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The New High-Performance Fords Could Fail the Same Way the Pontiac GTO Did


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A prime example of the weak link in the purchase chain.

 

I order the new products I buy. My preference is to order, pickup and purchase directly with Ford MoCo assembly plant and not with an independent used car dealership.

 

I will take care of the old car/truck just like I do with everything else I have that will be replaced. I can use CarMax or any other used car dealership to sell my old car.

 

The way consumers shop is changing fast.. Brick and mortar stores are closing.

 

What makes me laugh is on Saturday, at some dealerships, sales people in a line outside like prostitute waiting for the next customer. At least when I leave a whorehouse, I feel satisfied after getting screwed .

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A prime example of the weak link in the purchase chain.

 

I order the new products I buy. My preference is to order, pickup and purchase directly with Ford MoCo assembly plant and not with an independent used car dealership.

 

I will take care of the old car/truck just like I do with everything else I have that will be replaced. I can use CarMax or any other used car dealership to sell my old car.

 

The way consumers shop is changing fast.. Brick and mortar stores are closing.

 

What makes me laugh is on Saturday, at some dealerships, sales people in a line outside like prostitute waiting for the next customer. At least when I leave a whorehouse, I feel satisfied after getting screwed .

 

 

The issue is the political power that dealership bodies have. Just look at what has been happening with Tesla and them trying to sell cars. Till someone breaks that power structure some how, you'll deal with the current issues we have.

 

I'm sure most auto manufactures would like to have more power to do what they want to do with their dealerships also.

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The way we purchase new cars will change soon.

 

Phase one is Ford starting to distance its self as a "Motor Company".

 

Been hearing that line for over ten years. Financial crisis brought this industry to its knees, and it didn't change the dealership model.

 

Just because it's inefficient doesn't mean it's going away (see also: alcohol retailing)

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Funny that some have this idea that the structure of dealerships will change and that somehow buyers

will start buying cars like mobile phones without requiring test drives or comparisons with other brands.

 

Penske's haggle free price nearly sent his dealerships broke with everyone else knowing what the bottom line was,

the other side of that is customers like to haggle and get a good deal otherwise they feel like the no haggle price

is just the dealer screwing them again......

 

As others have said, a lot of laws would have to change and since dealerships and consumer issues are covered

by state law, this is not going to be a watershed moment where all the laws change and we go to something else...

 

People are saying that change is coming but when push comes to shove, no one really knows what will change,

when it will change or even if it will change....

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I don't think Ford really wants to sell cars directly to the public.

Ford has already been there and done that. Back around the turn of the century, Ford bought most of the dealerships in the Oklahoma City metro area; a few years later, all they'd succeeded in doing was introducing new names to the dealership games when they sold them off again.

 

Ironically, my local dealership was one of the few that didn't sell out to Ford, and they eventually ended up buying three of the former Ford-owned dealerships.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ive been hearing the dealership model and the buying process is going to change since Ive been in the business,,,and that's since 1986...guess what, NOTHINGS changed barring higher MSRPS, caps on dealership profitability and more and more paperwork to sign to restrain Attorneys.....and I LOVE the peeps that think the process will become just like Amazon.....wont happen in my lifetime....and along those lines Factory run dealerships fail miserably as well....if anything the experience is worse than someone that vested their own hard earned money to own a franchise. I know the family tat own my place of employ hold great pride in their business....and have since day one. Now...do corporate owned facilities beat to the same drum or are they busy looking for every nickel and dime....theres your Autonation mentality right there....

Edited by Deanh
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Ive been hearing the dealership model and the buying process is going to change since Ive been in the business,,,and that's since 1986...guess what, NOTHINGS changed barring higher MSRPS, caps on dealership profitability and more and more paperwork to sign to restrain Attorneys.....and I LOVE the peeps that think the process will become just like Amazon.....wont happen in my lifetime....and along those lines Factory run dealerships fail miserably as well....if anything the experience is worse than someone that vested their own hard earned money to own a franchise. I know the family tat own my place of employ hold great pride in their business....and have since day one. Now...do corporate owned facilities beat to the same drum or are they busy looking for every nickel and dime....theres your Autonation mentality right there....

What many forget is that Ford needs to obey state laws on Franchisee's rights and I wonder if

moving away from national based incentive strategies to regional specific targeting could be

construed as favoring them more than the dealers they are supposed to be helping.

 

Previously, you told of several examples where Ford could have and probably should have

helped Ford dealers in West Coast regions to sell more products (Incentives, financing, supply)

So I wonder what Ford is hoping to achieve with the latest press release. Targeting specific regions

plays well in the press but there's nothing stopping Ford form dong the right thing now - so why don't they?

 

The whole idea of dealerships and franchises is that Ford doesn't have to sell directly to the public

so it's ceazy to think Ford would begin going back on all those sold franchises to get into directly dealing

with buyers. The day vehicles purchases are degraded to the level of mobile phone contracts is the day

all those dealers go out backwards....it would also put Ford and others right in the spotlight of consumer law,

something they neatly avoid now.

Edited by jpd80
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