Serramonte Ford Mach-E Specialist Here

[Fordmaybe]

That's not how the Price Protection works, Ford only pays out the protection amount after the transaction is reported to Ford, and only if the vehicle is sold to the ordering customer. The program was posted by @WNKent above.

Correct. But customer in these cases does not pay the increase and wait for ford

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[WNKent]

What are "AXZD-Plans"?

 

[Gloff]

What are "AXZD-Plans"?

A/Z = Ford Employee(A)/Retiree(Z)
D = Dealer Employee
X = Partner Program (Mustang Club/Employer Program) or Friends and Neighbors (Issued by a Ford Employee)

 

[WNKent]

I know the program. Price protection is honored at our store. The customer does have to wait for us to get paid by Ford before we issue the check, yes.

Do you have an option to decrease the price? (as mentioned in AXZD-Plans), seems if you did that, no one is left waiting, then you get the price difference from Ford. This way the customer isn't forced to finance that $2000.... Better for your customer, no?

 

[Gloff]

Do you have an option to decrease the price? (as mentioned in AXZD-Plans), seems if you did that, no one is left waiting, then you get the price difference from Ford. This way the customer isn't forced to finance that $2000.... Better for your customer, no?

That's always an option, but Ford has made it difficult to independently verify order dates once it leaves the order system. They use the antiquated DORA system (ask your dealer if they know where their DORAs are printed) with no way for us to access historical DORAs. Frankly, the DORA system should have a digital repository that the dealer can access, not printouts that print once a day. As the saying goes "we have the technology".

We do a fairly good job of retaining order documentation, and it's still hard for us to verify the order date after the vehicle is delivered if a vehicle had a change made to it.

Edit: Adding to that, we'd prefer to give the discount up front in the interest of customer experience, but again, Ford's systems make it difficult. There are a number of these little ordering quirks that are only a problem because of the changes to industry as a result of the pandemic induced supply chain. In the past, we'd deal with PP once or twice a year, if at all. We're now custom ordering the majority of our inventory for customers and we've had price changes on every model line necessitating PP on a large portion of my orders. Just the other day I had a Super Duty that had 4 separate price changes between his order date (Aug. 2021) and his delivery (May 2022), assuming my math is correct, it was $2545 in PP. I'm getting into the weeds now, but let me tell you how hard it is to find each price increase memo in FMCDealer.

 

[WNKent]

So, for mostly cash customers,

That's always an option, but Ford has made it difficult to independently verify order dates once it leaves the order system. They use the antiquated DORA system (ask your dealer if they know where their DORAs are printed) with no way for us to access historical DORAs. Frankly, the DORA system should have a digital repository that the dealer can access, not printouts that print once a day. As the saying goes "we have the technology".

We do a fairly good job of retaining order documentation, and it's still hard for us to verify the order date after the vehicle is delivered if a vehicle had a change made to it.

I agree, needing a print out to prove a price, is ridiculous. I paid the deposit online, dealer accepted and Ford acknowledged, all on the same day. It was only later I learned about needing a copy of the initial order sheet and when I asked the dealer, I was told that that guy that handled orders was "no longer with Ford" . I'm glad that I saved screenshots of the initial price. I ultimately got an order sheet, months later that shows the new price increased by $2000 and a new price level code of 220, up from 215. Some forum members are actually reporting that dealers are refusing to price protect, even when the very first sentence of Price Protection - Retail uses the word "guarantees". This should really be an invisible process for that ever elusive customer, especially when this is discussed monthly in the Ford representative's Wholesale Meetings with the dealer.

 

[Gloff]

So, for mostly cash customers,

I agree, needing a print out to prove a price, is ridiculous. I paid the deposit online, dealer accepted and Ford acknowledged, all on the same day. It was only later I learned about needing a copy of the initial order sheet and when I asked the dealer, I was told that that guy that handled orders was "no longer with Ford" . I'm glad that I saved screenshots of the initial price. I ultimately got an order sheet, months later that shows the new price increased by $2000 and a new price level code of 220, up from 215. Some forum members are actually reporting that dealers are refusing to price protect, even when the very first sentence of Price Protection - Retail uses the word "guarantees". This should really be an invisible process for that ever elusive customer, especially when this is discussed monthly in the Ford representative's Wholesale Meetings with the dealer.

It's as much a pain for us as it is for the customer, and I agree 100% the process should be seamless. Ford needs to find a solution, as the current process is, at best, a workaround.

Ford does a good job of telling dealers the information, but they certainly can't control information retention. What they can do better is offer easier solutions to finding the information required. As a dealer trying to do it the right way, it makes our jobs harder when other dealers are ignorant or outright refusing to honor such programs. All of us tend to get lumped into the same category despite our best efforts to the contrary.

 

[WNKent]

It's as much a pain for us as it is for the customer, and I agree 100% the process should be seamless. Ford needs to find a solution, as the current process is, at best, a workaround.

Ford does a good job of telling dealers the information, but they certainly can't control information retention. What they can do better is offer easier solutions to finding the information required. As a dealer trying to do it the right way, it makes our jobs harder when other dealers are ignorant or outright refusing to honor such programs. All of us tend to get lumped into the same category despite our best efforts to the contrary.

