I'm giving up

[SnBGC]

Interesting! That matches what I am seeing here too.

If you find a Select.....take a look at it. My brother has one with the appearance package and it is really very nice. You might be pleasantly surprised. Then order what you really want to your exact spec and trade in the Select when your dream car arrives. That Select will be in demand for a while I think...

Sponsored

 

[RockwallRick]

I sold my Wife’s car way too early and left her car less. We could have waited for her order to come in but that meant several more months of waiting. I got lucky and found a “ carbonized copy “ on the Autotrader at a dealer only 25 miles away! We called the dealer and found out it was a cancelled order. Then we bought it the same day for MSRP. She drove it home and cancelled her order. A couple months later her order came in and another member of this forum snagged it!

 

[Caramel]

If you find a Select.....take a look at it. My brother has one with the appearance package and it is really very nice. You might be pleasantly surprised. Then order what you really want to your exact spec and trade in the Select when your dream car arrives. That Select will be in demand for a while I think...

I am absolutely interested in a select but not paying $70k for one. But yeah I test drove a select and enjoyed it.

 

[Tarynem]

I'm with the OP on this. Sure, the chip shortage is out of Ford's control, but why do some people get their cars in 5 months, other like me are waiting 8+ months and others I have seen on this forum are waiting over a year? Why is it that Ford won't respond to my emails/tweets/DM/snail mails/phone calls asking questions about my car?

While I really like the dealer that my car is ordered from and I have found some really great dealers, some of the other deals do seem a bit "shaky".

From what I've read it seems that the states and dealerships with the highest demands for EV's and MMEs, get the cars quicker. Something about the dealerships getting a certain number of reservations before the actual orders are sent. When in higher demand, those orders go out more frequently. Not sure how true this is, but it kind of explains the wide variations in when someone receives the car.

 

[Caramel]

I sold my Wife’s car way too early and left her car less. We could have waited for her order to come in but that meant several more months of waiting. I got lucky and found a “ carbonized copy “ on the Autotrader at a dealer only 25 miles away! We called the dealer and found out it was a cancelled order. Then we bought it the same day for MSRP. She drove it home and cancelled her order. A couple months later her order came in and another member of this forum snagged it!

Nice!

 

[Caramel]

From what I've read it seems that the states and dealerships with the highest demands for EV's and MMEs, get the cars quicker. Something about the dealerships getting a certain number of reservations before the actual orders are sent. When in higher demand, those orders go out more frequently. Not sure how true this is, but it kind of explains the wide variations in when someone receives the car.

That kinda makes sense. I wonder where Colorado and the surrounding states compare? I know denver isn’t a huge market.

 

[yngwenli]

Typing this out is going to do no favors for my blood pressure lol but here are just a few of the frustrations I've dealt with. Also, many of these things are, taken as a single instance, not a big deal. But I've been running into to these on a daily basis for coming on to a month now.

