Price protection and incentives on 2021->2022 order

[Pacsun]

Thanks for checking this out. I need some help. I’ve read the posts on price protection, the dealer YouTube video, the memos, Smart Vincent screenshots, etc. I'm just unclear on how it applies to my particular situation. My dealer has basically said I have no price protection and is even challenging me on the protection date for interest rates. I am way too busy to spend much more time on this so I would greatly appreciate some insight.

• I ordered a 2021 Premium AWD ER on 8/3/21 via the Internet.
• Was notified by email on 9/27/21 that my order would be converted to a 2022. Got the $750 email.
• The order tracking website showed my order confirmation date as 9/27/21. Listed the car as a 2022 Premium AWD ER.
• Then finally on 1/12/22 I get an email saying congrats, your order has been confirmed. I don’t know what the dealer was doing for nearly 4 months, it was a low priority thing for me so I didn’t hound them.
• Car was built in 4/2022. Finally got to the dealer around 6/10. I stopped by the dealer the next day, took it for a spin, and said I’d be back on 6/13 to complete the sale.
• I spent a couple hours going back and forth on the price protection and Ford Options details before the sales guy come out with the recall notice. I laughed, said I guess I’ll see y’all later this summer and asked them to figure out the issues in the meantime.
• The salesperson wrote me back today to say their Ford Area rep said there isn’t price protection on 2021/2022 conversions, and there’s no way to “lock in” an interest rate on a purchase. Overall, the process has reminded why I hate buying cars at dealerships. I did make some progress while I was there in that they at least got the Ford Options rebate up to 2500, so I know they’re accessing some protection date incentives.

Here are my questions:

1. Since the dealer seemingly did nothing until apparently submitting the 2022 order on 1/12/2022, did they screw me out of price protection?
2. Either way, I should at least have a lock on the incentives. What date should I be pushing them to use? 1/12/22?
3. What were the loan terms being offered in 1/2022 for tier 0 credit? For Ford Options I've seen a lot of 2.49-2.7% with 2500, and 1-2% rates for traditional Ford Credit loans.
   1. The loan guy strolled over with a terms sheet that had 2.99% for 48 months on a traditional, and 4.9% on Ford Options. They say they aren't marking up the rates, but I wouldn't be surprised by anything. They really like to just put a paper in front of you and hope you'll sign it.
4. X-plan. After the order I got a job with a company that gets me X-plan. Dealer says too late, has to be done at time of order. True?
5. Feel free to answer any questions I forgot to ask.

And thanks to everyone who has helped in the previous posts. Hoping I'll get my car out of dealer recall jail before year end. :/

Sponsored

 

[Mach-Lee]

So a reminder on how this works, your '21 order is completely dead/irreverent and you start over again at the time of the '22 order entry. When they submitted your '22 order is the date everything gets based on. The $750 private offer covered the price increase from '21 to '22 (Oct timeframe) and the higher interest rates for '22 MY.

What does your order date show on the Ford order tracker? https://shop.ford.com/vehicleordertracking#/

That would be the date of your original invoice and would also be your protection date. I was also a '21>'22 conversion, I called and had them submit the order the week after the announcements in Oct, so that was my incentive protection date. When did the green checkmark by the "order accepted by dealer" show up on your Ford account? That happened the day after I placed the order with my dealer.

Your incentives would be what was available on your protection date. '22 was 2.70% for Ford Options and I think 0.9% APR for 48 mo back in Oct for me but your date may be different. I sat down with my salesman and showed her how to do protection date in smart Vincent so we could both see the available interest rates on the computer screen together. Computer will also show your protection date.

X-plan can be done at the time of sale, but dealer may refuse since they lose profit. Dealers are free to choose if they want to offer plan pricing or not. Common advice is to ask at the time of ordering and get it in writing if they accept so they can't back out later.

If your original invoice date was after the Dec 8th price increases, then you may not be able to get price protection since your car was not officially ordered until Jan '22?

Either way shitty dealer. They should have processed your '21>22 conversion in Oct/Nov, sucks you didn't touch base back then to make sure but they should have called you. Leave them a bad review afterwards.

