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

[ausherpharmd]

Precisely one of the reasons I went Granger. All my contacts at my local Chicago suburb dealer were gone, and I couldn't trust any of the other dealerships as far as I could throw them.

Funny enough my two local dealers both had their first broncos delivered and the original order holder backed out....One got 15k over window and the other got 10k over window.

Same story here. All the Chicago area dealers down to the farthest suburbs were the same. No interest in Bronco, knew nothing about Bronco, lied straight to my face about Bronco info.

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[FJ 432]

I wonder if 2% of the customers that are supremely pissed at Ford and Levine aka tits on a bull is worth it to them with this news.

I chose locally so I have no skin in this game however I can't believe how far my emotions have dropped in one year.

 

[niterider006]

Ford outright communicated that orders would be fulfilled based in reservations first. Roped 100,000+ orders only to change the conditions.

I smell a class action lawsuit coming their way.

 

[Sean D]

Agreed, but in my area (Chicago, many dealers to choose from), I couldn't find one that would commit to any pricing (MSRP included). I contacted dealers in smaller towns within an hour, with similar response. After wasting upwards of 2 weeks searching, I said "F it" and reserved with Granger. I tried, as did many others who ended up at the "special deal" dealers.

I hope you don't have the ADM bullshit pulled on you when you show up to your chosen dealer. No one should go through that either, but I guess.... that would be on you. Right?

@dingle87, who would have thought that in a major metropolitan area like Chicago, you would not be able to find one dealer that would be honest and forthright with information about the Bronco and commit to MSRP. I know I tried to find one, and I couldn't. I ended up going with Chapman. I'll probably 99 my order until 23. Like many others, though, Ford is pissing me off.

 

[BuckyBronco]

...and people revolted over that (Ford had promised 100% through the initial FAQs). Now, it sinks to 12.5%...and you wonder why @Ford Motor Company is in hiding.

They did...but it also gave them the information that the smaller discount offering dealers would be a longer wait before anyone ever ordered a vehicle.

I'm just saying is that the outrage in this thread is curious, because we've known, very clearly, that allocations don't equal reservations for over a year now. And, people knew about this before they placed their order with these dealers.

 

[vrtical]

Because Ford sells their cars to the dealers for a set price? If you pay 4% below invoice or 15k ADM Ford gets the exact same money?

I was gonna tear into that post need to learn about holdback and incentives. Ford gets their money lol

 

[Rick Astley]

I'm not sure I get what the fuss is about.

I have no issue with a small rural dealer wanting to use the internet to compete with larger dealers. That's one of the great things about the internet - you can reach anyone anywhere if you have a compelling business proposition.

The problem is, they didn't actually have one. If the rural dealership had a whole bunch of Broncos in stock that it had complete control over, then advertising a discount would be fine. They can deliver on their promise to the consumer, and its good healthy competition.

But they didn't have the product to deliver. If I understand what they did correctly (I didn't deal with them or follow the saga that closely), they touted a discount on something they hadn't yet purchased from Ford and that, to boot, was scarce and very hard to get.

Meanwhile Ford is sitting with a limited number of Broncos and more interest than it can satisfy in a timely manner. They also have an interest in maintaining the price they can get for their products, which is totally legitimate. Given the limited supply vs. demand, why in the world would any rational manufacturer allocate more product to be sold at a price lower than what it thinks is the market clearing price?

Ford does take a risk because "promises" made by a Ford dealer might, in the mind of the consumer, get attributed to Ford itself. We're seeing that play out in this thread. But on the other hand, Ford takes a risk if it rescues the dealer by honoring commitments the dealer made to provide discounted pricing. In particular, if it rewards such behavior it encourages it to occur more widely. For every valuable hot vehicle Ford has to offer for which it can get full margins, it has slow-selling vehicles that it has to discount to move. The overall financial results of the company represent a balance of hot and not-hot vehicles, and the hot ones only come along once in a while.

Why is it wrong for Ford to try to maintain pricing discipline, as long as they aren't being fraudulent about it?

You're hitting the nail on the head here. As much as it sucks for the customer who had beguiled themselves to believe that every dealership was going to be delivering 100% of reservations in MY21, it was an eventuality we would be following the national allocation methodology that has been in place for years (and yes, that methodology has always had slight variations by model and new-release).

