Difficult Test drive experience

Mach-E VLOG

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Ok so I’ll share my experience, I just left a few minutes ago.

I live about 40 miles from the dealership I ended up selecting due to them promising to not do any ridiculous ADM charge ups.

I contact the dealership Friday and confirm that I have a reservation and would like to come in to test drive since my vehicle is scheduled to be built in a few days. The sales rep is friendly,asks me what time I’d like to come in, we set a time, I receive a text confirming.

Today, I arrive on time for my appointment, and the receptionist sends someone over to take my ID. I wait a few minutes after handing over my ID and the rep returns and tells me I won’t be able to do a test drive “because they don’t have any cars available/ the person I spoke to must have been misinformed “. I explain that’s odd, since they confirmed before setting the appointment and clarify I drove 40 MILES today explicitly for this test drive. I remind him I’ve already reserved a car. He apologizes, a bit nonchalant/passively. I grit my teeth and leave.

As I’m heading to my car guess what I see...a couple pulling out in a grey mach-e. I decide to wait and see if they return because “maybe they just purchased theirs and are happily driving theirs home”. While I wait I call another dealership to see if they have any available to test drive and they confirm they do. As I’m getting ready to leave for the other dealership I notice the couple has returned. I stop for a second to chat them up — low and behold they just wrapped up a test drive! We exchange a few pleasantries about our mutual enthusiasm about the car and I head back into the dealership.

A salesman asks as I enter if he can help me with anything l, and I let him know that I’d love to test drive the mach-e out front if there aren’t any other folks on the waiting list. He says sure, comes back with another gentleman who confirms I’m on the list. I chat with this gentleman for a bit, but get the sense he’s sizing me up a bit...which seems odd since I’ve again mentioned in passing I already reserved my model, I’m just interested in test driving before it’s actually delivered. I entertain him a bit, sure why not talk the shape of the EV industry and show just how obsessively I’ve been researching EVs for years.

A few minutes later another guy comes up and gives a whole “I’m sorry no one is available today to assist you with a test drive today” but that I’m welcome to take a look inside. I decline, noting I’m pretty familiar with the interior after poring over photos, reviews and videos for months and made the trip to get a feel for how the car drives and promptly leave. By this point this whole charade has went on almost an hour past when the scheduled test drive. I calmly left, reiterating it’s really bad customer service to deny someone who’s already paid the ability to test drive when you’ve confirmed it (I didn’t even mention letting other people test drive with little to no explanation)

I’d like to not assume anything but for reference the couple who I literally saw leave and return for a test drive during my reserved time was White. I’m a Black man, who honestly is glad my wife wasn’t with me because the entire experience was enraging/humiliating and she likely would have discouraged me from even bothering with Ford at all...and honestly depending on if I can change my reservation to another dealership or have a satisfactory explanation — may just decide to get something else altogether.

The only scenarios I can assume are:
a) these were some weird racist discriminatory assholes
b) they’re trying to block reservation holders from driving Mach-E’s fearing they’ll cancel (which seems unlikely since they won’t have a problem marking up and selling for even more)
That's infuriating. As others have said, try to escalate the issue by contacting the dealership management or someone at Ford.
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RCProAM

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I didn’t try but the dealer in NYC that I bought my MME has a white demo for test driving. They had it plugged in when i picked mine up last weekend. The dealership is Ford of Queens Blvd. I dealt with the sales manager.

Good that he knew he cannot sell it for a certain period of time (I think 3-6 months) or certain number of miles. I think 3,000 miles.

For some weird reason Ford sent them an extra FE which they sold within a day.

Where are you located?
Georgia, Dealer is Mall of Ford Georgia (pretty far outside the city of Atlanta proper)
 

Kamuelaflyer

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Georgia, Dealer is Mall of Ford Georgia (pretty far outside the city of Atlanta proper)
Escalate the problem to GM. If you don't get a satisfactory resolution from him escalate it up the line to Ford. Don't let this get brushed under the rug.
 

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Georgia, Dealer is Mall of Ford Georgia (pretty far outside the city of Atlanta proper)
The whole time while reading your story all I am thinking is “another awful, lying dealer”. After you mentioned that it is possible that there might be racial overtones involved, am now thinking, holy crap, how it must’ve felt to be in your shoes. So either they are racist, lying incompetent a-holes, or both! Either
way, eff em!
 
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jeffdawgfan

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Ok so I’ll share my experience, I just left a few minutes ago.

I live about 40 miles from the dealership I ended up selecting due to them promising to not do any ridiculous ADM charge ups.

I contact the dealership Friday and confirm that I have a reservation and would like to come in to test drive since my vehicle is scheduled to be built in a few days. The sales rep is friendly,asks me what time I’d like to come in, we set a time, I receive a text confirming.