 

[Pacsun]

The tracker thing no longer works since the car is sitting at the dealer. When I pull up the order in my Ford account is says 8/3/21 and shows my original order number, which is different from the 2022 order one. The tracker before it went dead showed my order confirmation date as 9/27/21, but that probably means nothing and was just the conversion date.

So it seems my order/protection date is 1/12/22. If the computer shows it, I'm curious to see that date. They definitely wasted a lot of time. I ordered it on a whim, then moved, started a new job, we had a baby, etc.

 

[Mach-Lee]

The tracker thing no longer works since the car is sitting at the dealer. When I pull up the order in my Ford account is says 8/3/21 and shows my original order number, which is different from the 2022 order one. The tracker before it went dead showed my order confirmation date as 9/27/21, but that probably means nothing and was just the conversion date.

So it seems my order/protection date is 1/12/22. If the computer shows it, I'm curious to see that date. They definitely wasted a lot of time. I ordered it on a whim, then moved, started a new job, we had a baby, etc.

That sucks. Your protection date should have been early Oct had they put the order in right away and you would have gotten the lower price. As I see it, they made you wait an extra 3 months and cost you an extra $3000 or so due to their incompetence.

 

[RickMachE]

I'm going to disagree with the dates above.

Price protection does in fact apply when the order was converted to a 2022, because the $750 incentive is to cover the price increase, and then some.

However, incentives go back to the original order date. And the system should reflect that. I got 0.9% on my 2022 delivered 5 weeks ago because that was the rate in effect on 5/29/21. And my order state shows as 5/29/21, not October.

 

[Pacsun]

Much appreciated. They kept saying nothing showed up with both the 8/3 and 9/27 dates. So if I look over their shoulder while they use the criteria below, I should see a table with terms for at least one of these dates?

 

[MyLittlePony2022]

I pushed the send button my my order on 01-Oct 2022, which is the order date. I pushed my dealer hard for price protection (the cost differential not the incentives). I printed out my original invoices showing the MSRP and the new invoices showing MSRP. The dealer agreed to do the price protection.

All the dealer has to do is submit to Ford and Ford gives them the money back in 45 to 90 days. It really comes down to if they want to take the time to get you the money back. Of course, they do have the option to say no to you and submit to Ford, which means they get $3K from you and $3K from Ford. Bottom line, it is up to the dealer and if they want to play nice.

I had to push it up to the GM, through the sales manager. Only then did they agree but they would not reduce the price at time of sale. I had to have them put the price protection in writing as part of the sale. When they get the money from Ford, then I get my check. I should be getting $3K but they feel it might be less. I may be talking to their GM after I get the check.

Good luck. Be nice but firm and just explain it to them that by going into Smart VINCENT and doing a few minutes of tying, it will save you money.

 

[krazieboy]

Your price protection ideally should've held since you placed an order in 21, but Dealer took forever to convert it. conversion shouldn't be a new order #

xplan can be denied. in the terms it stats that you have to express that you want to use xplan from the start. now they dont necessary need the pin at the start, but liek others said, it's up to dealership if they want to accept it.

 

[Mach-Lee]

I'm going to disagree with the dates above.

Price protection does in fact apply when the order was converted to a 2022, because the $750 incentive is to cover the price increase, and then some.

However, incentives go back to the original order date. And the system should reflect that. I got 0.9% on my 2022 delivered 5 weeks ago because that was the rate in effect on 5/29/21. And my order state shows as 5/29/21, not October.

Rick, I think your dealer manager or finance manager must have manually overridden your finance rates since the computer normally doesn’t allow you to have an interest rate from a prior model year. I saw the computer screen when they selected “protection date” in the screenshot above and it was an Oct 3rd date for me. The $750 was meant to cover the higher ‘22 interest rates as well. You got lucky and must have pulled some strings, but most people aren’t going to be able to get prior model year financing incentives unless their dealer wants to give them special treatment.

