Reign of Ravens
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- Sep 8, 2021
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- 22 Mach-E Premium, Chrysler PacHy
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Hi everyone! I picked up my Mach-E the other day and was thinking about the whole process of getting this vehicle. This thread is going to be a bit of a vent, a bit of advice to those who haven't yet placed an order, a bit of a nostalgic recount, and a bit of reflecting on what the past year was like.
The Background
I'm in the minority in terms of what brought me to the Mach-E, but there's a surprising number of us: I wanted a fully electric vehicle that could accommodate three car seats, with my third child due shortly. In fact, I found this forum some time around July or August 2021 while doing web searches for that information. I might write a thread about that in a month or so, after I've had some more time with my Mach-E. Either way, I settled on the Mach-E. A few months into the wait I became worried that the dealership would screw me out of the vehicle, or that it wouldn't arrive on time, and I went to a Chrysler dealership and put a deposit down to custom-order a Pacifica Hybrid. The Pacifica was really meant to be a fall-back that I never intended to buy, but it ended up arriving first. I knew that it was the more practical option, and my wife tipped me over the edge, so we took it. This was the basis for my comparing two different purchasing experiences.
2022: A Bad Year for Cars
If you're waiting on your Mach-E, you probably know a lot of fine details about changes made to the Mach-E over time thanks to spending time on this forum. During the course of the wait my Mach-E lost the "acoustic glass" feature (which people have said doesn't really make a difference); it supposedly lost the kick-to-open trunk detector (which I haven't tested to verify); it lost the automated parking function, although Ford gave a credit for this and left an option to purchase it in the future.
Chrysler wasn't immune to supply issues. While waiting for production my Pacifica lost its power folding mirrors (Chrysler gave a credit for this but did not leave an option to add it back in the future, which is unfortunate - it's the first vehicle I find myself folding the mirrors on regularly). It originally had a three-panel sun and moon roof, but the third panel was left off of my Pacifica. You'd only know it should have been there if you had read about it, and if you looked at the model of the car in the 360 camera view.
Ford dealerships also aren't the only ones trying to mark up cars. While most Ford dealerships in my area charge an additional $5,000-7,000 if you buy a car off the lot, the Pacifica's window sticker had a $14,000 "availability fee" that would have come into play if they were selling it off of the lot.
The Mach-E Experience
I've never purchased a Tesla, but I know about their dealership-free sales model. I also knew that the Mach-E had taken an awful lot from Tesla (such as a usable frunk and strong electric performance), while also retaining some of the more traditional car features and styling. So when I saw that Ford allowed people to place orders for the Mach-E online, I figured that they had found a way to copy Tesla there, utilizing their dealerships as paperwork processing centers and physical handoff locations. The language on Ford's website further encouraged this, talking about "your order" with a price listed and "your Mach-E." Here's the reality: what you're doing on the website is actually making a request, or a reservation. The dealership ultimately places the order with Ford. In that regard, the sales process is no different than any other non-Tesla vehicle. I knew about the fine print, but I didn't fully appreciate this until a few months in.
I should also preface this by saying that I did a bit of looking into my local dealers beforehand. It wasn't hard: we only have three on this island. One had a bad reputation from other local users, and my own experience with them (where I saw my first Mach-E in person) left me feeling a bit icky; one didn't respond; and another with a good reputation promised not to add any mark-up (what we call ADM on this forum) to online orders. They weren't taking X-plan. That's the checklist I knew about from this forum: ask about X-plan and ADM. There are a few items that should be added to that, which is coming up...
My selected dealership responded fairly quickly to my online order, but their message acted as if I had sent in a general inquiry. I gave them my order number, which they said they'd process. I must have checked the Ford website two or three times per day, and after a few days of seeing no changes, asked them about it. They said I'd have to come in to show my ID and sign paperwork. I had read about dealerships getting into trouble for making orders under the names of dealership employees, and figured this was some measure Ford had implemented to guard against that. I went in, they photocopied my ID, and... that was it. In hindsight, this might have been a point to ask them to sign a pricing agreement with me (which would be something I'd add to the checklist for other buyers), but given what came next, I think they would have refused.