Today, I arrive on time for my appointment, and the receptionist sends someone over to take my ID. I wait a few minutes after handing over my ID and the rep returns and tells me I won’t be able to do a test drive “because they don’t have any cars available/ the person I spoke to must have been misinformed “. I explain that’s odd, since they confirmed before setting the appointment and clarify I drove 40 MILES today explicitly for this test drive. I remind him I’ve already reserved a car. He apologizes, a bit nonchalant/passively. I grit my teeth and leave.

As I’m heading to my car guess what I see...a couple pulling out in a grey mach-e. I decide to wait and see if they return because “maybe they just purchased theirs and are happily driving theirs home”. While I wait I call another dealership to see if they have any available to test drive and they confirm they do. As I’m getting ready to leave for the other dealership I notice the couple has returned. I stop for a second to chat them up — low and behold they just wrapped up a test drive! We exchange a few pleasantries about our mutual enthusiasm about the car and I head back into the dealership.

A salesman asks as I enter if he can help me with anything l, and I let him know that I’d love to test drive the mach-e out front if there aren’t any other folks on the waiting list. He says sure, comes back with another gentleman who confirms I’m on the list. I chat with this gentleman for a bit, but get the sense he’s sizing me up a bit...which seems odd since I’ve again mentioned in passing I already reserved my model, I’m just interested in test driving before it’s actually delivered. I entertain him a bit, sure why not talk the shape of the EV industry and show just how obsessively I’ve been researching EVs for years.

A few minutes later another guy comes up and gives a whole “I’m sorry no one is available today to assist you with a test drive today” but that I’m welcome to take a look inside. I decline, noting I’m pretty familiar with the interior after poring over photos, reviews and videos for months and made the trip to get a feel for how the car drives and promptly leave. By this point this whole charade has went on almost an hour past when the scheduled test drive. I calmly left, reiterating it’s really bad customer service to deny someone who’s already paid the ability to test drive when you’ve confirmed it (I didn’t even mention letting other people test drive with little to no explanation)

I’d like to not assume anything but for reference the couple who I literally saw leave and return for a test drive during my reserved time was White. I’m a Black man, who honestly is glad my wife wasn’t with me because the entire experience was enraging/humiliating and she likely would have discouraged me from even bothering with Ford at all...and honestly depending on if I can change my reservation to another dealership or have a satisfactory explanation — may just decide to get something else altogether.

The only scenarios I can assume are:
a) these were some weird racist discriminatory assholes
b) they’re trying to block reservation holders from driving Mach-E’s fearing they’ll cancel (which seems unlikely since they won’t have a problem marking up and selling for even more)
I purposely did not inform either of the two dealerships that I did test drives at that I had an order. Then they were bending over backwards trying to sell me a car. I did the length of test drive I wanted and then went over the car as long as I needed. My guess is that no salesman wants to waste his time talking to a non-sell customer as he needs to make that commission. I honestly don't think the color of your skin matters squat to them. It is the color of your money that counts. You could be a martian with three eyes and if they were selling you a car they would be all over you.
 


UW2

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Ok so I’ll share my experience, I just left a few minutes ago.

I live about 40 miles from the dealership I ended up selecting due to them promising to not do any ridiculous ADM charge ups.

I contact the dealership Friday and confirm that I have a reservation and would like to come in to test drive since my vehicle is scheduled to be built in a few days. The sales rep is friendly,asks me what time I’d like to come in, we set a time, I receive a text confirming.

Today, I arrive on time for my appointment, and the receptionist sends someone over to take my ID. I wait a few minutes after handing over my ID and the rep returns and tells me I won’t be able to do a test drive “because they don’t have any cars available/ the person I spoke to must have been misinformed “. I explain that’s odd, since they confirmed before setting the appointment and clarify I drove 40 MILES today explicitly for this test drive. I remind him I’ve already reserved a car. He apologizes, a bit nonchalant/passively. I grit my teeth and leave.

As I’m heading to my car guess what I see...a couple pulling out in a grey mach-e. I decide to wait and see if they return because “maybe they just purchased theirs and are happily driving theirs home”. While I wait I call another dealership to see if they have any available to test drive and they confirm they do. As I’m getting ready to leave for the other dealership I notice the couple has returned. I stop for a second to chat them up — low and behold they just wrapped up a test drive! We exchange a few pleasantries about our mutual enthusiasm about the car and I head back into the dealership.

A salesman asks as I enter if he can help me with anything l, and I let him know that I’d love to test drive the mach-e out front if there aren’t any other folks on the waiting list. He says sure, comes back with another gentleman who confirms I’m on the list. I chat with this gentleman for a bit, but get the sense he’s sizing me up a bit...which seems odd since I’ve again mentioned in passing I already reserved my model, I’m just interested in test driving before it’s actually delivered. I entertain him a bit, sure why not talk the shape of the EV industry and show just how obsessively I’ve been researching EVs for years.

