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Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

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Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#511

Post by julianlam »

travisgriggs wrote: post #310

Corwin Ford came into our area, put all of the other dealers out of business over the last 10 years and hold forth with terrible prices and service. I avoid them at all cost. The dealer model (not just for cars) may have been a “good thing” once upon a time. When I talk to older generations, they always seem taken with the idea of a “good dealer”, someone to “take care of you.” But by and large (there are some except…

That's just Stockholm syndrome with a dash of ignorance thrown in.

Their idea of a "good dealer" was one who only ripped them off moderately.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#512

Post by cestith »

ThunderSizzle wrote: post #465
wenc wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own a fairly reliable ICE car from 2009 with ~100k miles, and I've had to get servicing for belts, water pump, brake pads, sway bars, oil changes, etc. I estimate I spent about $5k over the life the car on servicing. That's excluding tires, wiper blades and air filter changes. Owners of less reliable ICE cars probably spend more.

It doesn't sound that reliable if you've had to replace that much already with just 100k miles. I have two vehicles over 100k, one closing in on 200k soon, and my maintenance on both is less than 5k. Of course, the part no one talks about: 1. How will you do a family vacation beyond the EV range? 2. Who pays to replace the ~$15k battery and when?

I've been using the vacation reasoning for a long time. I've just about convinced myself to get an EV and to rent an ICE for vacations. It keeps the mileage off my odometer that way, too.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#513

Post by alexktz »

seattle_spring wrote: post #345
alexktz wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It 100% factored into my decision to cancel my pre-order for a Lightning. The dealer said to me via email in December 2021: The latest communication is that order banks will open in January. Ford will be sending invitations to build / order in waves as to keep up with the demand. The invitations will be prioritized based on reservation time stamps. Your reservation is number 138 at our location. I have no way to trac…

Those idiots did the same thing with the Focus RS. It was basically a hotrodded mass produced econobox but the dealerships treated it like a rare Lamborghini. I'm convinced it's why that car died so quickly: demand didn't match dealership greed so they just sat on the lot.

A bonkers car! SO much fun.

Shame about the interior though.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#514

Post by alexktz »

hackernewds wrote: post #269
zeeb wrote: post #47

I imagine the +$20k "market adjustment" markups on the F-150 lightning (and other EV's and hybrids) [0] by dealerships probably factored into this decision. [0]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/02/12/ford-gm-d...

Ford has cautioned that they would ban dealerships for this practice.

And yet when I called corporate to ask wtf was going on, they didn't care. That dealership is still a Ford dealers so clearly no effs given!

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#515

Post by ddingus »

Just a quick note on dealers:

The last new Ford I bought from a dealer was a 6 hour experience. I came ready and got my vehicle for 3 percent over invoice and avoided all the cost pack ins at contract.

It was brutal. And I used sales skills, as a buyer, learned from high octane types that get that money no matter what.

In the years following, people gladly paid me $1k, plus a percent of the savings off MSRP, to buy cars for them.

Did that a few times for a little extra spiff on my vehicle buy.

Was a Ford Expedition, 2000 era vehicle. Those are made on the F150 platform and are great outdoors rigs, though I won't ever get another one, nor a new vehicle from a dealer again.

Someone will make an EV Expedition type rig. Probably Ford will and I want it.

People paying non trivial money to avoid the dealers is exactly why Ford is doing what they are doing.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#516

Post by julianlam »

drdunce wrote: post #443

how do test drives work?

In an ideal world I'd imagine pop-up touring shops where you can test drive cars and order them at a kiosk on-the-spot. A test drive circus! Ha!

Giant already does this with bikes, in my area. They rent out carpool lots in low periods (weekends, basically) and people come from all over to check out their bikes.

Sure it's a little less instant gratification, but I wouldn't mind waiting a couple weeks for a Mazda pop-up to come by if it ends up being cheaper than a dealership.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#517

Post by Volundr »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #484
babypuncher wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> educate the consumers Every dealership I've been to has been more interested in feeding me whatever line of crap they think will get me to buy a car, not actually educating me about the different products available. >> financing, DMV paperwork Tesla and Carvana have proven these can be taken care of without a third party dealership. In most cases, financing is provided by a bank or credit union, not the dealership…

> There is a reason most people hate car dealerships. I really, really don't understand why the model won't die. I'm guessing regulatory malfeasance.

You guessed correctly. Thanks to aggressive lobbying direct sales is illegal in most states.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#518

Post by ask_b123 »

jayceekay wrote: post #289
toomuchtodo wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diplomacy is the art of saying “good dog” until you make it to the rock. Ford is learning what Tesla knew from the start: dealership interests aren’t aligned with EV manufacturers. There’s very little service revenue, and dealers are incentivized to add “market adjustments” to vehicles (which Ford dealers have been doing) creating a poor customer experience. Ford has existing dealerships and is going to have a heck o…

> "Diplomacy is the art of saying “good dog” until you make it to the rock." this was new to me and the 'to the rock' part didn't make sense to me, so i looked it up. http://marvin.cs.uidaho.edu/About/quotes.html this page says it's actually this: "Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggy' until you can find a rock." find a rock as in kill them? :O

"the" was especially confusing to me and also had to look it up.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#519

Post by Volundr »

itsoktocry wrote: post #493
wumpus wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> educate the consumers, financing, DMV paperwork and most importantly service your vehicles. I bought a new car direct and I was educated, my credit union was better than the manufacturer's financing offer, the manufacturer did DMV paperwork, and the manufacturer does service. 9 years ago. What am I missing?

> my credit union was better than the manufacturer's financing offer For long stretches of time most manufacturers were offering 0% financing. Tough to beat that.

Sure, the manufacturer was. This doesn't require a dealer.

Re: Ford CEO says EVs will be sold 100% online with nonnegotiable price

#520

Post by mattdeboard »

f0xJtpvHYTVQ88B wrote: post #501
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Toyota and Honda don’t need much service, and I don’t see how they are money makers for the dealer Well first off, people like buy that marketing stuff hook line and sinker, so they make more on the sale. Second, pretty much any vehicle that rolls on earths surface is going to need stuff serviced in proportion to how close it is to the ground. For cars this means the dealer can make plenty of money selling brake pa…

Consumer Reports testing consistently rate Asian car brands above American brands in terms of reliability. https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability-owner-satisf...

This is an irrelevant comment. The topic of the conversation taking place is the revenue distribution of dealerships, not the relative reliability of different car manufacturers.

Regardless of manufacturer among well-known cars in the U.S., the economics of a car dealership do not change from one to the next.

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