Horrific buying experience!!

[audiorage22]

I was until I saw that every other dealer I reached out to in a 100 mile radius had no stock, or if they had canceled orders, tacked on the fee. 3 dealers this past week called me to let me know one was available but added between 7 -15k. So I'll take the loss of 3k. Any dealer that did not charge a fee had zero vehicles available.

Until Ford decides to penalize dealerships for this heinous practice, we (those who are in my situation) are at their mercy. And according to most dealerships, Ford severely minimized concessions for the Mach-e.

Not sure how true it is but one dealership I work closely with showed me his invoice/incentive program tab on his computer as proof. He even showed me the money they make off the gasoline F150 as a comparison ($3500 for the F150 and $115 for the Mach-e). Not sure if anyone else can confirm this.

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[AKgrampy]

I know I’m not alone on this, but WOW!!
And not WOW in a good way, WOW in the worst kinda of way.
Ford of Montebello…
Ordered my Mach-E online in Sept-21 and purchased it April-20.
The sales manager tried to add a Dealer Mark up and tried to play the back and forth game of “Let me see what i can do”… He finally came back and said. “I was able to get you MSRP”.. Uh, yeah like he did me a huge favor!
The car was missing the interior protection floor mats and they refused to loan me or provide any floor mats until a CS manager got involved.
The car was missing the CHARGER!
The car was missing the Flat tire kit!
The car came with a huge ding on the door.
They ordered the mats and the charger and the tire kit. The charger and tire kit came in but the charger was missing both 110 & 240 plugs as well as the bag.
They told me they would have to reorder.
The next day they called and said they’d give me one from another car.
When i got there (10 miles away) they changed their mind.
I didn’t get it until the same CS Manager got involved.
It just seems like they didn’t know how to sell this car and that the floor staff have no real concept of customer service.
In addition, everybody i interacted with said “Please don’t forget to give us 5 stars on the survey”… ARE YOU KIDDING ME??
The only people that were AMAZING were the Finance lady Sandy and the CS Manager Josie. Everyone else seemed to not care about anything other than the survey.
That’s my rant…

I know this is a late response but was it even the car you ordered? I would assume you checked that but it is a bit unbelievable that all those items were missing from your car. Almost seems like it was a demo! Hopefully it is at least working out for you since you purchased it!

 

[audiorage22]

I would agree except I found out today from a friend (who is not charging a fee on top of MSRP at his dealership) that Ford took away concessions for the Mach-e because of inflated costs to build. He also told me he isn't making anything off the Mach-e. I'm going to find out the exact amount but I trust this guy. He is an actual friend. The other guy is just someone I do business with. I believe Ford would undercut dealers to appease customer perception. It's not unheard of. But most dealers are willing to throw that kind of excuse out there to make more money even if a manufacturer is not pulling their profits. So you never know.

 

[Richcruz121]

Finally getting it back from getting the ding fixed.
Yup, it was the same VIN as the

 

[yngwenli]

I would agree except I found out today from a friend (who is not charging a fee on top of MSRP at his dealership) that Ford took away concessions for the Mach-e because of inflated costs to build. He also told me he isn't making anything off the Mach-e. I'm going to find out the exact amount but I trust this guy. He is an actual friend. The other guy is just someone I do business with. I believe Ford would undercut dealers to appease customer perception. It's not unheard of. But most dealers are willing to throw that kind of excuse out there to make more money even if a manufacturer is not pulling their profits. So you never know.

My guess is the "salesperson" makes very little (not $0 though) on an ordered Mach-E, but the dealership makes a little bit more. New cars were never a huge profit center for dealerships and this is why things should probably change with EVs being more commonplace now, but honestly, does a dealership even need to do a ton of things for ordered EVs?

If possible, I'd rather Ford just deliver my car to my house, I e-sign everything, and I never even have to go/deal with a dealership to begin with since I don't need their help or need them to answer questions. As someone who didn't even get a test drive, it's not like the dealer did much service to earn $$.

Most would agree that a lot of folks here know more about the MME than the dealership or salesperson.

Ideally, the car sales model should start to change where low effort/work = less profits, but also less work from car salespeople.

 

[audiorage22]

You are but it's fine.

I've been in the fleet business for some years so I'm not completely gullible (I've purchased more than 15 personal vehicles and at least 1,800 fleet vehicles in my 22 years of driving/working).

