Not a Ford buy back instance, but a dealership buy back that I was directly involved in back in 1986 at the end of the Model Year. The customer had his 1986 Ford Escort GT in for service and the vehicle was up on the old-style hydraulic lift that was sunk in the floor. The lift collapsed and the vehicle was totaled so it became a dealership issue and expense to replace the vehicle. The customer was always difficult (S.O.B.) and insisted that we replaced the vehicle with an 'exact" replacement. It was at the end of the 1986 Model Year and too late to order a replacement vehicle from the factory. It was impossible to locate an "exact" replacement at another dealership that we could trade for, as every vehicle in stock at any other dealership within hundreds of miles had the optional AM/FM Stereo Cassette. The customer demanded an "exact" replacement vehicle and would not accept any changes including the paint color.
I located a vehicle that was the closest match but equipped with the optional AM/FM Stereo Cassette option, and then met with the dealership's office manager to discuss the situation. I explained the customer's demands for an "exact" vehicle replacement and told him that I then wanted to dealer trade for the replacement vehicle with an AM/FM Stereo Cassette, and then install the customer's AM/FM Stereo radio from his original vehicle so that he'd have an "exact" replacement as he demanded. The office manager agreed with me and approved the extra dealership expense to swap out the Cassette unit with the customer's AM/FM Stereo radio.
We did the dealer trade, swapped out the Cassette unit, installed the customer's AM/FM Stereo unit and delivered the vehicle to the customer. The customer read the Window Sticker and saw that the replacement vehicle was built with the optional AM/FM Stereo Cassette but was now equipped only with the AM/FM Stereo. When he asked about it, I explained to him that we were delivering the "exact" replacement per his demands and had he been even a little flexible that we would have given him the AM/FM Stereo Cassette at the dealership's expense.