I got into the usual cadence of the forum, checking my order every Thursday to see if it had been scheduled for production. I still wasn't scheduled for production two months later, but the website had changed: where the "difference from MSRP" had always been zero, now it was off by a few thousand dollars. That's ADM. I emailed my dealer contact to ask about it, and was told that if I had previously been promised pricing, then they would honor it. That's some fishy wording. After all, I was promised no markup, but was never given a number; a dishonorable person would tell me that I was out of luck. I emailed again, providing the original email and asking for a yes or no answer on whether that counted for not. I received essentially the same response: if I had been promised something, they would honor it.
By that time I had read enough horror stories on this forum and figured I'd need to take a more aggressive approach, to get a better feel for the dealership face to face, and to show them that I wasn't going to be passive about this process. I went to the dealership in person, met with my contact... and then he brought out his sales manager. It was a very unpleasant experience. I could see that they were upset, and I think it was because they felt that they were being accused of dishonesty. They said that they didn't control what showed up on Ford's website, including the price that I saw; they said that they lost money on every single Mach-E that they sold at MSRP; that Ford was now allowing them to mark up customer orders; and that the guy who had originally promised me no ADM no longer worked at the dealership, but they would honor that message and sell to me at MSRP. (Or as they put it, "you'll be the last customer we sell to at MSRP.") For my part, I tried to tell them that whether they lost money or not really wasn't my business, and was between them and Ford. I pushed for a written price agreement, and they refused. They said they couldn't do it until we had a VIN, because what if Ford sent us the wrong car or had the wrong configuration? (Yes, this was really the excuse that they gave me. I wanted to ask why I've heard of other people's dealerships doing it at the time the order is placed, but there was no way they would go back on that, and I am not in a position to know whether it was an outright lie or a possible half-truth.) Lacking insight, they acted indignant about trust, asking how I could deal with them if I didn't trust them, which, I mean... a signed agreement would be a way to provide trust, wouldn't it? When I tried to highlight the use of a written agreement instead of a verbal one by pointing out that the guy I had originally spoken to apparently doesn't work at the dealership anymore, they refused to acknowledge the point by acting all insulted, as if I had said that they weren't going to work there anymore. Who knows - maybe they perceived it as if I was threatening to get them fired. I ultimately left feeling only partially satisfied.
My paranoia was high, which led to my exploring other options for vehicles. My specific concern was their insistence on waiting until the VIN was assigned. You see, if you cancel your reservation, the order is still in place. Some dealerships ask their customers if they can keep the order; others don't say anything and will keep and/or modify it. In other words, it's a car for them to sell, and usually with heavy markup. And that matters because if what's been written here is true, dealerships have a certain number of cars that they can order, but if someone is trying to order a car through them, then they can order additional vehicles for those customers. Once the VIN is assigned you have zero leverage. In fact, the dealership probably wishes for you to tell them that you're not interested anymore, because they'll make more money selling the car off of the lot. But if the VIN isn't assigned yet, you might be able to make enough of a stink to get the order canceled entirely, which the dealership would care about. Calling Ford a few times revealed two things: 1) Ford's phone representatives are all incredibly nice and understanding, and 2) Ford's phone representatives can do almost nothing for you, and will advise you to work with your dealer. Even transferring your order to another dealership requires the original dealership's consent and actions.
A few months later, Ford sent out a message about the parking assistance feature being removed. For some orders, this meant the order was in limbo until the dealership confirmed that parking assist would be removed. I messaged my dealership, who had trouble finding my order and had to search by features. It made me wonder if part of the reason they had refused to sign a pricing agreement with me was because they had no idea what I had ordered, but didn't want to tell me - that perhaps the order wasn't linked to my name, or maybe their system was just that disorganized.
