Jim Farley: We know who are the 10% of dealers charging ADM markup and their future allocations will be impacted

[MavMax]

There is a dealership close by that has a 94k Bronco. That same dealership has an order from me for a Big Bronco. A base 2-door Eruption Green Sasquatch, with tow and aux lighting. List>40,125 K. It was suposed to be ordered Oct 2020. They didn't actually order until March 2021!!! That said dealership hasn't notified but once!!!!! A friend told me to go to another dealership he has bought from. I ordered a 2022 Oxford White Maverick Lariat Eco, FX/4, Tow pak, passenger side toolbox, bed lighting and sprayin bed liner. August 2021. Got it the 20th of Jan.2022. This dealership contacted me every so often about the Maverick. That Maverick is in my garage. I love it. Getting 26.1 mpg. Just took my girl to the vet. She jumped all over, the seats and door panels are fine! My 2018 Challenger got scratched on the passenger side door from her. Lovin my choice of this Maverick. BTW these Lariat seats >>>>ARE COMFY<<<<. I paid MSRP, but got a fair trade value for my Challenger.

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[2022EOW]

It's taking two months to get these delivered from Mexico. Saw many reports of built in December and now just arriving at dealers.

Get these things right over the border or to Northern Texas and we'll just fly-in and drive them back home. I can tell you one thing, I can pre-inspect my vehicle better than any dealer. For my transit, they literally ripped all the stickers off the windows, threw them on the passenger floor board, then drove on the toll road in illinois without a pass and I got nailed for the violations.

Time to take the dealers out of the mix.

Mine took exactly two weeks from the shipped date to it's arrival at my dealer in Iowa.

 

[2022EOW]

Yes In pre pandemic days Before the world was turned upside down you would order your truck and get it in a couple of months and that would be that

its a combnin action of parts shortages PLUS high demand that is causing the long wait. Patience is key. I'm tired of reading all the posts blaming Ford and their poor planning, blah, blah, blah. Do they really think Ford doesn't want to sell them a vehicle?

 

[Michael Dietzel]

I have two residences. One in Bozeman Montana the other in Los Angeles California the local dealer in LA is selling any Maverick in inventory for get ready... 15 thousand dollars over MSRP and believe it or not Los Angelinos being the idiots they are are paying it! Why not? If you can get 44 miles per gallon in a four-door pickup for still less than a new Toyota Tacoma sells for it's a pretty easy pitch for the Ford salesman. Shame on the dealers here and shame on Ford for allowing them to do it. As far as Ford's official statement I would put that down as lip service and nothing more. Dealer allocations are based on how many vehicles that dealer sold the year before if you don't believe me I was only in the automobile business for 27 years. I worked for GM for 15 years and Ford for 10 years. But like I say believe whoever you want. Galpin Ford in LA did not become the number one Ford dealer in the nation by selling vehicles for less than MSRP. Nothing against Galpin as far as service and customer relations they are an excellent dealer. But if you can find a dealer anywhere within 200 mi of LA that will sell a new Maverick for MSRP I will buy it from you and pay you $2,000. And I don't need one I've already got one. That's how confident I am that it can't be done. I bought mine in Bozeman Montana from the local Ford dealer for MSRP and was treated excellently from the day I ordered it till the day I picked it up. Keep in mind mine is a hybrid low in demand in Montana or other snow heavy States but high in demand in Southern California without a doubt! I know companies sure that would order a fleet of Mavericks if they thought they could get them for anywhere near MSRP in fact when I took delivery on January 11th I took delivery of the first hybrid Maverick delivered in the state of Montana. So now we have to ask ourselves who cheated here!? Me for buying out of state using my vacation address to purchase a vehicle that I will drive primarily in Southern California or the dealers in California that screw people on a daily basis by charging them thousands of dollars over MSRP for a vehicle they desperately need in a high mileage state where gas prices are $5 a gallon? Well we probably both cheated. I don't know I'm just going to enjoy my Maverick for as long as I have it. If my only guilt is a gas gauge that moves downward rather slowly I guess I can live with that

 

[JASmith]

If Ford was serious about enforcing MSRP, dealers wouldn't be practicing extremes of either. Of coarse, then that would be "Price Fixing" in accordance with the FTC.