Price protection is based on the ‘22 invoice date (when the dealer placed the ‘22 order), not the original ‘21 order date. The Ford account tracker will show your original order date, the other Ford tracker I linked to shows the ‘22 invoice date but I guess that disappears after delivery. Maybe Ford chat can tell you your original invoice date?

 

[RickMachE]

Rick, I think your dealer manager or finance manager must have manually overridden your finance rates since the computer normally doesn’t allow you to have an interest rate from a prior model year. I saw the computer screen when they selected “protection date” in the screenshot above and it was an Oct 3rd date for me. The $750 was meant to cover the higher ‘22 interest rates as well. You got lucky and must have pulled some strings, but most people aren’t going to be able to get prior model year financing incentives unless their dealer wants to give them special treatment.

Price protection is based on the ‘22 invoice date (when the dealer placed the ‘22 order), not the original ‘21 order date. The Ford account tracker will show your original order date, the other Ford tracker I linked to shows the ‘22 invoice date but I guess that disappears after delivery. Maybe Ford chat can tell you your original invoice date?

My original invoice date is 5/29/21. My 2022 was ordered on 9/27/21.

Back in February, when I verified with my GM that things were locked, he replied yes, to original date of order. We had a discussion where he clearly stated that again.

I just pulled the paperwork, and he printed out the tiers from 9/27/21 - 10/4/21 and they show the 0.9% for 2022 models. So the same rate was still in effect back from May and he apparently did not need to pull any strings.

As to what the $750 incentive covered, the email is quite clear. It states: "To thank you for being a valued customer, we're offering you $750* to help cover any price variation for the model-year update." Nothing about interest rate coverage.

As you probably know, Ford is running commercials touting incentive protection, which clearly state that you're locking in incentives at time of order. That jibes with my understanding also. Of course they don't expect to have to convert large numbers of orders to the next year.

 

[GreenGreenGreen]

If you’re wondering what a website looked like at a particular date, sometimes it can help to check this website called the Wayback Machine, in case you haven’t heard of it. It’s basically just an internet archive. As long as you keep the URL fairly general, it might help you look back at the interest rates or offers that were available at the time you put in your reservation/order.
https://web.archive.org/

 

[PNWJustin]

I just pulled the paperwork, and he printed out the tiers from 9/27/21 - 10/4/21 and they show the 0.9% for 2022 models. So the same rate was still in effect back from May and he apparently did not need to pull any strings.

Would you feel comfortable providing a copy of this? My dealer is telling me the APR is time of sale, not order, so getting as much documentation as possible to help.

 

[RickMachE]

The documentation of Price Protection is posted numerous times. The loan table is accessible by your dealer. I do not have any Ford Options tables since we only got $1,000 on it and 0.9% is much better.

 

[Pacsun]

For anyone curious about the outcome, and/or in a similar situation.

I bought the car 7/6. Dealer still claimed they didn't see anything about price protection that would apply to my purchase, and seemed to not be aware of the 12/2021 price protection notice (which I showed them). I had them include a clause in the contract about sending me a check for the amount if it did come through.

More annoying, they couldn't figure out how to apply the $750 credit for the 2021-2022 rollover. They said the area rep didn't know what to do about it as well. I printed the email, showed them the code at the bottom, etc. They never figured out how to apply it (nothing showed up in the system), and I got tired of wasting my time with all this so I gave up.

They did somehow figure out the inventive protection, so I got $2500 and 2.7% on the options plan.

At the end of the day, as a first time Ford customer, it was a negative transaction. Salesperson was nice, but not even being able to apply the $750 after a year of waiting for the car is unacceptable. If anyone knows here knows how to escalate that so Ford writes me a check, that'd be great. Suppose I'll call the dealer in a month or two and see if the $2000 came through.

Great car, fun to drive, haven't had any issues. But Ford - do better, a lot better.

 

[iaming]

Much appreciated. They kept saying nothing showed up with both the 8/3 and 9/27 dates. So if I look over their shoulder while they use the criteria below, I should see a table with terms for at least one of these dates?

What does RCL mean? What's Z-Flex Buy?

I assume "2 - Options -Individual" is for Ford options.