A fair bit of time passed. I got my VIN aside, and procrastinated a bit on asking for the purchase agreement. The last experience had been so negative for me that I didn't really want to spend more time at the dealership. It also seemed pointless: I already had my backup vehicle ordered, and if they were going to be unfair with the pricing then it didn't really matter if I found out now or on delivery day. We sort of discussed it; they offered $8,000 under Kelly Blue Book value to trade in my Nissan Leaf (a local Toyota dealer that I like offered $3,000 less than Kelly Blue Book even without my trying to buy anything from them). Then I read more about price protection issues.
Price protection... in December 2021 the price of the Mach-E went up by $2,000. Ford apparently intended for orders made before 12/8/2021 to be price-protected, and worked it such that dealerships were expected to knock $2,000 off the MSRP, and Ford would reimburse them later. Some people said their dealerships had concerns about Ford being late with the reimbursements, and would sell at MSRP, sending a check for $2,000 after they received it from Ford. You'd miss out on the taxes, and it was better than the third option: not having the dealership acknowledge it at all, which happened for many people as well. I went in person again, and had all of the resources on this forum to help the dealership to figure it out. Nothing changed. I called Ford, who suggested that they call the regional representative for help. They told me that they did, and that the Ford regional representative basically said that I didn't qualify since the incentive wasn't showing up in the system, where these measures usually show up. Again, given what's been written on this forum (and even some Ford truck forums), this price protection is not in the system. Why Ford would choose to do something unique, and not in the way that the dealers are used to, is something I can't explain. Defeated, I figured that was it.
But there was one last thing: when the car was about a week away from delivery, I off-handedly mentioned one last time that I was disappointed about the price protection thing. My dealer contact responded basically stating that my feedback was more important than the sale, as it could cost him his job, and that they'd rather call off the sale if I was going to rate him negatively over this, when it was out of his control. I took that as a threat to cancel the sale, which the dealership was probably within their rights to do (although it would have prompted legal action from me if they tried). I reassured them that I understood this was out of their hands... and I proceeded on to picking my car up, which was the fastest I've ever been through a dealership (the paperwork process was probably about 40 minutes, and then we spent another 20 minutes getting the car set up with a dealership representative). Some people's dealerships send them a check after the fact, unannounced, when they get money from Ford or when they realize their accounting mistake. I'm not holding out for that to happen, but who knows? As to why I'm seemingly not going to get price protection, who can say? Maybe the dealership entered the order without my name properly being on it, so that they can't show Ford that the person behind the order is the same as the person who took delivery.
Either way, I'm glad to be done with the whole process.
The Chrysler Experience
Chrysler didn't allow online orders. I went to the dealership, the salesman entered my requested configuration, told me he'd send me updates about major points in the production process, and then a few short months later, reached out to me for the first time to tell me that the car was here (so much for updates - not that I was on the edge of my seat for them with this vehicle). The sales process was the second fastest I've experienced (it was the fastest up until the Ford dealership), and was marred only by their offering a bunch of add-ons and then telling me that two of them - protective coating and VIN etching - couldn't be undone, because they had already been applied. Given that I was running out of time to possibly order yet another vehicle and wait on it (because my third child isn't going to wait just because we're waiting on a vehicle), I had no choice but to accept it. Such is the car buying process in 2022. They told me that I had "price protection," which was really protection from their own $14,000 markup over MSRP.
And... that was it. If I look on the Pacifica forums I see some people somehow tracking orders online, and worrying about a lot of the similar things that we do - although a bit less about the dealerships.
The Difference a Forum Makes
I spent a lot of time on this forum while waiting for my Mach-E. Waiting to be scheduled was the worst; once I was scheduled it felt like things were finally happening. Once my car was built my forum activity dropped off a lot more. Tracking its shipping path was too difficult. Along the way it was really nice to commiserate with others on the wait, gleaning bits of information about what was happening on the back end.
