7Mary3 Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 http://detnews.com/article/20110909/AUTO01/109090442/1148/AUTO01/Ford-asks-court-to-reverse-$2-billion-award-to-truck-dealers I figured Ford might loose this one, but I am surprised at the size of the judgement. Working for a large Ford heavy truck customer during those years, I did see some things that looked a bit suspicious from time to time, like why certain dealers seemed to be getting the bulk of low bid fleet orders, but since I wasn't in procurement and some dealers are always more agressive than others, I didn't think anything of it. The lawsuit covers 1987 up through the end of Ford's heavy trucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twintornados Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 No wonder why Ford got out of heavy trucks....the dealers are just too damn greedy and take and take and take.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7Mary3 Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 I am sure the amount will be overturned, but if Ford did have to pay out $2B that would wipe out every bit of profit Ford ever made building heavy trucks 1958-1997. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Interesting-and the entire business (class 7 and 8) was sold for 300 MILLION! I would have to say, this is a very complicated issue. Back when I was buying big Fords, we did business with a few of the Northeast dealers. Two of them are no longer in business. We also were a "national account" and I had Ford people calling on me on a regular basis. In addition, if my memory is correct, there were also dealers that were "dealer development" locations which I think meant Ford had the money in them. In any case, when I think of our relationship with say Mack, in which we were a true "national account" and the only people we dealt with when it came to sales were Mack employees, the Ford situation was far more complicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7Mary3 Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 Interesting-and the entire business (class 7 and 8) was sold for 300 MILLION! I would have to say, this is a very complicated issue. Back when I was buying big Fords, we did business with a few of the Northeast dealers. Two of them are no longer in business. We also were a "national account" and I had Ford people calling on me on a regular basis. In addition, if my memory is correct, there were also dealers that were "dealer development" locations which I think meant Ford had the money in them. In any case, when I think of our relationship with say Mack, in which we were a true "national account" and the only people we dealt with when it came to sales were Mack employees, the Ford situation was far more complicated. It did seem to me that there was a lot going on with Ford fleet sales. There was a very small local dealer near me that always used to show up on the sales charts for most successful Ford dealers. I was told that one of the national rental fleets was buying huge numbers of cars through that store. I don't think the cars were even being PDI'ed at that dealer, they were going straight to the rental agency. We bought a lot of GMC's back in the day, and they all came out of the Los Angeles Truck Center, a GM owned dealership. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 It did seem to me that there was a lot going on with Ford fleet sales. There was a very small local dealer near me that always used to show up on the sales charts for most successful Ford dealers. I was told that one of the national rental fleets was buying huge numbers of cars through that store. I don't think the cars were even being PDI'ed at that dealer, they were going straight to the rental agency. We bought a lot of GMC's back in the day, and they all came out of the Los Angeles Truck Center, a GM owned dealership. We bought GMC's too, although I was not in the staff job then that handled those-I do remember though that we had a GM employee that was our national accounts rep. I was a field operations mgr then and I got one of the early Generals at one of my terminals- we had it for one year for a buck! Nice truck- huge improvement over the "J"s but by then we started going down the Freightliner conventional road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfeg Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 This has turned into a big stonewalling thing over the years. When this started it was just an issue between one dealer in Youngstown and Ford. After things kept being swept under the carpet for a while, the class action came about to get things moving. A big mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 This has turned into a big stonewalling thing over the years. When this started it was just an issue between one dealer in Youngstown and Ford. After things kept being swept under the carpet for a while, the class action came about to get things moving. A big mess. I'm sure you are correct-and as always, the only winners will be the lawyers involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe771476 Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 International (Navistar) and Freightliner(Daimler) are laughing their asses off! All the more reason for Ford to get into vocational 8's (like Bob has been saying) and kick ass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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