UK Customers

[Smoothbond]

What the Hell is wrong with this Government? How the hell do you just drop the hammer without giving any notice. There is no reason this couldn't have come into effect 3 or 6 months from now. The only reason the cars some of us originally ordered in December 2019 haven't been delivered is because of a small global Pandemic, you know nothing serious. And now we are basically and literally paying the price.

Sponsored

 

[SteveUk]

That is what I have been told and what I have been given the impression is happening. Dealers aren't allowed to have "stock" cars. The demo cars they will be getting will be leased from Ford so they won't be able to sell them on. Obviously if they put in an order for one then that is a different matter.

Yeah my thinking then is that, assuming there are a lot of cancelled orders this will have a massive impact on the dealers as they will end up with cars seeking new buyers. And a cashflow hit.

And with no government subsidy that's going to be a tough sell, ironically with the possibility of price cuts to shift them.

 

[portlandg]

Yeah my thinking then is that, assuming there are a lot of cancelled orders this will have a massive impact on the dealers as they will end up with cars seeking new buyers. And a cashflow hit.

And with no government subsidy that's going to be a tough sell, ironically with the possibility of price cuts to shift them.

I imagine that there is a lot of head scratching going on at the moment, not just with Ford, but with a lot of other car makers. This affects Tesla, Polestar, Peugeot and a few more. We will either get a backtrack from the government (unlikely) or companies will discount their cars or will have to suffer a lot of cancellations. We will just have to wait an see. I'm not going to cancel mine just yet.

 

[mach-e-2021]

Its a game of poker now as no way I will pay the extra as I am at top end of (and over budget if you remove "man maths") as is. So either I guess the shortfall is some how covered (0% finance would work) or expect a lot of people will pull plug and get their 1000 GBP back at last minute.

 

[BlackheathDiggs]

Ok so I'm no expert in the dealer process, I just cover national energy and transport policy, but the below is an excerpt from a stakeholder letter shared by DfT today on the grant changes (note section in bold):

The new terms apply from 07:00 today (Thursday 18 March 2021). Changes to the
grant are commercially sensitive for the Government. Providing even a very short
notice period ahead of the grant rates in March 2020 led to a very large spike in
orders in the seven hours between the announcement and changes coming into
effect at midnight. A similar spike would not be affordable within current budgets.
Government has a responsibility to manage the grant budget and to deliver value for
money for taxpayers and has therefore been unable to provide notice ahead of the
grant changes.

We are allowing dealers or vehicle manufacturers to claim for any orders that
were placed by customers in the 28 days before the grant rate change which
were not logged on the portal.

 

[Hotspur28]

Its a game of poker now as no way I will pay the extra as I am at top end of (and over budget if you remove "man maths") as is. So either I guess the shortfall is some how covered (0% finance would work) or expect a lot of people will pull plug and get their 1000 GBP back at last minute.

I guess that's the only bonus from this all our deposits are fully refundable and we can literally sit back see how it's resolved(or not) and we can walk away not out of pocket if need be. I have only been in this since January and even I have never had such a strange experience in buying a new car. I doth my hat to all of you that have been on this ride from the beginning. You all have the patience of saints!

 

[SteveUk]

I suspect the poker will actually be between the industry and the government.

Th government will assume that Ford as an example will subsidise their way out of this.

Ford will be seeking a fair compromise where all orders already placed prior to today will not be affected by this. They are in a strong position as the retail dealers are currently in a very poor situation and this is another huge set back for them.

 

[Smoothbond]

anybody have a clue when we will hear from Ford?

 

[Spensaf]

Methinks Rebecca had a bit of knowledge this may happen and poor old Hannah has to take the complete brunt of the pain.

 

[Hotspur28]

Ok so I'm no expert in the dealer process, I just cover national energy and transport policy, but the below is an excerpt from a stakeholder letter shared by DfT today on the grant changes (note section in bold):

The new terms apply from 07:00 today (Thursday 18 March 2021). Changes to the
grant are commercially sensitive for the Government. Providing even a very short
notice period ahead of the grant rates in March 2020 led to a very large spike in
orders in the seven hours between the announcement and changes coming into
effect at midnight. A similar spike would not be affordable within current budgets.
Government has a responsibility to manage the grant budget and to deliver value for
money for taxpayers and has therefore been unable to provide notice ahead of the
grant changes.

We are allowing dealers or vehicle manufacturers to claim for any orders that
were placed by customers in the 28 days before the grant rate change which
were not logged on the portal.

Let's hope this is correct and we can all go back to sweating about our normal things ford communication, delays, build dates, what the tracker updates mean, build issues, lagos bound ships, software issues, when am I getting my mach e etc etc phew bring on the normality ?

 

[SteveUk]

We are allowing dealers or vehicle manufacturers to claim for any orders that
were placed by customers in the 28 days before the grant rate change which
were not logged on the portal.

I believe the bold bit doesn't help us in any way as it requires a reg number if you look into how you access the plug in portal.

 

[Spensaf]

That is what I have been told and what I have been given the impression is happening. Dealers aren't allowed to have "stock" cars. The demo cars they will be getting will be leased from Ford so they won't be able to sell them on. Obviously if they put in an order for one then that is a different matter.

I was under the impression that this release was all for the account of Ford UK and the dealers would only be paid a small "handover" fee for processing the sale. I cannot believe that any dealer has had to part with any funds when a vehicle has been loaded onto the vessel in Mexico. As you've mentioned previously, nothing that they have done with this release makes any sense BUT if I was a dealer being asked to lump up cash flow for a car that I was going get to minimum profit (if any on) and have to fund the 3 month delivery period, I'd tell Ford where to stick it!

Can't be the case.

 

[portlandg]

Methinks Rebecca had a bit of knowledge this may happen and poor old Hannah has to take the complete brunt of the pain.

Why do you think that. The first anyone knew of it was this morning.

 

[Spensaf]

Why do you think that. The first anyone knew of it was this morning.

I was kidding!

Poor Hannah though!

 

[SteveUk]

Let's hope this is correct and we can all go back to sweating about our normal things ford communication, delays, build dates, what the tracker updates mean, build issues, lagos bound ships, software issues, when am I getting my mach e etc etc phew bring on the normality ?

I think Grahame will confirm we can not put any hope on this.

Sponsored