I have mixed feelings about sharing information on dealerships. On one hand, there were definitely people who saved money thanks to the shared information. At least, they reported back here and said so.
On the other hand, there was a lot of anxiety and frustration brought about by the shared information. Some dealerships were perfect, and it was less clear why other dealerships couldn't function as they did. Most of us assumed the worst: that the dealerships were being lazy, greedy, or otherwise malicious. It didn't help that there were forum members acting like you should always win against your dealership. I fully admit that I took a more aggressive approach with my Ford dealership than I normally would, partly emboldened by these members, and partly because I knew what other dealerships were doing. At the end of the day, I probably just caused myself (and the dealership representatives) a fair bit of frustration, without changing the outcome. And it was frustrating because, having gone through the process, I am confident in saying that if your dealership wants you to win, you'll win; if your dealership wants you to lose, you're going to lose (and while very rare, there are some spectacular stories on this forum of the dealership forcing a loss). It's a bit like playing against a casino in this regard, and I wonder if the guys saying that you are losing because you "didn't do your homework" have dealers who are letting them win, without their realizing it. It's a problem in 2022 that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon: the dealership stands to make more off of someone else, and is probably hoping not to sell to you. The traditional, ultimate power of the buyer is to walk from the deal, but in 2022 it's no longer a power, but a liability. It flips the traditional relationship between seller and buyer on its head.
And when I compare the two experiences, well... maybe I could have saved myself a few hundred dollars on my Pacifica if I had been babying the order and reading the forums, enough to force the dealership not to make any modifications without my permission. And maybe I got lucky (although ideally, buying from a dealership wouldn't be about luck). But what I can say is, comparing the two experiences... ignorance certainly was bliss with the Pacifica. Surprisingly, the wait wasn't the worst part of the Mach-E experience: working with the dealership was. I wonder how different it would have been if I hadn't opened my mouth, and if I didn't know what other dealerships were doing. None of that information seemed to ultimately impact what my own dealership did, although I suppose we'll never know if the dealership would have tried to force other things on me if I hadn't had some friction with them.
May the car-buying experience be better in the future... and best of luck to all of you who are earlier in the process.
The Background
I'm in the minority in terms of what brought me to the Mach-E, but there's a surprising number of us: I wanted a fully electric vehicle that could accommodate three car seats, with my third child due shortly. In fact, I found this forum some time around July or August 2021 while doing web searches for that information. I might write a thread about that in a month or so, after I've had some more time with my Mach-E. Either way, I settled on the Mach-E. A few months into the wait I became worried that the dealership would screw me out of the vehicle, or that it wouldn't arrive on time, and I went to a Chrysler dealership and put a deposit down to custom-order a Pacifica Hybrid. The Pacifica was really meant to be a fall-back that I never intended to buy, but it ended up arriving first. I knew that it was the more practical option, and my wife tipped me over the edge, so we took it. This was the basis for my comparing two different purchasing experiences.
2022: A Bad Year for Cars
If you're waiting on your Mach-E, you probably know a lot of fine details about changes made to the Mach-E over time thanks to spending time on this forum. During the course of the wait my Mach-E lost the "acoustic glass" feature (which people have said doesn't really make a difference); it supposedly lost the kick-to-open trunk detector (which I haven't tested to verify); it lost the automated parking function, although Ford gave a credit for this and left an option to purchase it in the future.
Chrysler wasn't immune to supply issues. While waiting for production my Pacifica lost its power folding mirrors (Chrysler gave a credit for this but did not leave an option to add it back in the future, which is unfortunate - it's the first vehicle I find myself folding the mirrors on regularly). It originally had a three-panel sun and moon roof, but the third panel was left off of my Pacifica. You'd only know it should have been there if you had read about it, and if you looked at the model of the car in the 360 camera view.
