i know, white is awesome!Yay no more lots full of silver and gray crap
Hopefully more people will order the cool colors
Car and Driver: Ford Moving toward Build-to-Order, Away from Packed Dealer Lots
- Thread starter wemay
- Start date
More important thing for me is buying a car that 30 morons haven’t test driven HARD for 5 miles on a cold motor.
I will have my car ordered, thank you!
Changing your business model based on human behavior during a pandemic is crazy. I think that once our lives achieve some type of normalcy we will see more people in the showrooms. Figuring out the model and trim that I want always involved driving the car. And what if you can't plan ahead of time for your purchase? If your car is totaled, or is too expensive to repair you can't wait for a vehicle to be delivered-you need it now. So that sale will be lost to the competition. I think Ford's decision to eliminate all cars except for the Mustang is going to bite them in the backside as well. When (not if) gas prices go up, truck sales are going to tank as they have done in the past. And as happened in the early 1970's, the competition will have vehicles that the customers want.
Regardless of the fact that it is vaguely shaped like an SUV, the EcoSport is hardly a body-on-frame monster. Automakers such as Ford have simply taken to styling station wagons and hatchbacks in a way that suits the current CUV trend. The only thing that's gone away is the traditional trunk.
I work at a busy Ram Jeep store. You would be surprised how many sales are done by walking the lot and the customer saying, that one looks really good. And ends up buying it.
Good for Ford if they go to mostly made to order.
I see more sales going to Ram with that business model.
Good for Ford if they go to mostly made to order.
I see more sales going to Ram with that business model.
I’ve special ordered Two Cars in my lifetime. Both had “imperfections” on delivery. (Oh, our service department will fix that - NOT). Dealer already has your deposit.
1. Never again will I ever special order a car. NEVER B
2. I also no longer do Dealer Trades.
I now have to SEE and Test Drive the exact car I’m buying.
If you want to Special Order, or Dealer Trade, —-
Be careful what you wish for, YOU MAY GET IT!
1. Never again will I ever special order a car. NEVER B
2. I also no longer do Dealer Trades.
I now have to SEE and Test Drive the exact car I’m buying.
If you want to Special Order, or Dealer Trade, —-
Be careful what you wish for, YOU MAY GET IT!
The reason Ford wants to do this is because they don't want car lots sitting with vehicles that don't sell unless they offer incentives.
Before the pandemic, Ford, GM and Ram dealers had to offer $8-12K off sticker on full size trucks to get you in the showroom.
It wasn't uncommon to see 85 brand new F150's at a large Ford dealer. Why would Ford want to go back to that old sales model?
Ford would rather sell less vehicles at a higher profit margin per unit than more vehicles at a lower profit.
Get use to change folks. It's coming and it wont be pretty.
Before the pandemic, Ford, GM and Ram dealers had to offer $8-12K off sticker on full size trucks to get you in the showroom.
It wasn't uncommon to see 85 brand new F150's at a large Ford dealer. Why would Ford want to go back to that old sales model?
Ford would rather sell less vehicles at a higher profit margin per unit than more vehicles at a lower profit.
Get use to change folks. It's coming and it wont be pretty.
bohica!
Our buyers can refuse a dealer trade or ordered unit, without penalty. We've had unicorn builds refused, we just put them into service as a parts truck or service loaner. I've never seen a buyer "forced" to buy a vehicle.
i used to work at a gm factory in baltimore. special orders are annoying and a lot of extra work, so we would always screw something up on purpose just to mess with the person that ordered it. you want a gmc safari van with leaher seats and vinyl floors, fine - sure thing, buddy. but you’re getting a chevy steering wheel emblem to go with it!
i am entirely kidding ...
i am entirely kidding ...
Isn't this what got Ford and other places in the predicament they are in now with having very little to sell, and running out of parts/chips etc? Most places take on just-in-time manufacturing is partly why everything is screwed now, built to order isn't going to help it I don't think...
I think the people who actually want a base model with no options are a tiny minority of car buyers. My crew cab short bed Ram 1500 is a Tradesman (base trim) and my options are the 5.7 hemi, chrome plus package (which includes carpeted flooring and cloth seats), and a limited slip diff, and it along with 2 others in different colors, sat on the lot for awhile before I bought it.
What happened with the parts/chips is the automakers significantly scaled back their orders because they thought they weren’t going to be selling vehicles, but the sales slump never really materialized and instead demand is way up. The chip manufacturers reallocated the time they would have been making car chips into other stuff and they can’t just bump another product to make room.
More room for used cars.
yeah mine didn’t have much but it was all stuff i wanted, bed lighting, trailering equipment, convenience package.
Middleman is a reservoir. In many case wholesalers (which is what a dealer really is) absorb the risk and glut of inventories and deal with the customers that the corporates do not want to deal with, like hiring sales and doing test drives. It works well enough for many mass produced products that most people still buy groceries in physical store instead of order and pickup in stores.
Is Tesla's model the best for everyone? Not really. It is still a smallish manufacturer and as it goes bigger they will need to get into the game of physical stores and maybe contract some dealer group to help selling the extra volumes. Look at Dell. They used to be phone / online order only and build to order, but eventually they went into physical stores and let them sell their computer as well, and made them in China as standardized config and sell them by the containers.
I think the 2008 recession helps the domestic got rid of the job banks and many labor liability, and this pandemic forces them to produce less and now they can focus on the more valuable sales instead of flooding the discount fleet sales. Good for them, hopefully we will all have better cars instead of things sitting on the lot.
That's the only color I custom ordered.
Not really, a lot of the changes were going to happen in the long run anyways and any pandemic / recession / disaster just push it forward and force you to test something new. Sometimes they work sometimes they don't, we will see very soon what sticks and what doesn't.
I am surprised at this,
A vehicle purchase is a huge investment, especially trucks/SUV’s and premium models…it’s nice to see the color in person, drive it, compare brands, and what about the late in the year discounts?
A vehicle purchase is a huge investment, especially trucks/SUV’s and premium models…it’s nice to see the color in person, drive it, compare brands, and what about the late in the year discounts?
