Granger Ford - Maverick markup experience

[Brianx]

(This is also posted on /r/FordMaverickTruck/)

This is just a mild-complaint-slash-FYI...

Granger Ford in Iowa seems to have a generally good reputation for markups, and they have several Mavericks listed on their site, so I gave them a call today. Talked to Dustin (nice guy) about one in particular, a dealer order listed on their site at $30,450 (MSRP of $28,655). That's a promising combo:

- dealer order, still in production but w/vin and sticker
- not at MSRP, but not a large markup either (this implies they've 'touched' the listing in some way, it's not just an automated listing with MSRP)
- price is listed on the site as 'Final Price'

I asked if it that was indeed the final price and if this truck had a deposit on it. Dustin said it was the final price and went off to ask someone if it had been spoken for. Came back and said it was available, said it'd be $30,450 plus their doc fee and that he'd send a purchase order and a link to pay the deposit (non-refundable $1000, fyi). After we hung up, he text over the following:

'...I spoke with the managers and we are adding 5k to the price along with our $1795 for the Plan A protection. Out the door price would be $35,675.'

This isn't surprising, but it is disappointing. So, I replied:

'That's disappointing. Words mean things. Please change the website.'

...and sent him a screenshot of the 'Final Price' from the website. Didn't hear anything back after that. Nothing. Crickets. Which is fine, but also a little disappointing. I was pointed, but not antagonistic.

Anyway, just so you know that at Granger, 'Final Price' is not actually the final price.

they are greedy scum

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[olderbudwiser]

I live in North Carolina. I moved here in 2020. My wife worked for Ford in management for 31+ years. As such, we are entitled to employee and retiree pricing. We don’t pay MSRP and never did and we have always been discounted according to Ford’s programs. The dealer we use in Michigan has most of its customers somehow tied to Ford, either as active employees, retirees, or family. If they didn’t honor those programs, they would not have any business. It’s Pat Milliken Ford in Redford Michigan which is just outside of Detroit.
In North Carolina the dealers here don’t respect A- Z- or other price programs so we simply don’t use them. I have seen cars with $5000 tack onto the MSRP. So we simply don’t consider ever doing business with them here with the exception of service.
After a 13 month wait my Maverick finally showed up last week. My dealer drove it down here the 600 miles, and took back our 2019 Flex whose lease had expired. The dealer even recognized some equity we had in the Flex because of crazy market values, and we threw that profit against a Maverick lease, reducing the monthly payment. That saved us the trouble of having to buy out the lease and resell the car which we could’ve done, but it wasn’t a large amount of money, so it was easier just to take what the dealer offered. The state of North Carolina apparently has not heard much of leased cars and makes the entire buying out of a lease and getting the title a very painful and time-consuming process. We did it once, but did not want to do it again. It took six weeks and a lot of aggravation.

My wife’s new Escape hybrid arrived this week, and instead of having the dealer drive it down here we’re going to meet them halfway. This dealer goes above and beyond.

Purchased my first new Ford from Pat Milliken. 1972 T-Bird big ole boat. I was salaried but back then, A plan was only offered if you were grade 6 and above. I was a new hire so nope.
Obviously that has all changed.

 

[mdsalemi]

Purchased my first new Ford from Pat Milliken. 1972 T-Bird big ole boat. I was salaried but back then, A plan was only offered if you were grade 6 and above. I was a new hire so nope.
Obviously that has all changed.

My wife entered as a grade 6. I think all the salaried and hourly folks get some discount today. But the local dealers don't know or care. Pat Milliken knows who butters their bread. That's why we use them.

 

[BrierBear]

(This is also posted on /r/FordMaverickTruck/)

This is just a mild-complaint-slash-FYI...