• called a dealership today that had a Premium on their website (under inventory - usually understood to mean stock on hand LOL) that hadn't been there a couple of days ago. I've been checking regularly. I asked if it was available. Salesperson said they would go find out and put me on hold. Salesperson came back and said they weren't sure. I said, "well, you said you were going to find out. What did you find out?" He said, "Well, the window sticker says special order, and that usually means someone pre-ordered it and we sold it already and they just haven't picked up yet, but I don't really know." I said, "okay, so it might not be sold already?" He said, "yeah, I think it might be available, but I don't know." I said, "I'll buy it sight unseen if it's available. Can you find out?" He said, "Yeah of course! I'll call you right back!" After several hours pass, I give him a call and he says, "Yeah, it was already sold." All of that is a minor frustration. But then he starts to lecture me in a very patronizing tone that "yeah, ma'am, that's a very popular car, all of our Mach-E's are special orders, we never have cars available for purchase directly" and so on, when clearly he himself did not know that when we spoke earlier.
• Alluded to this already, but I called a dealership that had a used grabber blue first edition for sale. The salesperson said it wasn't available, but since I liked blue, he could sell me another really pretty blue vehicle.
• Emailed a dealership about a Mach-E I saw on autotrader, asked it it was available. Received 3 emails from 3 different people in reply, none of which answered whether or not the Mach-E was available. I replied to each, repeating my question. No response from anyone. Received an email a few days later from someone claiming to be their "internet specialist," asking if there were any questions I had that hand't already been answered. I replied with, "Yes, actually, I wanted to know if you have any Mach-E's available or coming in soon." No reply for several days until I received another email from the same internet specialist asking if there was anyway to "win my business." I replied that she hadn't responded to my previous email. She responded with, "I'm sorry to hear that. I had no idea. I will let my manager know."
• Had a dealership claim they had changed the oil on a used Mach-E. (Now I admit that was kinda funny.)
• Came across a dealership just today listing $60,000 as the MSRP for a RWD/standard battery select with no other additions than the tech/comfort package. And yes, it said MSRP, not "asking price" or "dealer price". They also wanted thousands more for dealer-installed upgrades like "anti-theft registration," making the car close to $70K all in. I don't mind theoretically paying some ADM, but that was crazy. And if a dealer wants to add ADM, don't claim in writing it's MSRP when it's not.
• A salesperson emailed me maybe a week ago saying that they had a white premium onsite with a reasonable ADM. I immediately emailed and called saying I was very interested. I emailed and called again the next day. I sent one final email before writing it off. I got an email just today saying, "I don't want to pester you, but I haven't received any response from you." Maybe my 3 separate email responses got lost somehow, but what about my voicemails? I called again and spoke to a different person, but the car is already sold.

Again, this is just a small sampling of what I've been running in to. Note that I am willing to pay ADM if it's not insane.

I think your problem from all of those examples still point to the same thing.

1) Trying to waste your time asking for any on-the-lot Mach-Es.

Even though some youtuber will say they got theirs as a cancelled order yada yada yada, there have been plenty of folks here who have tried to call/work with dealers within 300 miles or what not and it's almost a total waste of time. I thought about trying this and simply didn't bother. EVERY single Mach-E I've seen the window sticker of is special order. There will 99% of the time, be a mark up unless you make a huge fuss (someone did and got it for MSRP I think here...and that other example above). If you don't want to pay a massive markup, don't bother calling any stealerships IMO and wait like most folks.

With the car dealership economy so bad with nothing to sell, I suppose having been in sales myself before (why I got fired because I didn't want to screw over people), I understand these guys probably just want to survive honestly. If someone wants to pay a 10-20k ADM, bad on the dealer, but I'd guess many dealerships are in a bad shape and if someone is happy paying, more power to those people with $$.


Also, you're expecting the salesperson you call to actually call you back when they have someone who walks in and is willing to pay a 5-10k ADM on the spot? They don't need you honestly. They already have a ready/willing/happy buyers who are more than ready to drop down more $$.

I suppose if you don't mind a sizeable dealer markup, call all the dealerships around you, tell them you will pay 20k+. I'm sure you'll get call backs relative shortly.

Lastly, what's "insane" is what the market will bear. If you say you'd pay 2k and someone will pay 10-20k easy, everyday to these dealerships, the stealership is probably "insane" for even considering your 2k. I'm here trying to save less than 1k alone on x-plan so I wait.

I may come off as harsh, but it's really the reality in new car sales now. This is not even happening just for the Mach-E. Tons of ICE cars have markups because literally, they have nothing to sell. I saw some news article say this dealer supposed to have 250+ cars over labor day to sell, this year, they had 12.

Like homes and no inventory to sell (realtors screwed), car dealerships have nothing to sell.

 

[RSH]

I was in a minor car accident (just a fender bender, everyone is OK, both cars are drivable) that has made my search for a new car much more urgent. I no longer want to wait the months it will take for my ordered Mach-E to arrive. So I've been calling and emailing dealerships to see if they have any abandoned customer orders or dealer allotments for sale. I've run into so many issues that as of today, for my own sanity, I've decided to stop looking entirely. I'm not going to cancel my order. I want a Mach-E so much. But I can't deal with the poor customer service, incompetence, and downright unethical behavior I'm encountering at Ford dealerships over and over. I'm usually a pretty calm and chill person but this has broken me. I havent decided what I'm going to do. There's still the GT that is allegedly arriving in October that they're only asking $2000 above msrp for. The original person dropped out. But it is out of state and doesn't have everything I want.