If there wasn't a distribution allocation methodology, then you open a massive loophole where large dealerships would be destroying every small dealership simply by taking 100% of high-margin units built.

Just imagine what would happen if there had been a standardized, nation-wide allocation formula for the Shelby GT350R and instead, one large dealership in California with huge volume puts in an order for 1,000 units.

Do you expect that dealership to be sitting on a thousand GT350R's while the rest of the country struggles to get a few units? That's essentially what the "Granger did nothing wrong" crowd is holding their pitchforks over and promoting.

Granger reservation holders will absolutely still be getting their Bronco if they wait. But this self-serving, blindly individualistic fantasy world where all X-thousand Granger reservation customers get their Bronco first in the country is a dream. And a stupid dream at that.


For the record, there were 2,800 Shelby GT350R's made.

 

[ColoradoGuy]

In case anyone's been waiting for an answer:
@mrlevine Fill your Bronco reservation orders ahead of allocations. We’ve already waited 15 months. Stop punishing your customers. #reservationsoverallocations
His answer tells me they just don't care.

in case he deletes his tweet, here's what it says:

Mike Levine
Replying to @robtraut and @KogodBiz
That’s exactly the plan for more than 98% of customers that didn’t place orders with a small dealer that created a special deal to attract a large number of orders.

The problem with his response is that it states that customers placed orders with a small dealer because of a "special deal". For me, I placed my order with Granger because my local dealer (and numerous others in Colorado) either didn't respond to my emails at all or responded with wishy-washy answers. I know that I'm not alone in that I moved my reservation to Granger because of their knowledge, transparency, and communication. This was too important a purchase for me to leave it up to a dealer that refuses to respond to my emails.

Ford created a process so that we could move our reservation easily and a large number of people did this for the same reasons that I just described. Now they are playing stupid and saying it's due to a "special deal"... but there is much more to it than that for most of us.

 

[niterider006]

Because Ford sells their cars to the dealers for a set price? If you pay 4% below invoice or 15k ADM Ford gets the exact same money?

Well, kinda. It's called price brand control. It's essentially saying you want to keep the price point up at a certain point to maintain PERCEIVED value. This is actually the the norm for products that rely on brand names.

 

[hozer]

Ford outright communicated that orders would be fulfilled based in reservations first. Roped 100,000+ orders only to change the conditions.

I smell a class action lawsuit coming their way.

Reso doesn't guarantee a buy, or a delivery date and Ford reserves the right to change it at any time even if it did.

Lawyer would laugh someone out of the building over this aimed at Ford.

 

[Rahkmalla]

Well, kinda. It's called price brand control. It's essentially saying you want to keep the price point up at a certain point to maintain PERCEIVED value. This is actually the the norm for products that rely on brand names.

Ford spent YEARS devaluing most of their cars resale values with ridiculous rebates that were widely available to the general public, you really think "less than 2%" of orders below invoice is devaluing their brand?

 

[niterider006]

Reso doesn't guarantee a buy, or a delivery date and Ford reserves the right to change it at any time even if it did.

Lawyer would laugh someone out of the building over this aimed at Ford.

Tell me you don't know anything about consumer protection laws without telling me you don't know anything about consumer protection laws.

 

[Gamecock]

They did...but it also gave them the information that the smaller discount offering dealers would be a longer wait before anyone ever ordered a vehicle.

I'm just saying is that the outrage in this thread is curious, because we've known, very clearly, that allocations don't equal reservations for over a year now. And, people knew about this before they placed their order with these dealers.

We didn't know it when we reserved, homie...and when we plunked down cash to reserve based on Ford saying clearly that they would be shipped in timestamp order (constraints controlled for), and that no dealer stock would be built before all reservations were filled.

Just keep your word @Ford Motor Company

 

[niterider006]

Ford spent YEARS devaluing most of their cars resale values with ridiculous rebates that were widely available to the general public, you really think "less than 2%" of orders below invoice is devaluing their brand?

I don't know what their strategy is. Just know price brand control is used everywhere.

 

[andrusoid]

What was your reservation time and date?

9/3/2021 Never really had high hopes for it, but it was the second round of -2k and I went all greedy. I have a 2/13 DM that is verified getting a top and QC this month. Granger is a loaded BD, local dealer is a Base 2.3 auto.
Edit: Oops, my Granger order was
9/3/2021

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