Granger Ford in Iowa seems to have a generally good reputation for markups, and they have several Mavericks listed on their site, so I gave them a call today. Talked to Dustin (nice guy) about one in particular, a dealer order listed on their site at $30,450 (MSRP of $28,655). That's a promising combo:

- dealer order, still in production but w/vin and sticker
- not at MSRP, but not a large markup either (this implies they've 'touched' the listing in some way, it's not just an automated listing with MSRP)
- price is listed on the site as 'Final Price'

I asked if it that was indeed the final price and if this truck had a deposit on it. Dustin said it was the final price and went off to ask someone if it had been spoken for. Came back and said it was available, said it'd be $30,450 plus their doc fee and that he'd send a purchase order and a link to pay the deposit (non-refundable $1000, fyi). After we hung up, he text over the following:

'...I spoke with the managers and we are adding 5k to the price along with our $1795 for the Plan A protection. Out the door price would be $35,675.'

This isn't surprising, but it is disappointing. So, I replied:

'That's disappointing. Words mean things. Please change the website.'

...and sent him a screenshot of the 'Final Price' from the website. Didn't hear anything back after that. Nothing. Crickets. Which is fine, but also a little disappointing. I was pointed, but not antagonistic.

Anyway, just so you know that at Granger, 'Final Price' is not actually the final price.

SADLY... FORD AND FORD DEALERS ARE LOSING A LOT OF TRUST BUILT OVER GENERATIONS WITH THEIR AMERICAN CUSTOMERS. MY FIRST FORD DEALER EXPERIENCE WAS PICKING UP GRANPA'S NEW F100 IN 1953... BURNED MY TENDER HANDS ON THE HOT METAL DASH. MY MAVERICK IS ON THE WAY... WE'LL SEE HOW IT GOES. I CAN ONLY HOPE I DON'T GET BURNED AGAIN...

 

[olderbudwiser]

My wife entered as a grade 6. I think all the salaried and hourly folks get some discount today. But the local dealers don't know or care. Pat Milliken knows who butters their bread. That's why we use them.

Funny I had a great career/jobs at Ford 30+ years. Turned down 2 different promotions because I loved what I was doing and my co-workers. I was compensated well and the benefits of my section were ++, I was on a 7day drive letter, so that was worth something.

 

[zeen]

Last november, I picked up my 2022 XL ecoboost for.....yes, for....18600.00 BRAND SPANKING NEW. Got it with their 3k off deal. Granger was a STAND UP DEALER. Picked me up at the airport, and I was out in LESS than 10 minutes. A++++ grade for Granger from me.

Does anyone know how or why they did this? It is my understanding that there is not anywhere near that much margin available for them to give up.

 

[Bobinmi]

Does anyone know how or why they did this? It is my understanding that there is not anywhere near that much margin available for them to give up.

They did it, I believe to INCREASE their ALLOCATION or allotment...but I truly believe they LOST money on the XL buyers. Some folks bought lariats at 35k and got 3k off, I got 3k off an XL.

 

[mrsjoe]

Anyway, just so you know that at Granger, 'Final Price' is not actually the final price.

In my state this is actually illegal if the fine print doesn’t say the price may not include additional markups. Had a dealership here do that exact thing and reported them to the state attorney general. Was shocked when one of the attorneys actually called and investigated and confirmed they were breaking state bait and switch laws. I had already ordered one from a more stand-up dealership by the time he called and said the dealership was now all of a sudden willing to honor MSRP on a different one, as the one I tried to buy was no longer available. I passed.

 

[James K]

(This is also posted on /r/FordMaverickTruck/)

This is just a mild-complaint-slash-FYI...

Granger Ford in Iowa seems to have a generally good reputation for markups, and they have several Mavericks listed on their site, so I gave them a call today. Talked to Dustin (nice guy) about one in particular, a dealer order listed on their site at $30,450 (MSRP of $28,655). That's a promising combo:

- dealer order, still in production but w/vin and sticker
- not at MSRP, but not a large markup either (this implies they've 'touched' the listing in some way, it's not just an automated listing with MSRP)
- price is listed on the site as 'Final Price'

I asked if it that was indeed the final price and if this truck had a deposit on it. Dustin said it was the final price and went off to ask someone if it had been spoken for. Came back and said it was available, said it'd be $30,450 plus their doc fee and that he'd send a purchase order and a link to pay the deposit (non-refundable $1000, fyi). After we hung up, he text over the following:

'...I spoke with the managers and we are adding 5k to the price along with our $1795 for the Plan A protection. Out the door price would be $35,675.'