Ford dealerships also aren't the only ones trying to mark up cars. While most Ford dealerships in my area charge an additional $5,000-7,000 if you buy a car off the lot, the Pacifica's window sticker had a $14,000 "availability fee" that would have come into play if they were selling it off of the lot.
The Mach-E Experience
I've never purchased a Tesla, but I know about their dealership-free sales model. I also knew that the Mach-E had taken an awful lot from Tesla (such as a usable frunk and strong electric performance), while also retaining some of the more traditional car features and styling. So when I saw that Ford allowed people to place orders for the Mach-E online, I figured that they had found a way to copy Tesla there, utilizing their dealerships as paperwork processing centers and physical handoff locations. The language on Ford's website further encouraged this, talking about "your order" with a price listed and "your Mach-E." Here's the reality: what you're doing on the website is actually making a request, or a reservation. The dealership ultimately places the order with Ford. In that regard, the sales process is no different than any other non-Tesla vehicle. I knew about the fine print, but I didn't fully appreciate this until a few months in.
I should also preface this by saying that I did a bit of looking into my local dealers beforehand. It wasn't hard: we only have three on this island. One had a bad reputation from other local users, and my own experience with them (where I saw my first Mach-E in person) left me feeling a bit icky; one didn't respond; and another with a good reputation promised not to add any mark-up (what we call ADM on this forum) to online orders. They weren't taking X-plan. That's the checklist I knew about from this forum: ask about X-plan and ADM. There are a few items that should be added to that, which is coming up...
My selected dealership responded fairly quickly to my online order, but their message acted as if I had sent in a general inquiry. I gave them my order number, which they said they'd process. I must have checked the Ford website two or three times per day, and after a few days of seeing no changes, asked them about it. They said I'd have to come in to show my ID and sign paperwork. I had read about dealerships getting into trouble for making orders under the names of dealership employees, and figured this was some measure Ford had implemented to guard against that. I went in, they photocopied my ID, and... that was it. In hindsight, this might have been a point to ask them to sign a pricing agreement with me (which would be something I'd add to the checklist for other buyers), but given what came next, I think they would have refused.
I got into the usual cadence of the forum, checking my order every Thursday to see if it had been scheduled for production. I still wasn't scheduled for production two months later, but the website had changed: where the "difference from MSRP" had always been zero, now it was off by a few thousand dollars. That's ADM. I emailed my dealer contact to ask about it, and was told that if I had previously been promised pricing, then they would honor it. That's some fishy wording. After all, I was promised no markup, but was never given a number; a dishonorable person would tell me that I was out of luck. I emailed again, providing the original email and asking for a yes or no answer on whether that counted for not. I received essentially the same response: if I had been promised something, they would honor it.
By that time I had read enough horror stories on this forum and figured I'd need to take a more aggressive approach, to get a better feel for the dealership face to face, and to show them that I wasn't going to be passive about this process. I went to the dealership in person, met with my contact... and then he brought out his sales manager. It was a very unpleasant experience. I could see that they were upset, and I think it was because they felt that they were being accused of dishonesty. They said that they didn't control what showed up on Ford's website, including the price that I saw; they said that they lost money on every single Mach-E that they sold at MSRP; that Ford was now allowing them to mark up customer orders; and that the guy who had originally promised me no ADM no longer worked at the dealership, but they would honor that message and sell to me at MSRP. (Or as they put it, "you'll be the last customer we sell to at MSRP.") For my part, I tried to tell them that whether they lost money or not really wasn't my business, and was between them and Ford. I pushed for a written price agreement, and they refused. They said they couldn't do it until we had a VIN, because what if Ford sent us the wrong car or had the wrong configuration? (Yes, this was really the excuse that they gave me. I wanted to ask why I've heard of other people's dealerships doing it at the time the order is placed, but there was no way they would go back on that, and I am not in a position to know whether it was an outright lie or a possible half-truth.) Lacking insight, they acted indignant about trust, asking how I could deal with them if I didn't trust them, which, I mean... a signed agreement would be a way to provide trust, wouldn't it? When I tried to highlight the use of a written agreement instead of a verbal one by pointing out that the guy I had originally spoken to apparently doesn't work at the dealership anymore, they refused to acknowledge the point by acting all insulted, as if I had said that they weren't going to work there anymore. Who knows - maybe they perceived it as if I was threatening to get them fired. I ultimately left feeling only partially satisfied.
