Why 4WD? I live in the Green Mountains of Vermont.

 

I gotta agree with some of the other people here. You did the right, and smart thing, but I think you're giving up a bit too fast on the FEH. You may wish to have a meeting, using the online quote, or other factors to get the MSRP.

When I got mine, I flat out told him that if I even felt like he was trying to screw me, I was walking to another dealership. I got mine for quite a bit under MSRP, but that's also with A plan in there. (Kind of a funny thing, I got several pens, and some other stuff to boot. My guy had a sense of humor.)

 

I know what you mean about the price gouging premiums. When I was shopping around for my FEH in Dec 2004, several DC dealers were adding $3-6k pemium on top of the MSRP. I walked out of a deal on one because the deler refused to drop the $2k premium. It turns out it was the best thing I ever did. I shopped around and two months later found a dealer willing to sell at invoice. It was 200mi away...but was worth the drive.

I think you need to shop around. Deals are out there to be had. If you know what you want(options) and have decided this is the vehicle you want.....why not have it delivered. I have had several dealers in the past who would deliver a vehicle to you at your house, within reason of course. A 2-3hr drive shouldn't be that big of a deal for a motivated dealer who wants to "make the sale".

FYI, the dealer I ended up buying from(at invoice) offered to meet me in DC to close the deal(200mi). I don't see why a dealer can't do the same for you.

FWIW, I highly recommend Bowie Clift at Shelor Motor Mile in Christiansburg, VA. I know they sell all over the US....don't know if they would deliver to VT or not. It doesn't hurt to try. Phone:877-474-3567(toll free), web: http://ford.shelor.com/Default.aspx

BTW, I don't have any vested interest in this dealer. I just had a good buying experience...would like to pass info to others.

Nate

 

I know this is an old post, but I thought I'd add some comments, since I've learned a few things about this topic.

1) Ford Motor Company apparently has very little pull with their dealerships. I'm told that there have been many dealers that were so bad that Ford, quite frankly, wanted them closed because they were damaging their brand reputation. I don't understand the nature of their contracts with their dealers but I'm told that (a) they're old... they were made years ago and the language favored the dealers heavily and (b) Ford doesn't seem to have any leverage to change the contract wording so that they can have more control over abusive dealers (this problem is not really unique to Ford). Ford is quite frustrated about this problem.

I live in Dearborn, MI (the home of the Ford Motor Company). While I don't work for Ford, I am practally the only person in my neighborhood who does not. I have lots of friends and neighbors who all work for Ford and we've gone round and round on the this subject. I'm told that Ford's attourneys have reviewed numerous cases and found that there's almost nothing they can do on their own, but in some cases the government probably could... and Ford did just that; turned the case over to the government to let them go after the dealer and close them down. So... Ford knows about this problem and are very concerned, but there's very little they can do about it.

2) You can punish the dealer. You own several other Fords and you said you get them serviced there. TURNS OUT... that a car dealer makes a small amount of profit on the car, but the REAL money is in the service garage. They make FAR more profit on service than they do on the sale of the car itself. Even when a car is under warranty and you don't pay for service, the Ford Motor Company has to reimburse the dealer for all warranty service charges -- for which they pay dearly. When you take a warrantied vehicle to a dealer for service, you are causing Ford to pay that dealer a nice profit on that service.

When dealers pull that crap, you need to tell them that (a) not only will they lose the vehicle sale for this and all future vehicles but also that (b) they'll also lose all your service business and make sure they are aware that you KNOW that they make more on service than they do on the sale. We're not talking about the serivce of whatever new car you might buy -- we're talking service on all existing Ford cars you currently own as well.

If you can't tell the owner of the dealer that they're losing your business, it's a good idea to let the service department manager know that you wont be back for service. The service manager and sales manager don't work for each other, but they both work for the owner. If the service manager is losing business because of something the sales folks are doing, they are bound to tell the dealership owner that it's a problem.

 

tcampb01,

Thank-you for your response and explanation. Regardless of the influence (or lack of) that Ford has over dealers, I as a consumer see them as all part of the Ford system which is exactly the way advertising presents the situation. I will not ever purchase a Ford product again. And, as you suggest, I will have my one remaining Ford vehicle serviced at another dealer. Furthermore, I am motivated to go ahead and rid myself of that vehicle also.

 

I agree with you. It's my feeling that, as a consumer, I shouldn't have to understand the nature of how a company is internally structured, nor how they create relationships with suppliers, dealers, etc.

As a consumer I should not have to care. I've pulled this on other companies -- when they give me the run-around, I ask them to please send a copy of their corporate org-chart including the names and phone numbers of all the executives and all the departments. They usually respond as if they're shocked to hear such a request -- whereupon I explain that, according to them, we consumers were expected to know who was in charge of each aspect and take up our problems with ONLY the appropriate individuals. When they tell me that they wont send the org chart and phone list, I then explain that I likewise wont cut them any slack for the fact that it was "somebody else's" screw up.

My post wasn't necessarily to justify Ford's problem -- more to explain that it really IS a problem and there isn't a whole lot they seem to be able to do about. Shame on them for creating this situation, but that's the situation just the same.

Regards,
Tim

 

You should be able to get an FEH at sticker. The local dealer I purchased mine at has had a blue one sitting on the lot for three weeks or so, but they had been marking them up...I bet if someone came in and offered sticker they might be able to get it.

Escape Hybrid -- red-headed stepchild of the Ford Family Plan

 

We got our FEH at MSRP from a reasonable, no-nonsense dealer (relatively speaking). The salesman said they had talked about it and decided their market would not support a premium. I was willing to go MSRP but no higher, so there was no haggling. This was a far suburban / rural dealer. I think away from the city is the way to go. It was close to a two-hour drive, but that was much less of a hassle than I thought it would be. BTW, I found it on Vehix.com. Monitored daily for a while when the FEH first came to my area, until I found the features I was looking for, then made the call.

 

We live in the Chicago area, so maybe demand isn't as strong around here for hybrids - our salesman was ready to deal immediately. We couldn't find one that had the options we wanted - most dealerships here have maybe 1 or 2 models per lot, limiting selection. Even when the salesman looked at other dealers' inventories for us there was a similar (but not exact) one about a hundred miles away that he offered to get for us - but maybe I'm just weird if I don't want someone else making the first 100 miles on my brand new car

So we placed a factory order with him yesterday, and he still settled on a price $500 below MSRP. I think going toward the end of the month might help salesmen be more willing to deal too. I think we're lucky around here, but to me, MSRP = rip off, much less any premium.

 

villa ford in orange, california called it a 'limited availability option!!'

thats not an option I want.