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Ford Inventory Discussion


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Thanks everyone, I live in southwest Minnesota and I'm looking for a Transit Connect XLT or Titanium wagon with Trailer Tow Package and would like the roof rack, 6 passenger seating, and Flex Fuel but not a necessity. Thanks for all the help and I'll try the search function Kirby showed.

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40 minutes ago, akirby said:

image.thumb.png.ac98d6459fee5e342ac82965235567af.png

 

Haven't used that search function before because as I suspected it filters the request through a dealer, but what the heck... Don't cost me nuthin'. Sent it to the nearest dealer, after having a couple Transit Connects sit on their lot for over a year they probably never want to see one again. They could have sold me one of them, but they were more interested in selling financing than cars...

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6 hours ago, Exit32 said:

I ordered my first new car 50 years ago. It was a 1971 Mercury Cougar XR7. Back then, most dealerships were small mom-and-pop businesses with an emphasis on service. Inventory at my local Lincoln-Mercury dealer was comprised of "sample" vehicles to represent each brand, model, and trim level that was available. A showroom display presented paint colors and interior samples to the customer. It was very much like Flying68's scenario, and my new Cougar was delivered to me about three weeks after I placed the order.

 

What's more, the list of available options was endless back then. The buyer was able to choose from among four or five different engines, three or four different transmissions, two or three different radios, and decide if power windows, seats, steering, and brakes were really necessary. A/C was an option, and you could even specify the rear-axle ratio. All that, and Ford was able to deliver a new vehicle -- exactly like the customer wanted -- in just a few weeks. Those were the days!

 

I feel like there was more ability to build unique combos when you have 25% of the market.

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In the url it will show 20 as in 20 miles if you change that to 500 as in 500 miles it makes searching a lot easier, you can move the zip codes around the country and only need to use about 6 zips to cover the nation.

Edited by mink
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7 minutes ago, mink said:

In the url it will show 20 as in 20 miles if you change that to 500 as in 500 miles it makes searching a lot easier, you can move the zip codes around the country and only need to use about 6 zips to cover the nation.

 

 I tried that hack this morning, and when I changed from 100 miles to 400 miles, the # of available vehicles did not change.  I'm not sure that trick works anymore, even though the screen showed 400 miles.

 

HRG

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12 minutes ago, mink said:

It was working for me yesterday. but I would just change from the 20 to 500. I tried 1000 but it wouldn't work. I would pick a larger city zip.

 

Trust me, a 500 mile radius from me covers some area & cities. Try looking at your 100 mile results, compared to the 500 mile ones.

 

HRG

60185 500 miles.JPG

60185 100 miles.JPG

500 mile radius of 60185.JPG

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14 hours ago, GearheadGrrrl said:

Tried switching to more than 100 mile radius and the website won't let me. Tried with both Safari and Firefox browsers, didn't matter. Perhaps you guys have dealer or fleet access so the website lets you search farther?


Dealers have access to a great search system where you can enter in Must/Not have options, to locate a vehicle. The issue is that if the dealer that has it in stock is willing to trade for a vehicle currently. 

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18 minutes ago, jasonj80 said:


Dealers have access to a great search system where you can enter in Must/Not have options, to locate a vehicle. The issue is that if the dealer that has it in stock is willing to trade for a vehicle currently. 

 

That's what makes the consumer "search inventory" feature so useful. My guess is, most dealers will not disclose the location(s) of the target vehicle, to minimize the risk of the customer traveling to go get the vehicle themselves.

 

When I bought my 2019 Edge, while my local dealer was willing to trade, the dealer who had the vehicle offered more for my trade-in.  It was well worth it for me to travel and go get the vehicle myself.

 

HRG

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5 minutes ago, HotRunrGuy said:

 

That's what makes the consumer "search inventory" feature so useful. My guess is, most dealers will not disclose the location(s) of the target vehicle, to minimize the risk of the customer traveling to go get the vehicle themselves.

 

When I bought my 2019 Edge, while my local dealer was willing to trade, the dealer who had the vehicle offered more for my trade-in.  It was well worth it for me to travel and go get the vehicle myself.

