Mike Levine saying outright he does NOT care about Granger/Chapman/SAC

[mpeugeot]

Here's a link to the tweet, if you care to voice your opinion.

Wow, so Ford can't accommodate a few dealers that are aggressively trying to grow their market share and only represents 2% of the orders?!?

Is he trying to sell vehicles or is he trying to deep-throat the bigger dealers who could effectively compete with anyone?

My guess is that he'd rather be deep-throating than selling cars.

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[BHShaman]

One local dealer here usually has 400 cars, they have 15 on the lot now and a skeleton crew working. You have to have some sympathy for them.

No I don't.
In the modern world I COULD have my personal car QR/UPC, follow my car through manufacturing via WebCam Feeds, and have it personally delivered to my house at less than the mark up at the dealership.

"Dealerships" could all be converted to Repair and Maintenance Shops and it would not phase me one bit....

if US Auto had not bribed our lawmakers to create systems to force us to sit in a dealership for 2+ hours doing "4 boxes, saying no to undercoating, and asking the finance guy to fix the numbers back to the initialed agreement from the sales floor.

 

[droosif]

That’s exactly what happened to me. July 19 2020 reservation, early March order for a simple 4 door base soft top. Just finally got a build date of 11/15 if it holds. Dealer told me mine is the first one they have scheduled of all there orders. Small dealers are getting screwed already I believe.

Yeah talked to my dealer and the only Bronco they've received so far is the mannequin. They have ~50 reservations. Small dealer in Western NY.

 

[Rahkmalla]

just a little info about the reservation process(fine print) brought to light...

What's your point? There are a TON of things wrong in this word that aren't illegal. Ford could right now at this moment cancel EVERY reservation and say "we didn't like the reservation system, go order with your dealer first come first served." And they would be well within their legal right to do so.
That doesn't make it a good decision that respects its customers.

Citing what they are legally allowed to do is like citing "free speech" as a defense for saying heinous shit. If your only defense for your actions is that it isn't illegal for you to do what you're doing.... maybe you shouldn't be doing it. And also remember if what you're doing is legal, other people's responses are legal too. like, never buying another ford again. telling everyone they know how ford lies. spreading truth on social media. instilling a hatred of all things ford in their children. That's all legal too.

 

[dingle87]

So here is where it gets tricky. Ford has been using the Ad Covenant Program on newer products like Mach-e and Lightning. This program is supposed to regulate what price each dealer can openly advertise for a certain product. This isn't a new program in the automotive industry, as some other manufacturers like Honda have a similar program. Now, this really only extends to advertising, and not the actual selling price. Once a customer comes into the store, you can in theory discount your product to make a deal. It is meant to level the playing field so that larger stores that sell a massive amount of vehicles can't drown out your family-owned stores who sell far less. There have been whispers that for future products, Ford will require the dealers to sell at no more than MSRP, but nothing has been set. Obviously changes this big will take time, but hopefully the days of dealers charging customers ADM at the time of delivery are numbered.

I wanted to address the transparency that Granger is famous for. I have so much respect for those guys, and the time it takes to respond to each question is probably enough to tie up an employee for 8+ hours every day. I do the best I can as a one-man-show as I handle all the Bronco orders at my store, but transparency and simply being polite goes a long way. I love working with each customer and if more stores took the time to treat each customer with the respect they deserve, we wouldn't be in this mess.

 

[Al Cowlings]

Funny thing is, we’re only talking about a few thousand Broncos that are affected by this. Ford could choose to honor time-stamp delivery for those who have already reserved, then change the program going forward, and it wouldn’t even take a large bite out of total Bronco production. What, maybe 3% of 2022 production, max?

But even that small “sacrifice” isn’t worth it to Ford Levine to make things right. And that tells me everything. There’s a middle ground to be reached here. Ford simply isn’t interested. They’ve decided they are going to stick their fingers in their ears until those filthy nasty haters stop complaining.

 

[Balthezor]

We all know Mike is too busy trying to shit on Tesla if you follow him on Twitter. Anything negative on Tesla, this guy likes. Maybe he needs to focus on his own brand's customers? Not sure why he hates Tesla so much.