I'm in the Bay Area too and wish I designated you as my dealership. I appreciate the conversation and information exchange; you seem to be one of the ones that puts the customer first, as it should always be.

 

[Gloff]

I'm in the Bay Area too and wish I designated you as my dealership. I appreciate the conversation and information exchange; you seem to be one of the ones that puts the customer first, as it should always be.

I'm trying! Just remember us for the next one! Which dealer did you designate, Capitol?

 

[RickMachE]

Many issues with this approach. If they finance, wouldn't the lien holder get the $2,000?

And if Ford declines initially, the dealer has less incentive to push back, since the customer is out the money.

An A/Z/D/X customer pays an amount calculated on invoice. Use a higher invoice, and they paid more and won't likely see that.

My dealer has had my $500 deposit for 49 weeks and 1 day. They can eat any carrying cost on waiting for that $2,000, if there is any (i.e. if they have to pay more for the car to Ford, and then get it back). I financed that for them.

I would not work with a dealer that took this approach.

 

[ARK]

Many issues with this approach. If they finance, wouldn't the lien holder get the $2,000?

And if Ford declines initially, the dealer has less incentive to push back, since the customer is out the money.

An A/Z/D/X customer pays an amount calculated on invoice. Use a higher invoice, and they paid more and won't likely see that.

My dealer has had my $500 deposit for 49 weeks and 1 day. They can eat any carrying cost on waiting for that $2,000, if there is any (i.e. if they have to pay more for the car to Ford, and then get it back). I financed that for them.

I would not work with a dealer that took this approach.

I think their issue is they are not 100% certain (can’t get a pre-commitment from Ford) that the price protection would apply, and don’t want to risk holding the bag if they give the price protection difference up front and, lo and behold, Ford denies the price protection for that transaction for whatever reason.

Agree it’s not a good approach for the customer, but can’t really fault the dealer for this one.

 

[Gloff]

Many issues with this approach. If they finance, wouldn't the lien holder get the $2,000?

And if Ford declines initially, the dealer has less incentive to push back, since the customer is out the money.

An A/Z/D/X customer pays an amount calculated on invoice. Use a higher invoice, and they paid more and won't likely see that.

My dealer has had my $500 deposit for 49 weeks and 1 day. They can eat any carrying cost on waiting for that $2,000, if there is any (i.e. if they have to pay more for the car to Ford, and then get it back). I financed that for them.

I would not work with a dealer that took this approach.

Look, I understand, and agree with you. This is why we want Ford to change the process, there's no clean way for us to deal with it. It's an easy solution that we want Ford to implement: At a minimum, Let us access our own DORAs digitally. Ideally, identify units that qualify by VIN and let us search that database. It's really not that hard, Ford knows the units that qualify and the customers that ordered it, send the dealer the VIN list.

The money is paid to us directly, so we can cut the check to the customer directly, not the lienholder.

For AZDX, the calculated sale price is part of the adjustment, and any price protection offered on that plan should be calculated into the PP that's paid to us, which we'd forward to the customer.

The worst part is you wouldn't have a choice, the price protection is only relevant after you place the order and it's built. Trust me, we don't like it either.

 

[WNKent]

You are correct. It's really unconscionable and lazinezz on behalf of the dealers, especially if PP has been around for a while, they need to learn how to do their job and it shouldn't be left to the customer to lead them through the process. For some folks that don't make much and/or have a high debt load, the extra $2000 might throw the D/I (debt to income) ratio out of whack and the bank might not approve that loan. For me, this car is a want, not a need and it a principle issue for me. Ford really does need to get their act together, like Tesla. I had none of this BS when I bought my Performance Y, the day they went on the market. You buy the car online and never talk to anyone; it's a really smooth process.

 

[Gloff]

You are correct. It's really unconscionable and lazinezz on behalf of the dealers, especially if PP has been around for a while, they need to learn how to do their job and it shouldn't be left to the custimer to lead them through the process. For some folks that don't make much and/or have a high debt load, the extra $2000 might throw the D/I (debt to income) ratio out of whack and the bank might not approve that loan. For me, this car is a want, not a need and it a principle issue for me. Ford really does need to get their act together, like Tesla. I had none of this BS when I bought my Performance Y, the day they went on the market. You buy the car online and never talk to anyone; it's a really smooth process.

I don't totally fault the dealers though, the process is draconian. As I posted previously, the process is not new, but it was used very sparingly in the past. Now it's front and center and was not designed to be used in the high volumes of retail orders we're now seeing.

 

[WNKent]

I think their issue is they are not 100% certain (can’t get a pre-commitment from Ford) that the price protection would apply, and don’t want to risk holding the bag if they give the price protection difference up front and, lo and behold, Ford denies the price protection for that transaction for whatever reason.

Agree it’s not a good approach for the customer, but can’t really fault the dealer for this one.

Did you read the documents that I posted in this thread, these are Ford's commitment, it guarantees the difference, back to the dealer. These are Ford documents that the dealers should know all about and respectfully, the dealers are at fault here. If they sell a product, they need to keep current with policies and procedures, full stop. The days of making stuff up is over. I think The Blue Oval knows this.

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