A few minutes later another guy comes up and gives a whole “I’m sorry no one is available today to assist you with a test drive today” but that I’m welcome to take a look inside. I decline, noting I’m pretty familiar with the interior after poring over photos, reviews and videos for months and made the trip to get a feel for how the car drives and promptly leave. By this point this whole charade has went on almost an hour past when the scheduled test drive. I calmly left, reiterating it’s really bad customer service to deny someone who’s already paid the ability to test drive when you’ve confirmed it (I didn’t even mention letting other people test drive with little to no explanation)

I’d like to not assume anything but for reference the couple who I literally saw leave and return for a test drive during my reserved time was White. I’m a Black man, who honestly is glad my wife wasn’t with me because the entire experience was enraging/humiliating and she likely would have discouraged me from even bothering with Ford at all...and honestly depending on if I can change my reservation to another dealership or have a satisfactory explanation — may just decide to get something else altogether.

The only scenarios I can assume are:
a) these were some weird racist discriminatory assholes
b) they’re trying to block reservation holders from driving Mach-E’s fearing they’ll cancel (which seems unlikely since they won’t have a problem marking up and selling for even more)
I would complain to Ford attaching this post
 

Ciero

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My dealer has a demo model that they will not allow anyone to test drive. They had a cancellation for a FE and the only people they would let test drive it were people who went through the credit check and were basically in serious talks to purchase it. It was pretty annoying, and as much as I disagreed with their approach, I think they were just trying to get the most return on their fctp model when they can finally sell it. I’m not real sure about the customer cancelled unit, though. What their short-sightedness is doing is likely driving me to a different dealer for future purchases and repairs. They had me considering trying to pick one up off another dealer’s lot instead as well, but I don’t trust I’ll see my deposit again if I do.

I’m not saying it is the same reason your experience happened, but they might not necessarily have malicious intent. Like jeffdawgfan alludes, you’re the sale they feel they’ve already locked in, so they might see it as wasting their time, even though I think that is pretty stupid of them.
 
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RCProAM

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The whole time while reading your story all I am thinking is “another awful, lying dealer”. After you mentioned that it is possible that there might be racial overtones involved, am now thinking, holy crap, how it must’ve felt to be in your shoes. So either they are racist, lying, incompetent a-holes or both! Either way eff em!
Yeah, thanks for acknowledging that. It’s not the first time in my life, but it sucks still. I was really excited about this car, and maybe I still am — but certainly not from that dealer.
I purposely did not inform either of the two dealerships that I did test drives at that I had an order. Then they were bending over backwards trying to sell me a car. I did the length of test drive I wanted and then went over the car as long as I needed. My guess is that no salesman wants to waste his time talking to a non-sell customer as he needs to make that commission. I honestly don't think the color of your skin matters squat to them. It is the color of your money that counts. You could be a martian with three eyes and if they were selling you a car they would be all over you.
Perhaps, I thought about that briefly as well — except it was a pretty empty lobby. While popular, it’s a pretty good chance that even if some people came in, the majority of people aren’t checking out the Mach-e.

So at best (again it was a very slow day by the looks of it) they’re doing Ford a disservice by ruining the reservation experience, at worst it’s something else entirely and much uglier.

The other problem the on-site specialist who confirmed my test drive *already knew I had a confirmed order*. Why waste my time and tell me to drive up instead of just saying “sorry we don’t have any test drive units available”? It’s not as if I’m going to cancel my Mach-e order for a Ford Escape. If what you’re saying is the case, they could have saved everyone time by saying that over the phone. Somehow when I show up though...
 
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jeffdawgfan

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Yeah, I’m contacting corporate first thing in the morning. I’m definitely going to give them the name of this dealer and request at the least they can transfer my reservation to another dealer with no delay since my Mach-E is literally scheduled to be built tomorrow.

I’ll give them a chance to rectify the situation, and if nothing comes of it — off to Twitter I go...
Wow....I ordered my MME and did one test drive at the Mall of Georgia Ford. My experience was just the opposite with them. I made an appt. Drove a Grey RWD Premium. They had a Grey FFE that was for sale besides the Demo. They were very pleasant to my wife and I. Like i said, I did not tell them that we had one on order. We were not interested in the Grey FFE. Did find out they had a RR Premium and a Star White SR coming in very soon that were for sale. We have a Star White AWD Premium being built this week. Other than a lack of communication over the status of the order, no problems with them.
 

jeffdawgfan

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Yeah, thanks for acknowledging that. It’s not the first time in my life, but it sucks still. I was really excited about this car, and maybe I still am — but certainly not from that dealer.


