This and other articles point to Ford CEO Jim Farley wanting to shift to online only sales for EV's with non-negotiable pricing.
I guess dealers will only sell ICE vehicles and demo EVs?
I guess dealers will only sell ICE vehicles and demo EVs?
You can install our site as a web app on your iOS device by utilizing the Add to Home Screen feature in Safari. Please see this thread for more details on this.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Good question. Maybe this will get revamped with Ford contributing a lot to campaigns. It would be nice to be able to buy a Tesla made in Texas directly from the factory.Wonder how Ford would work with the dealership laws?
Wow, are we looking at the beginning of the end of dealerships? Probably not, but the online model to me is so far superior to the dealership model, at least for new cars where the manufacturer will arrange delivery. Dealerships may still have their usefulness at a distributor of used cars.This and other articles point to Ford CEO Jim Farley wanting to shift to online only sales for EV's with non-negotiable pricing.
I guess dealers will only sell ICE vehicles and demo EVs?
If they would have had fixed pricing to start with I would have reserved a Lightning on the first day. I have no idea if Jim Farley can make this happen, but he is smart to recognize this is a problem for Ford.This and other articles point to Ford CEO Jim Farley wanting to shift to online only sales for EV's with non-negotiable pricing.
I guess dealers will only sell ICE vehicles and demo EVs?
If they would have had fixed pricing to start with I would have reserved a Lightning on the first day.
Will this pay on day before dodge avoid stupid laws in other states?
The problem is that some dealers are taking advantage of the situation and adding markups. Right now, Ford can only cajole/threaten dealers to have them sell at retail.Many dealers are not marking up Lightnings. There is an entire thread listing dealers selling at MSRP on the Lightning owners forum.
Personally, I put down a reservation because $100 was a great hedge on Cybertruck arriving late (which is has!).
The problem is that some dealers are taking advantage of the situation and adding markups. Right now, Ford can only cajole/threaten dealers to have them sell at retail.
If you read Farley's latest comments, that is exactly what he is talking about doing. Except it is for all EVs sales regardless of customer type.GM created the BrightDrop division for their commercial EVs. I suspect that this was done to bypass the existing Chevy/GMC dealerships. Ford may have to do the same thing - create a completely separate division to bypass the existing franchisees of the existing brands.
Maybe Farley should create the "Henry" brand. Some people may not get the connection to electricity though.If you read Farley's latest comments, that is exactly what he is talking about doing. Except it is for all EVs sales regardless of customer type.
Sounds better than Ford Model e, the current name.Maybe Farley should create the "Henry" brand. Some people may not get the connection to electricity though.
People in the business call it "nailing it to the floor". In other words, it's not really for sale at all. The updated story even says it's a demo, not for sale.Some Ford dealers are charging an uplight that double the price of the F150 Lightning. See this article. Another reason to get rid of dealerships.
Dealerships are awful from beginning to end. ...and you're right that they've outlived their usefulness. That's why there's a federal class action lawsuit against several of them.I don’t see there being much sympathy for conventional automobile dealerships - they’ve clearly outlived their usefulness and represent little or no “value add” to the customer, just lots of bloat and extra cost. IMO they’re on borrowed time. In a few years they likely won’t exist because they simply will be unable to compete with the direct sales model being used by Tesla. In states where they have protections (from paying off politicians in the past) there will be pressure to change those laws, or those states won’t be able to compete with those having direct sales. It’s much the same phenomenon seen with RE agents and travel agents (it’s already happened to a large extent). Customers know and are getting sick of being ripped off and word travels very fast and very far in this age of instant communications. People can and will go elsewhere if they do not perceive a value to them.