things that deceive consumers... You cannot simply put important stuff in fine print that contradicts clear, common language things in more prominent places and claim it's always the buyer's fault.

The "estimated MSRP" actually is followed by a line that states "this is replaced by the dealer selling price." And what is the "dealer selling price"? According to Ford:



There's no reasonable person who would take that language to mean the dealer may add additional fees at their whim. It literally says the "dealer selling price." Elsewhere in a different fine print, it says it excludes dealer installed options. But that's not the problem we are talking about. The language implies that the unknown additions are taxes (as expected). A better description would be:



You have to have intrinsic knowledge of how car dealers operate to understand nothing on the pricing page means anything. And yes, you can easily make the point that if you are going to spend $50k+ on something you better really make sure you know what you are doing.

The standard for deception that the FTC would apply would basically be (in non-lawyer language) "are regular consumers likely to be deceived by the advertising?" I'm not in the law profession; I have no great expertise on this topic. But personally it seems like the regulatory bodies are turning a blind eye to Ford and any other company that operates this way.

I get that Ford has to operate within the dealer model. But they shouldn't make claims (no dealer markup) they cannot keep.

Yes, as it has been stated multiple times in this thread, it is illegal in California to advertise one price and charge a higher price.

You can get the dealer in trouble for this.

What it doesn’t do is get you a car.

 

[reeflife]

As far as I’m aware (and I could be wrong) this isn’t correct. Even if Ford were loaning the money to the dealership temporarily to pay for the car, the dealership still owns it. Otherwise, how could they sell it? Just like when you buy a car, your loan may be through Ford, but you own it. The only exception to this is leasing, where you are effectively renting the car from the bank.

Now the loans may be collateralized, meaning the bank has the right to repossess the car for non-payment. And I believe this is how dealerships work … the inventory purchased is collateralized this way. But that’s not the same thing as ownership.

The vehicles belong to the bank until paid for in full. They audit the dealer all the time and take inventory monthly. Ford has the control to resolve this problem but they cannot supply enough inventory to the dealer and worries the franchise will close up effectively losing the location or legal battles everywhere. If it was just one dealer they would simply force the sale of the franchise or Ford would pull the franchise or more.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Thanks for sharing the details, i will never ever go to this dealer and i will never recommend to anyone...

Since the mid-‘80s I have talked smack about this dealership group to anyone who would listen.

 

[Eagertrader]

You may want to contact Mike Levine (@mrlevine on Twitter) at Ford and tell him your story.
He successfully help me get my MME-GT from a dealer trying to price gauging me about the same time you ordered yours.

Sponsored