Someone in the other forum has an MME for sale. Below is the link provided. https://www.carlblackchevy.com/inve...-premium-rwd-sport-utility-3fmtk3rm7mma04592/

 

[Caramel]

Also, you're expecting the salesperson you call to actually call you back when they have someone who walks in and is willing to pay a 5-10k ADM on the spot? They don't need you honestly. They already have a ready/willing/happy buyers who are more than ready to drop down more $$.

What annoyed me was the email a week later saying that he didn't mean to pester me but he hadn't heard from me! Like I said, I'd already written that one off. Way to rub salt in the wound!

And the "obviously you just like blue" had nothing to do with the market right now. And that was just one of many similar patronizing comments that again, nothing to do with supply chain issues or supply and demand or market conditions.

And if they don't need me, why are they blowing up my phone/email days or weeks later?

 

[Peaceowl]

I hear ya, Caramel. It is a lot of stress and effort. We almost gave up theMache arrival hoping that next year would be a good time to buy, we knowing there will be more brands and maybe a few more 300 mile cars.

ive had an Audi for 11 years, and the car has been perfect, the service is fabulous for Audis, and I hate to give that up. If I didn’t have the q5 I probably would buy a Macon or another Audi and then trade it in when the mme came in. (If I still wanted it) .

good luck to you! Lots of new cars coming out this next year! I wish it was a year later, I’d probably order the q4 sport back knowing I would still be in the Audi family. I’ve been reading the etron and the Taycan forums and they have very similar problems.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Typing this out is going to do no favors for my blood pressure lol but here are just a few of the frustrations I've dealt with. Also, many of these things are, taken as a single instance, not a big deal. But I've been running into to these on a daily basis for coming on to a month now.

• called a dealership today that had a Premium on their website (under inventory - usually understood to mean stock on hand LOL) that hadn't been there a couple of days ago. I've been checking regularly. I asked if it was available. Salesperson said they would go find out and put me on hold. Salesperson came back and said they weren't sure. I said, "well, you said you were going to find out. What did you find out?" He said, "Well, the window sticker says special order, and that usually means someone pre-ordered it and we sold it already and they just haven't picked up yet, but I don't really know." I said, "okay, so it might not be sold already?" He said, "yeah, I think it might be available, but I don't know." I said, "I'll buy it sight unseen if it's available. Can you find out?" He said, "Yeah of course! I'll call you right back!" After several hours pass, I give him a call and he says, "Yeah, it was already sold." All of that is a minor frustration. But then he starts to lecture me in a very patronizing tone that "yeah, ma'am, that's a very popular car, all of our Mach-E's are special orders, we never have cars available for purchase directly" and so on, when clearly he himself did not know that when we spoke earlier.
• Alluded to this already, but I called a dealership that had a used grabber blue first edition for sale. The salesperson said it wasn't available, but since I liked blue, he could sell me another really pretty blue vehicle.
• Emailed a dealership about a Mach-E I saw on autotrader, asked it it was available. Received 3 emails from 3 different people in reply, none of which answered whether or not the Mach-E was available. I replied to each, repeating my question. No response from anyone. Received an email a few days later from someone claiming to be their "internet specialist," asking if there were any questions I had that hand't already been answered. I replied with, "Yes, actually, I wanted to know if you have any Mach-E's available or coming in soon." No reply for several days until I received another email from the same internet specialist asking if there was anyway to "win my business." I replied that she hadn't responded to my previous email. She responded with, "I'm sorry to hear that. I had no idea. I will let my manager know."
• Had a dealership claim they had changed the oil on a used Mach-E. (Now I admit that was kinda funny.)
• Came across a dealership just today listing $60,000 as the MSRP for a RWD/standard battery select with no other additions than the tech/comfort package. And yes, it said MSRP, not "asking price" or "dealer price". They also wanted thousands more for dealer-installed upgrades like "anti-theft registration," making the car close to $70K all in. I don't mind theoretically paying some ADM, but that was crazy. And if a dealer wants to add ADM, don't claim in writing it's MSRP when it's not.
• A salesperson emailed me maybe a week ago saying that they had a white premium onsite with a reasonable ADM. I immediately emailed and called saying I was very interested. I emailed and called again the next day. I sent one final email before writing it off. I got an email just today saying, "I don't want to pester you, but I haven't received any response from you." Maybe my 3 separate email responses got lost somehow, but what about my voicemails? I called again and spoke to a different person, but the car is already sold.