So the friend is a GM. His numbers fall in line with what the other dealer told me. Dealership is making money (not much) while sales people are getting screwed, hard. He showed me his financial tab online to prove it.

Unless you work for FMC at the corporate level, I'd say it's difficult for you to say what Ford does or doesn't do. The market is volatile and this isn't the first time we've seen dealerships throw fees on top of MSRP for new vehicles. I've personally watched dealerships lose tons of money on the sales side. As it is, dealerships stay afloat by their service drive, not on the sales side. So it isn't that crazy to think Ford would pull out the invoice to MSRP threshold to allow for less changes at the consumer level. Dealer hold back is still there so they make some money but certainly less for the Mach-e than other vehicles in their line. Looks like MY23 will be the same.

I have a connection at the regional level but I don't think that guy will give me specifics. I'm not sure I need it at this point. I either bite the bullet to get the Mach-e now or go through my friend to order a 2023 and hope his owner doesn't tack on a fee when the vehicle arrives.

But you (or anyone else) have no need to believe what I'm saying. I'm not trying to justify the markups. I just think sometimes there are validated reasons for change, whether they are advantageous for the consumer or not.

 

[WNKent]

Ugh, here we go with the “all dealers suck” chant again - so tedious and lazy. I had a great dealer and I think the majority of folks here would say theirs were at least decent to work with.

But I also followed Forum Rule #1 for Newbies when I joined last summer: Have your dealer put “no adm” in writing!

@Richcruz121 - It sounds like you actually got off easy compared to other folks here that didn’t get it in writing, had dealers that wouldn’t budge on adm, and then had to decide whether to pay or walk away. And the rest of your hassles seemed due more to incompetence and inattention, not malevolence.

Frustrating - hell yeah, especially the door ding that the dealer will obviously need to fix. But “horrific”? Maybe that’s a California definition.

Yeah, if Rich felt it was horrific, so be it. I'm a CA native and was never aware that we owned a definition; "dontchaknow" much? I guess this one belongs to MN ?‍

 

[AKgrampy]

You are but it's fine.

I've been in the fleet business for some years so I'm not completely gullible (I've purchased more than 15 personal vehicles and at least 1,800 fleet vehicles in my 22 years of driving/working).

So the friend is a GM. His numbers fall in line with what the other dealer told me. Dealership is making money (not much) while sales people are getting screwed, hard. He showed me his financial tab online to prove it.

Unless you work for FMC at the corporate level, I'd say it's difficult for you to say what Ford does or doesn't do. The market is volatile and this isn't the first time we've seen dealerships throw fees on top of MSRP for new vehicles. I've personally watched dealerships lose tons of money on the sales side. As it is, dealerships stay afloat by their service drive, not on the sales side. So it isn't that crazy to think Ford would pull out the invoice to MSRP threshold to allow for less changes at the consumer level. Dealer hold back is still there so they make some money but certainly less for the Mach-e than other vehicles in their line. Looks like MY23 will be the same.

I have a connection at the regional level but I don't think that guy will give me specifics. I'm not sure I need it at this point. I either bite the bullet to get the Mach-e now or go through my friend to order a 2023 and hope his owner doesn't tack on a fee when the vehicle arrives.

But you (or anyone else) have no need to believe what I'm saying. I'm not trying to justify the markups. I just think sometimes there are validated reasons for change, whether they are advantageous for the consumer or not.

You may be right but the D Plan cost is $2,000 under MSRP. So if they sell at MSRP they have to make at least $2,000 because the D Plan is at cost. I could find the exact profit but do not want to get my wife fired! The dealership also gets other payments from Ford after a car is sold. So if the numbers you are being told are correct then the dealer is losing money for any D or X plan sales.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

WTH are you talking about, this is why I’m nervous. (Isolator, switch what) Please be quiet now. ?

@SpaceEVDriver designs spacecraft. Need I say more?

 

[audiorage22]

You may be right but the D Plan cost is $2,000 under MSRP. So if they sell at MSRP they have to make at least $2,000 because the D Plan is at cost. I could find the exact profit but do not want to get my wife fired! The dealership also gets other payments from Ford after a car is sold. So if the numbers you are being told are correct then the dealer is losing money for any D or X plan sales.

I don't believe the dealership loses money. The sales people do. The dealership has to make something. Whether it's $2,000, I don't know. I will try to get my friend to show me the D and X plan numbers.

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