Perhaps, I thought about that briefly as well — except it was a pretty empty lobby. While popular, it’s a pretty good chance that even if some people came in, the majority of people aren’t checking out the Mach-e.

So at best (again it was a very slow day by the looks of it) they’re doing Ford a disservice by ruining the reservation experience, at worst it’s something else entirely and much uglier.

The other problem the on-site specialist who confirmed my test drive *already knew I had a confirmed order*. Why waste my time and tell me to drive up instead of just saying “sorry we don’t have any test drive units available”? It’s not as if I’m going to cancel my Mach-e order for a Ford Escape. If what you’re saying is the case, they could have saved everyone time by saying that over the phone. Somehow when I show up though...
Hey since we both have ordered at same dealer and being built this week, we need to compare notes on the delivery process/timeline....If that is you don't change your dealership.
 

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Yeah, thanks for acknowledging that. It’s not the first time in my life, but it sucks still. I was really excited about this car, and maybe I still am — but certainly not from that dealer.


Perhaps, I thought about that briefly as well — except it was a pretty empty lobby. While popular, it’s a pretty good chance that even if some people came in, the majority of people aren’t checking out the Mach-e.

So at best (again it was a very slow day by the looks of it) they’re doing Ford a disservice by ruining the reservation experience, at worst it’s something else entirely and much uglier.

The other problem the on-site specialist who confirmed my test drive *already knew I had a confirmed order*. Why waste my time and tell me to drive up instead of just saying “sorry we don’t have any test drive units available”? It’s not as if I’m going to cancel my Mach-e order for a Ford Escape. If what you’re saying is the case, they could have saved everyone time by saying that over the phone. Somehow when I show up though...
That really pisses me off, I hate that for you. Complete garbage to treat another human being like that regardless of their reasoning. I hate the dealer model more and more everyday.
 
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RCProAM

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Wow....I ordered my MME and did one test drive at the Mall of Georgia Ford. My experience was just the opposite with them. I made an appt. Drove a Grey RWD Premium. They had a Grey FFE that was for sale besides the Demo. They were very pleasant to my wife and I. Like i said, I did not tell them that we had one on order. We were not interested in the Grey FFE. Did find out they had a RR Premium and a Star White SR coming in very soon that were for sale. We have a Star White AWD Premium being built this week. Other than a lack of communication over the status of the order, no problems with them.
Yep pretty sure that was the Grey RWD premium I saw today (no 4x badging on it).

Sigh. Letting this one go for the day, I’ll deal with this tomorrow.
 
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RCProAM

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Hey since we both have ordered at same dealer and being built this week, we need to compare notes on the delivery process/timeline....If that is you don't change your dealership.
I’d love a social experiment to figure out what’s going on here, but at this point the whole experience turned me off, and was a little exhausting —so I’ll definitely be moving on to another dealership. I’ll hopefully not experience too much of a delay by changing dealers, but when I first mentioned that my build date is 3/1 the rep said the delivery date was an estimated 8-12 weeks! Might as well get a GT if that’s the case...but given my overall experience was bs, that might’ve been as well.
 

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Perhaps, I thought about that briefly as well — except it was a pretty empty lobby. While popular, it’s a pretty good chance that even if some people came in, the majority of people aren’t checking out the Mach-e.

So at best (again it was a very slow day by the looks of it) they’re doing Ford a disservice by ruining the reservation experience, at worst it’s something else entirely and much uglier.

The other problem the on-site specialist who confirmed my test drive *already knew I had a confirmed order*. Why waste my time and tell me to drive up instead of just saying “sorry we don’t have any test drive units available”? It’s not as if I’m going to cancel my Mach-e order for a Ford Escape. If what you’re saying is the case, they could have saved everyone time by saying that over the phone. Somehow when I show up though...
Right, and the amount of time involved on the salesperson's part is negligible anyway, at least in my area: I test drove a First Edition a dealer had for sale, all they asked for was my driver's license (the car is still on the lot, three weeks later, as the dealer is asking for a $10k markup); later that day I saw a Premium AWD at another dealer while driving by, I stepped inside to ask if it was for sale or a demo unit, the salesman confirmed it was a demo and offered to let me take it for a spin, I said I would wait till the next day so that I could bring my family. The next day we showed up, they made a copy of my driver's license and took my insurance information - they put it on the paperwork for a loaner, which was a first for me on a test drive but fine with me - then handed us the key and told us to take as much time as needed. Before the pandemic salesmen usually rode along; now it is common to test drive alone which I very much prefer, the only time the dealership spent was on making a copy of my driver's license, and attaching a dealer plate (via magnets).
 

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That really pisses me off, I hate that for you. Complete garbage to treat another human being like that regardless of their reasoning. I hate the dealer model more and more everyday. FORD= Forget or Outright Replace all Dealers.
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