This isn't surprising, but it is disappointing. So, I replied:

'That's disappointing. Words mean things. Please change the website.'

...and sent him a screenshot of the 'Final Price' from the website. Didn't hear anything back after that. Nothing. Crickets. Which is fine, but also a little disappointing. I was pointed, but not antagonistic.

Anyway, just so you know that at Granger, 'Final Price' is not actually the final price.

After graduating college during the late 70s recession I took a job as a ford salesperson. I'm not sure how it works these days but back then car sales didn't cover the cost associated with a dealership. Service made the real profit. I guess things have changed but then again we never had vehicles that had the demand of the Maverick.

 

[Mark S.]

Does anyone know how or why they did this? It is my understanding that there is not anywhere near that much margin available for them to give up.

I strongly suspect they take as many orders as possible for volume purposes. It stands to reason a certain percentage of customers who place an order will cancel their orders, at which point the ordered vehicle becomes dealer stock to be sold at market value. The more orders you take, the more cancelations they get to revert to dealer stock.

 

[Granger Ford]

I sent a message back to @silo but also wanted to post publicly here.

We have had a ton of success taking retail orders online over the last 2-3 years and are extremely grateful for all of the orders and sales we've received. We absolutely honor any price we've signed with price protection on ANY order we've taken that goes to the original person who placed the order.

This success with out of state sales has come at the expense of in-state sales, where our market share has suffered. So with dealer stock units, we had an internal debate if we would just tell customers No, we won't sell to you or charge a markup of $5000 with the idea that we really don't want to sell them out of state, but to use this selection of vehicles to service our in-state customers. We mad the decision to allow people out of state to purchase still, but charge a markup.

I'm sure it can be debated whether or not this is the right thing to do, but we made this decision with the idea we really don't want to sell out of state, but want to sell these vehicles in-state to our local customers. We've done this with success on Broncos, Mavericks and some Ford Performance vehicles.

I'm certainly open to feedback on it and we aren't perfect. I have offered @silo the opportunity to order at $1000 below MSRP a Maverick as well.

Zach

 

[silo]

I sent a message back to @silo but also wanted to post publicly here.

We have had a ton of success taking retail orders online over the last 2-3 years and are extremely grateful for all of the orders and sales we've received. We absolutely honor any price we've signed with price protection on ANY order we've taken that goes to the original person who placed the order.

This success with out of state sales has come at the expense of in-state sales, where our market share has suffered. So with dealer stock units, we had an internal debate if we would just tell customers No, we won't sell to you or charge a markup of $5000 with the idea that we really don't want to sell them out of state, but to use this selection of vehicles to service our in-state customers. We mad the decision to allow people out of state to purchase still, but charge a markup.

I'm sure it can be debated whether or not this is the right thing to do, but we made this decision with the idea we really don't want to sell out of state, but want to sell these vehicles in-state to our local customers. We've done this with success on Broncos, Mavericks and some Ford Performance vehicles.

I'm certainly open to feedback on it and we aren't perfect. I have offered @silo the opportunity to order at $1000 below MSRP a Maverick as well.

Zach

I appreciate this response. My complaint wasn't about markups per se, but how they're communicated. I'd like to see this communicated on the website, but I'm aware that marketing sites keep things simple and some things have long answers.

I do think it's worth communicating, if it can be done. Online everything and everyone is next door. Even if they're from out of state. I do appreciate that you're trying to strike a balance.

 

[Granger Ford]

I appreciate this response. My complaint wasn't about markups per se, but how they're communicated. I'd like to see this communicated on the website, but I'm aware that marketing sites keep things simple and some things have long answers.

I do think it's worth communicating, if it can be done. Online everything and everyone is next door. Even if they're from out of state. I do appreciate that you're trying to strike a balance.

I agree. We do have it listed under Dealer comments under the vehicle description, but it is not easy to see. We're going to make a tweak on it to improve this.

 

[silo]

I'll concede to missing that statement.

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