My paranoia was high, which led to my exploring other options for vehicles. My specific concern was their insistence on waiting until the VIN was assigned. You see, if you cancel your reservation, the order is still in place. Some dealerships ask their customers if they can keep the order; others don't say anything and will keep and/or modify it. In other words, it's a car for them to sell, and usually with heavy markup. And that matters because if what's been written here is true, dealerships have a certain number of cars that they can order, but if someone is trying to order a car through them, then they can order additional vehicles for those customers. Once the VIN is assigned you have zero leverage. In fact, the dealership probably wishes for you to tell them that you're not interested anymore, because they'll make more money selling the car off of the lot. But if the VIN isn't assigned yet, you might be able to make enough of a stink to get the order canceled entirely, which the dealership would care about. Calling Ford a few times revealed two things: 1) Ford's phone representatives are all incredibly nice and understanding, and 2) Ford's phone representatives can do almost nothing for you, and will advise you to work with your dealer. Even transferring your order to another dealership requires the original dealership's consent and actions.
A few months later, Ford sent out a message about the parking assistance feature being removed. For some orders, this meant the order was in limbo until the dealership confirmed that parking assist would be removed. I messaged my dealership, who had trouble finding my order and had to search by features. It made me wonder if part of the reason they had refused to sign a pricing agreement with me was because they had no idea what I had ordered, but didn't want to tell me - that perhaps the order wasn't linked to my name, or maybe their system was just that disorganized.
A fair bit of time passed. I got my VIN aside, and procrastinated a bit on asking for the purchase agreement. The last experience had been so negative for me that I didn't really want to spend more time at the dealership. It also seemed pointless: I already had my backup vehicle ordered, and if they were going to be unfair with the pricing then it didn't really matter if I found out now or on delivery day. We sort of discussed it; they offered $8,000 under Kelly Blue Book value to trade in my Nissan Leaf (a local Toyota dealer that I like offered $3,000 less than Kelly Blue Book even without my trying to buy anything from them). Then I read more about price protection issues.
Price protection... in December 2021 the price of the Mach-E went up by $2,000. Ford apparently intended for orders made before 12/8/2021 to be price-protected, and worked it such that dealerships were expected to knock $2,000 off the MSRP, and Ford would reimburse them later. Some people said their dealerships had concerns about Ford being late with the reimbursements, and would sell at MSRP, sending a check for $2,000 after they received it from Ford. You'd miss out on the taxes, and it was better than the third option: not having the dealership acknowledge it at all, which happened for many people as well. I went in person again, and had all of the resources on this forum to help the dealership to figure it out. Nothing changed. I called Ford, who suggested that they call the regional representative for help. They told me that they did, and that the Ford regional representative basically said that I didn't qualify since the incentive wasn't showing up in the system, where these measures usually show up. Again, given what's been written on this forum (and even some Ford truck forums), this price protection is not in the system. Why Ford would choose to do something unique, and not in the way that the dealers are used to, is something I can't explain. Defeated, I figured that was it.
But there was one last thing: when the car was about a week away from delivery, I off-handedly mentioned one last time that I was disappointed about the price protection thing. My dealer contact responded basically stating that my feedback was more important than the sale, as it could cost him his job, and that they'd rather call off the sale if I was going to rate him negatively over this, when it was out of his control. I took that as a threat to cancel the sale, which the dealership was probably within their rights to do (although it would have prompted legal action from me if they tried). I reassured them that I understood this was out of their hands... and I proceeded on to picking my car up, which was the fastest I've ever been through a dealership (the paperwork process was probably about 40 minutes, and then we spent another 20 minutes getting the car set up with a dealership representative). Some people's dealerships send them a check after the fact, unannounced, when they get money from Ford or when they realize their accounting mistake. I'm not holding out for that to happen, but who knows? As to why I'm seemingly not going to get price protection, who can say? Maybe the dealership entered the order without my name properly being on it, so that they can't show Ford that the person behind the order is the same as the person who took delivery.