Again, this is just a small sampling of what I've been running in to. Note that I am willing to pay ADM if it's not insane.

Misogyny meets incompetence. Neither you, nor anyone else should have to deal with that crap.

 

[voxel]

Typing this out is going to do no favors for my blood pressure lol but here are just a few of the frustrations I've dealt with. Also, many of these things are, taken as a single instance, not a big deal. But I've been running into to these on a daily basis for coming on to a month now.

• called a dealership today that had a Premium on their website (under inventory - usually understood to mean stock on hand LOL) that hadn't been there a couple of days ago. I've been checking regularly. I asked if it was available. Salesperson said they would go find out and put me on hold. Salesperson came back and said they weren't sure. I said, "well, you said you were going to find out. What did you find out?" He said, "Well, the window sticker says special order, and that usually means someone pre-ordered it and we sold it already and they just haven't picked up yet, but I don't really know." I said, "okay, so it might not be sold already?" He said, "yeah, I think it might be available, but I don't know." I said, "I'll buy it sight unseen if it's available. Can you find out?" He said, "Yeah of course! I'll call you right back!" After several hours pass, I give him a call and he says, "Yeah, it was already sold." All of that is a minor frustration. But then he starts to lecture me in a very patronizing tone that "yeah, ma'am, that's a very popular car, all of our Mach-E's are special orders, we never have cars available for purchase directly" and so on, when clearly he himself did not know that when we spoke earlier.
• Alluded to this already, but I called a dealership that had a used grabber blue first edition for sale. The salesperson said it wasn't available, but since I liked blue, he could sell me another really pretty blue vehicle.
• Emailed a dealership about a Mach-E I saw on autotrader, asked it it was available. Received 3 emails from 3 different people in reply, none of which answered whether or not the Mach-E was available. I replied to each, repeating my question. No response from anyone. Received an email a few days later from someone claiming to be their "internet specialist," asking if there were any questions I had that hand't already been answered. I replied with, "Yes, actually, I wanted to know if you have any Mach-E's available or coming in soon." No reply for several days until I received another email from the same internet specialist asking if there was anyway to "win my business." I replied that she hadn't responded to my previous email. She responded with, "I'm sorry to hear that. I had no idea. I will let my manager know."
• Had a dealership claim they had changed the oil on a used Mach-E. (Now I admit that was kinda funny.)
• Came across a dealership just today listing $60,000 as the MSRP for a RWD/standard battery select with no other additions than the tech/comfort package. And yes, it said MSRP, not "asking price" or "dealer price". They also wanted thousands more for dealer-installed upgrades like "anti-theft registration," making the car close to $70K all in. I don't mind theoretically paying some ADM, but that was crazy. And if a dealer wants to add ADM, don't claim in writing it's MSRP when it's not.
• A salesperson emailed me maybe a week ago saying that they had a white premium onsite with a reasonable ADM. I immediately emailed and called saying I was very interested. I emailed and called again the next day. I sent one final email before writing it off. I got an email just today saying, "I don't want to pester you, but I haven't received any response from you." Maybe my 3 separate email responses got lost somehow, but what about my voicemails? I called again and spoke to a different person, but the car is already sold.

Again, this is just a small sampling of what I've been running in to. Note that I am willing to pay ADM if it's not insane.

Your experience is not that unusual sadly in today's market. For the Rav4 Prime, I contacted 15+ Toyota dealers and few out of state ones along with ones on Driveway.com - same insanity as you. RAV4 primes would be listed but these were all pre-sold. They have to be posted probably due to some regulation/law. Dealers (when they would respond) would refuse to talk about price over e-mail and phone then FORCE me to visit them and take a pointless test drive while meeting 2-3 salesfolk who spoke about "wanting my business" and "we won't lose you over price"... then the finance guy drops in at the end and says "there are only 2 in the state, $5K markup plus you have to buy all these add-ons" ... on a crappy base version (think Mach-E Select). I wanted the highest trim (think Mach-E Premium AWD) but none were available.