 

[RBF 1401]

Yep. Sad part is, those customers at other small, family owned dealerships might not even realize what just happened to them. They'll find out in the coming months after the shitstorm has past them by. Then they'll be pissed when they realize what this allocation change really did to all the small dealers and not just the "special deal" dealers. I bet there are many posters here don't realize just what happened and they're in the same boat as the Granger, SAC and Chapman buyers.

When I was talking to Ford customer service a couple days ago, the lady said that she often get calls from people who order a truck or SUV from their small local dealer who are calling to complain because the dealer is telling them they can't get it. Si they call customer service because it looks like the dealer is refusing to sell them one. And she has to explain allocation to them.

If Ford is allowing people to special order vehicles from dealers, then Ford should have to publish exact allocation numbers for all its dealers so a customer can actually figure out where they can go buy the darn thing.

You don't want to allocate Broncos to Granger and Stephens, then let everyone know exactly were the allocations are so we can call all of them and see how many will offer MSRP and an iron-clad out-the-door purchase price... in writing.

 

[dbeyers]

a dealership that sells 2200+ new fords per year is always going to get a bigger allocation than the dealer that sells 300 new Fords per year. Precisely why I went with a larger dealership and will pay MSRP.

whether it's right or wrong it's the way business is conducted.

Agreed - read between the lines … Ford is discouraging discounting off MSRP and discouraging discounting to grow business at the expense of other Ford dealers. Does Tesla discount? It’s the new business model.

 

[Murph914]

I for one am on the side of all the other small dealers. This was just a pr stunt.

 

[TalexBrizzley]

I had one of the Granger 2k off deals and finally came to my senses. How is a small dealer in a small market going to handle hundreds (guessing, but, yeah) of reservations and deliver? Don't be making saints out of them. Yes, they are upfront about wanting to grow their dealership, but at some point you have to tell people, uh, don't think we can get you a vehicle this year.

Exactly this. I went with a local small dealer that was honoring X-Plan, and in their recent communication they stated they "weren't sure yet" about how MY22 allocation would work out, but we should still get our orders in. I'm sure they know or at least have a good idea that their allocation for MY22 won't be enough to fill all of their orders, but they aren't going to tell their customers that. It's business, but it's also leading their customers on. Now I may have to move my res to a giant dealer to get my Bronco sooner rather than later.

 

[andrusoid]

They have done that. See their several threads on the allocation system.

Thanks, I spoke from ignorance, but I never doubted their sincerity. Should have pointed the finger at people like myself that jumped at the (second) chance without weighing the situation carefully.

 

[RBF 1401]

Please get this out on Twitter, etc. These are great stories. Go find any Tweet about the Bronco and reply so everyone knows what Ford did

Dang it. I guess I might finally have to get a Twitter account.

 

[rtaylor]

When questioned why Ford is no longer honoring their commitment to ship Broncos in approximate reservation order, Ford has started mentioning state laws. It is not just Levine, but other Ford representatives and statements to the press as well. It appears that Ford's lawyers have perhaps insisted on it. Does anybody know why?

Did the big dealer mafia find some arcane state laws to threaten Ford into giving them large allotments of dealer stock? Is it illegal in some states for Ford to knowingly facilitate inter-state auto sales? Is it a red herring?

This is the original Ford commitment. Ford has said that they no longer plan to honor these commitments. Ford has moved back to a traditional allocation model and there will now be massive disparities in the order that otherwise identical reservations are filled, and mass shipments of dealer stock will begin in 2022 while many Bronco reservations placed in 2020 at smaller dealers will no longer be eligible to receive a 2022 Bronco.

 

[ATLColonial]

Thanks, I spoke from ignorance, but I never doubted their sincerity. Should have pointed the finger at people like myself that jumped at the (second) chance without weighing the situation carefully.

All good man, and no you shouldn't blame yourself. Ford apparently has this byzantine internal process for allocating cars which they grossly oversimplified in their communications and change at will without notice.

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