Either way, I'm glad to be done with the whole process.
The Chrysler Experience
Chrysler didn't allow online orders. I went to the dealership, the salesman entered my requested configuration, told me he'd send me updates about major points in the production process, and then a few short months later, reached out to me for the first time to tell me that the car was here (so much for updates - not that I was on the edge of my seat for them with this vehicle). The sales process was the second fastest I've experienced (it was the fastest up until the Ford dealership), and was marred only by their offering a bunch of add-ons and then telling me that two of them - protective coating and VIN etching - couldn't be undone, because they had already been applied. Given that I was running out of time to possibly order yet another vehicle and wait on it (because my third child isn't going to wait just because we're waiting on a vehicle), I had no choice but to accept it. Such is the car buying process in 2022. They told me that I had "price protection," which was really protection from their own $14,000 markup over MSRP.
And... that was it. If I look on the Pacifica forums I see some people somehow tracking orders online, and worrying about a lot of the similar things that we do - although a bit less about the dealerships.
The Difference a Forum Makes
I spent a lot of time on this forum while waiting for my Mach-E. Waiting to be scheduled was the worst; once I was scheduled it felt like things were finally happening. Once my car was built my forum activity dropped off a lot more. Tracking its shipping path was too difficult. Along the way it was really nice to commiserate with others on the wait, gleaning bits of information about what was happening on the back end.
I have mixed feelings about sharing information on dealerships. On one hand, there were definitely people who saved money thanks to the shared information. At least, they reported back here and said so.
On the other hand, there was a lot of anxiety and frustration brought about by the shared information. Some dealerships were perfect, and it was less clear why other dealerships couldn't function as they did. Most of us assumed the worst: that the dealerships were being lazy, greedy, or otherwise malicious. It didn't help that there were forum members acting like you should always win against your dealership. I fully admit that I took a more aggressive approach with my Ford dealership than I normally would, partly emboldened by these members, and partly because I knew what other dealerships were doing. At the end of the day, I probably just caused myself (and the dealership representatives) a fair bit of frustration, without changing the outcome. And it was frustrating because, having gone through the process, I am confident in saying that if your dealership wants you to win, you'll win; if your dealership wants you to lose, you're going to lose (and while very rare, there are some spectacular stories on this forum of the dealership forcing a loss). It's a bit like playing against a casino in this regard, and I wonder if the guys saying that you are losing because you "didn't do your homework" have dealers who are letting them win, without their realizing it. It's a problem in 2022 that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon: the dealership stands to make more off of someone else, and is probably hoping not to sell to you. The traditional, ultimate power of the buyer is to walk from the deal, but in 2022 it's no longer a power, but a liability. It flips the traditional relationship between seller and buyer on its head.
And when I compare the two experiences, well... maybe I could have saved myself a few hundred dollars on my Pacifica if I had been babying the order and reading the forums, enough to force the dealership not to make any modifications without my permission. And maybe I got lucky (although ideally, buying from a dealership wouldn't be about luck). But what I can say is, comparing the two experiences... ignorance certainly was bliss with the Pacifica. Surprisingly, the wait wasn't the worst part of the Mach-E experience: working with the dealership was. I wonder how different it would have been if I hadn't opened my mouth, and if I didn't know what other dealerships were doing. None of that information seemed to ultimately impact what my own dealership did, although I suppose we'll never know if the dealership would have tried to force other things on me if I hadn't had some friction with them.
May the car-buying experience be better in the future... and best of luck to all of you who are earlier in the process.
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