When a car is highly sought after and not easy to get... you have to deal with all the BS and flakiness. At least with Ford you can actually order a Mach-E. Toyota uses an "allocation system" with no guarantees.

I bought an ID.4 as a filler car because the dealer made it a no-fuss affair. It's my first EV and I'm learning a lot about them. It allows me to wait for the "perfect Mach-E" rather than a Select RWD/AWD which I would not be happy about because of the low range.

 

[DevSecOps]

I've been looking at dealers within 500 miles of me. RI would be a bit of a trip. Shipping is an option.

First, I purchased a GTPE from Florida, and I'm in California. It cost me 1k to ship it and I got it delivered to my house in 5 days from when they picked it up.

I suggest that you don't use Ford's car locator. When I did my searching, and trust me I searched hi and low, it appeared as if all the cars on Ford's website are either gone or incorrect. Use the other services out there like Edmunds and search the entire country.

Here's the issue with buying out of state. You might not get the state tax credit. You can still get the fed credit. Since I'm in California and once prior claimed the state credit I was already excluded from getting it again. So for me out of state was = to buying in state. Out of state dealers should charge local tax and provide registration in your state, so that's the same as in state.

I have had the same car I found, on order, for 6 months and probably wouldn't get it until 2022. The dealer did want ADM originally, but I worked with Ford and got the car for MSRP.

I wish you luck. Think outside the box and don't give up!

 

[Reign of Ravens]

A salesperson emailed me maybe a week ago saying that they had a white premium onsite with a reasonable ADM. I immediately emailed and called saying I was very interested. I emailed and called again the next day. I sent one final email before writing it off. I got an email just today saying, "I don't want to pester you, but I haven't received any response from you." Maybe my 3 separate email responses got lost somehow, but what about my voicemails? I called again and spoke to a different person, but the car is already sold.
Again, this is just a small sampling of what I've been running in to. Note that I am willing to pay ADM if it's not insane.

I had a similar experience with a local Audi dealership. While waiting on the 2022 Mach-E order page to come up, I had reached out to ask about the Q4 E-Tron. The dealer website's contact page seemed standard, allowing you to pose a question and then provide either an email address or a phone number for them to reach you back at. I received a very generic email that didn't address my question at all; I think I replied and got another fairly generic one that hinted they wanted me to call. So I did; got their voicemail, left them a message with my number and email address... a few days later I get an email that they couldn't reach me and want to know if I'm still interested.

To a certain extent, I get it. They want you on the phone; they want you there in person. It becomes easier to read you, possibly to impress you, and much easier to pressure you. But man, when you just ask a simple question like "do you have this car coming to your show room soon"...

It's also not just dealerships doing this. The Tesla Model X was on my list of vehicles of interest, even though it's about 2-3x more than I ever wanted to spend on a car. Same deal, I ask if they have any way of letting me see the interior of a specific seating configuration (as I've heard that one of my local stores has connections with some dedicated owners; or maybe they'd have some other solution), and suddenly I'm being hounded to put down a deposit to reserve the car, sight unseen. I get it, I'm lucky to be able to consider a car in that price range, but are people really buying $100,000 vehicles without even sitting in it? Then suddenly I get an email follow-up from a different Tesla representative asking about my interest; I replied in earnest and it was the same nonsense, asking me to put down the $500 deposit. I received two phone calls and voicemails and a few more emails that I stopped replying to... and Tesla supposedly has the best car-buying experience. I guess it's only great when you can do everything without needing to talk to their salespeople (which, to be fair, is something I wish we could do with the Mach-E, but still).

I don't recall the car-buying process being so horrible when I used to accompany my parents for their car purchases when I was a child, but obviously my understanding of what was happening then was different. Maybe nothing has changed...

Either way, I feel for you, Caramel. I read over some of the responses you received and I am fairly certain you received a number of them specifically because you're a woman, which is even more irritating. I hope it works out for you either way.

 

[Mach E JT]

Do you want a GTPE? I’ve got one on order, due in about 2 weeks, that I’m not going to take delivery. It’s dark matter gray, fully loaded. Let me know. I don’t want anything for it.

Sponsored