Price fixing deals with anti-trust laws, and involves major competitors in an industry typically agreeing to limit productivity in order to increase prices for mutual benefit, with the only loser being the consumer, and is basically the opposite of a price-war (where its a race to the bottom with the goal of starving out and outlasting competitors).

For example, in multiple countries there were price-fixing fines and individual arrests levied against Samsung, Sharp, LG, and five other LCD manufacturers that were convicted of price-fixing between one another after high level executives from each had met in a hotel and subsequently saw a lack of competition between the East Asian companies with rising LCD prices that cost consumers dearly for seven years. It finally came to an end after several investigations and four top execs pleading guilty, but of course in spite of the massive scale, they only got a slap on the wrist with none serving even a year in jail in exchange for blowing the whistle on the rest involved. source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/four-executives-agree-plead-guilty-global-lcd-price-fixing-conspiracy

So a manufacturer can and often will set maximum prices that their distributors/retail stores are allowed to charge (or at least allowed to advertise) in order to keep their relationship with the manufacturer. Ford could do the same if they wanted with a simple bell kick and tip of their hat, and it certainly wouldn't be price fixing.

But I wish congress would start investigating a lot of these mega corporations that are seeing massive stock price or executive salary increases since 2019 to see whether they are using their influence in any way to ensure that various shortages are extended. For example, in WW2, many countries had extended shortages of all KINDS of commodities, but there was huge incentive to find creative solutions around the problem in a matter of weeks or even days, yet we're seeing years of "gosh darnit, its too bad all these shortages" as the rich get even richer.

 

[KimTexas]

I bet them 10%, are all Texas dealerships, damn crooks!

 

[Mymaverick2021]

its a combnin action of parts shortages PLUS high demand that is causing the long wait. Patience is key. I'm tired of reading all the posts blaming Ford and their poor planning, blah, blah, blah. Do they really think Ford doesn't want to sell them a vehicle?

I'm not blaming Ford they're doing the best they can with the hand they're dealt. I mean why can't we all just get along

 

[DryHeat]

All the dealers who have had allocations stripped away have to do is file a lawsuite, if they all go in together they have a good chance. They'd easily win on the grounds that the move is anti-competitive.

I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. I think you may be confused about who is competing with whom. Manufacturers compete with manufacturers, not with dealers.

Here's just one small part of the Federal Trade Commission's guidance on Manufacturer-imposed Requiments:

If a manufacturer, on its own, adopts a policy regarding a desired level of prices, the law allows the manufacturer to deal only with retailers who agree to that policy. A manufacturer also may stop dealing with a retailer that does not follow its resale price policy. That is, a manufacturer can implement a dealer policy on a "take it or leave it" basis.

The law draws a big distinction between what manufacturers do on their own for their own business reasons and what they do in combination with other manufacturers.

Again, the critical distinction is between a unilateral decision to impose a restraint (lawful) and a collective agreement among competitors to do the same (unlawful).

If you read the whole guidance -- which is really just a thumbnail sketch -- you'll see that this area of law is very complex. Glibly saying the dealers would "easily win" a lawsuit is misleading at best.

 

[JASmith]

its a combnin action of parts shortages PLUS high demand that is causing the long wait. Patience is key. I'm tired of reading all the posts blaming Ford and their poor planning, blah, blah, blah. Do they really think Ford doesn't want to sell them a vehicle?

Why do OPEC member nations work together on putting limits on how much oil they produce, when they could pump so much more? If they get paid per barrel of oil sold, it would be stupid for them to not maximize their output, right? Not really, because there's a balance between volume and price per barrel, as the more oil they pump the lower the price per barrel. If they all competed with one another openly, it would just be a race to the bottom and they all lose, so they all pump oil but just enough to keep prices high. To see if this model is working, just look at how in spite of low productivity that top execs annual income is skyrocketing. Heck, bringing it back fully to cars, according to Rolls Royce chief executive Torsten Muller-Otovos, they have sold more cars last year than in its entire 117-year history.

