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| Ford, GM tell their dealers to stop ripping off car buyers ‐ or else |
| 2022-02-10 |
| [KTLA-75] Two of America’s biggest carmakers have a message for their dealers: Stop ripping off customers. Ford and General Motors are warning money-hungry dealers to stop exploiting supply issues — and shortages — by charging more than the sticker price for vehicles. Automakers don’t set prices for their cars. Instead, they offer a "manufacturer’s suggested retail price," or MSRP. While that’s understood in the industry to reflect the fair value of a new car or truck, dealers are free to ignore the MSRP if they so choose, setting prices at higher levels. Ford’s chief executive, Jim Farley, warned dealers that they could be pushed to the rear of the line for delivery of new models if they persist in playing fast and loose with the MSRP. "We have very good knowledge of who they are," Farley told financial analysts while unveiling the company’s latest quarterly results. Ford estimates that about 10% of the company’s nearly 3,000 dealers are charging above the sticker price — a practice that grew more widespread during the pandemic. GM, meanwhile, told its dealers that it will clamp down on "a small minority of bad actors" hitting customers with prices "far in excess" of what’s on the sticker. It too said deliveries of new models could be withheld if things didn’t change. COVID-related supply shortages, including for the microchips that are now commonplace in new vehicles, have created a seller’s market. With demand outstripping supply, some dealers have embraced this as an opportunity to pad their pockets after months of pandemic setbacks. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #11 Somebody from the online gaming community needs to sit down with the board members and cautiously, slowly explain what happens with the 'Pay to Win' products and developers' reputation. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2022-02-10 12:30 |
| #10 #8 - I just heard about BMW doing a yearly subscription for the heated seats option. If true, that is some really stoopid shit. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2022-02-10 11:51 |
| #9 Is this that supply and demand thing the econ boys are always going on about? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2022-02-10 11:35 |
| #8 Aren't these the people who are considering yearly subscriptions for added features? Manufacturer: oh you want full AC, well that's an extra $200/year. Government: and the Grrrta tax is an extra $40. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2022-02-10 10:47 |
| #7 The stealership makes most of their money in the service bays. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-02-10 10:34 |
| #6 What's the point in being in cars sales if you can't gouge people? Did you think those nice shiny dealership buildings were paid for by the owner? |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2022-02-10 10:26 |
| #5 ..don't forget Windsor Canada. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-02-10 07:55 |
| #4 Wouldn't buy a new or used car at this time. Once shortages and price gouging is over, I am considering buying a US made foreign car for the first time. Chrysler is already foreign owned. GM is more Chinese than American and Ford builds cars and trucks in Mexico and pretends they are American made. |
| Posted by: Hupavish Speaking for Boskone8393 2022-02-10 07:36 |
| #3 The generation has forgotten the 70s (even though Brandon and crew are trying as hard as possible to bring it back). Oil Embargo and Americans discovered the Japanese cars. Fuel Efficient. Made right the first time. One sticker price that wasn't halfway down the door with 'extras'. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-02-10 07:22 |
| #2 OPEN COMMENT TO US AUTOMAKERS Given the New Vehicle price tags, we have already purchased our last NEW vehicle back in 2018. Seriously our days of paying these Union wage prices for more than likely a NAFTA made vehicle, made in Mexico with parts from CCP are over. Now that you are faced with assembly line part shortages, labor issues, production numbers, hyper-inflation issues, and limited buyers in this Liberal mismanaged pandemic economy. Your answer to making the stockholder promised numbers, to keep your chossy jobs and $$ million salaries is to stick it to the buyers. As it stands the lately produced vehicles are lucky to last the length of the loan needed to get a monthly payment to afford it. So unless things change, you had better start wheeling and dealing in the BKGRD with Congressional types for a bailout... IF the Liberal idiots have not already bankrupted the US economy and Gov. |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2022-02-10 06:10 |
| #1 ...The dealers are apparently digging in, blinded to their own best interest. Ford, on the other hand, has a nuclear weapon in the form of a huge unsold inventory of cars nobody wants. If a dealer wants to thumb their nose at corporate, then he'll get a surprise on transport day: one - EXACTLY ONE - F-150E Lightning, and four base Escorts. And he won't get anything else until he sells those damned Escorts. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2022-02-10 04:49 |