 

[MTMaverick]

I bought mine in Bozeman Montana from the local Ford dealer for MSRP and was treated excellently from the day I ordered it till the day I picked it up. Keep in mind mine is a hybrid low in demand in Montana or other snow heavy States.

Bozeman was on my list of dealers to order from, I ended up ordering from the dealership in Butte (a hybrid) as it was a bit closer for me.

Just out of curiosity when did you order your hybrid, when did they build it and how long did it take to ship? Just trying to get a feel for the allocation system amongst the "local" Ford dealers.

Mine was ordered 7/23/21, scheduled for build 1/20/22, current build week 3/28/22, hoping for a delivery in May.

 

[Mymaverick2021]

Why do OPEC member nations work together on putting limits on how much oil they produce, when they could pump so much more? If they get paid per barrel of oil sold, it would be stupid for them to not maximize their output, right? Not really, because there's a balance between volume and price per barrel, as the more oil they pump the lower the price per barrel. If they all competed with one another openly, it would just be a race to the bottom and they all lose, so they all pump oil but just enough to keep prices high. To see if this model is working, just look at how in spite of low productivity that top execs annual income is skyrocketing. Heck, bringing it back fully to cars, according to Rolls Royce chief executive Torsten Muller-Otovos, they have sold more cars last year than in its entire 117-year history.

Oh I must have loaded the wrong Forum, I thought this was for the Maverick truck!!

 

[Turtle]

Bozeman was on my list of dealers to order from, I ended up ordering from the dealership in Butte (a hybrid) as it was a bit closer for me.

Just out of curiosity when did you order your hybrid, when did they build it and how long did it take to ship? Just trying to get a feel for the allocation system amongst the "local" Ford dealers.

Mine was ordered 7/23/21, scheduled for build 1/20/22, current build week 3/28/22, hoping for a delivery in May.

I have a Lariat Hybrid Lux 360 scheduled for the week of 3/28 also. Order 7/21 - very small dealer.

 

[Dun4791]

Why do OPEC member nations work together on putting limits on how much oil they produce, when they could pump so much more? If they get paid per barrel of oil sold, it would be stupid for them to not maximize their output, right? Not really, because there's a balance between volume and price per barrel, as the more oil they pump the lower the price per barrel. If they all competed with one another openly, it would just be a race to the bottom and they all lose, so they all pump oil but just enough to keep prices high. To see if this model is working, just look at how in spite of low productivity that top execs annual income is skyrocketing. Heck, bringing it back fully to cars, according to Rolls Royce chief executive Torsten Muller-Otovos, they have sold more cars last year than in its entire 117-year history.

The problem is someone always wants to cheat and increase THEIR market share and profits.

 

[Michael Dietzel]

Bozeman was on my list of dealers to order from, I ended up ordering from the dealership in Butte (a hybrid) as it was a bit closer for me.

Just out of curiosity when did you order your hybrid, when did they build it and how long did it take to ship? Just trying to get a feel for the allocation system amongst the "local" Ford dealers.

Mine was ordered 7/23/21, scheduled for build 1/20/22, current build week 3/28/22, hoping for a delivery in May.

I I ordered my Maverick on June 11th of last year it was built on December 13th and arrived in Montana on January 9th I took delivery on January 11th

 

[CACTI_HYBRID]

Come to New Jersey…. I’ve check most NJ dealers…. They all, each one charge between $2500 to $10000 mark up on any Maverick on their lot for sale.

I'd think you could easily pay for a plane ticket and a night or two in a hotel for that. Find a dealer elsewhere who's willing to sell for MSRP and screw the locals if they wanna play that way. If they thought all their sales were going to these other guys, how long would they continue this B.S.?

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