 

HRG


Dealers can also hide vehicles from the consumer search function, where they will show in the dealers search options. 

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On 5/11/2021 at 9:52 PM, fuzzymoomoo said:


I know a guy who works at Flint Truck. They’re doing the same thing Ford is and building them without the chips they can't get. 

Yep and at the moment national dealer stock on hand is

F Series.........................27,000

Chevrolet Silverado.......18,000

GMC Sierra..".."................8,000

Ram trucks...................36,000

 

none of them have anywhere near enough

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jasonj80 and HotRunrGuy, It all adds up to an insane way to sell vehicles. We've got a bunch of small businesses with insane business plans trying to keep the blinders on customers so we don't see a better deal a few miles away in hopes they can maintain their local monopoly and margins. As for hiding vehicles, while searching around Iowa on Ford's website I found around 100 Transit Connect wagons listed to a dealer in north central Iowa, almost all of them 2020 Transit Connect XL wagons and some with taxi package. But the dealer's own website lists only one, and while there's some truck up fitters in northern Iowa and Winnebago, they mostly work with bigger vehicles. So have a hundred fleet spec Transit Connects disappeared in Iowa, or is this a glitch in Ford's website?

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17 minutes ago, GearheadGrrrl said:

jasonj80 and HotRunrGuy, It all adds up to an insane way to sell vehicles. We've got a bunch of small businesses with insane business plans trying to keep the blinders on customers so we don't see a better deal a few miles away in hopes they can maintain their local monopoly and margins. As for hiding vehicles, while searching around Iowa on Ford's website I found around 100 Transit Connect wagons listed to a dealer in north central Iowa, almost all of them 2020 Transit Connect XL wagons and some with taxi package. But the dealer's own website lists only one, and while there's some truck up fitters in northern Iowa and Winnebago, they mostly work with bigger vehicles. So have a hundred fleet spec Transit Connects disappeared in Iowa, or is this a glitch in Ford's website?

 

Grrrl, found this one in Kenosha WI.  Seems to check most of your boxes.

 

HRG

windowsticker-9.pdf

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I don’t like ADMs (or doc fees for that matter) but look at it this way.  If the dealer sells a high demand low supply vehicle at MSRP a fair number of buyers will immediately flip it for an extra $5k - $10k, so why shouldn’t the dealer get that profit?

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22 minutes ago, akirby said:

I don’t like ADMs (or doc fees for that matter) but look at it this way.  If the dealer sells a high demand low supply vehicle at MSRP a fair number of buyers will immediately flip it for an extra $5k - $10k, so why shouldn’t the dealer get that profit?

It puts the flipper out of business.  ?  If a company is going to prevent adm, then they also need to prevent flipping/scalping/etc.  Ford seems to have been pretty successful with it on the GT.

 

Of course, Ford could follow the Tesla model and adjust sticker prices monthly based on demand and keep the profit themselves.

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Surprisingly, the sorta friendly local Ford dealer came up with a halfway decent offer on the XLT Transit Connect wagon with tow package I want, even though they'd have to trade for it with a dealer 150 miles away. None the less, I found a slightly better deal, so much for letting the sorta friendly local Ford dealer search for you. And after yesterdays search on ford.com I looked up my 10 finds today on the dealer's sites and noticed a lot of discrepancies- Hard to believe Transit Connects are moving that fast, unlikely someone is borrowing off of phantom cars when there's so few cars in stock, and most likely just slow updating of the data. 

 

But does make me wonder if we're seeing the same sort of panic buying that has overwhelmed gas stations after the latest pipeline shutdown? Few of us NEED a new vehicle but a lot of us want one, and when F150s are thin on the lot and in the press a lot of people think they have to buy one quick and get crazy.  Selling vehicles over markup just ads to the panic and Ford and the other manufacturers should come down hard on any dealer who tries it. While they're at it remind the public that they'll still be building vehicles for another century at least, they may just have to wait a bit unless they're an essential service. Set up an incentive system for customer ordered vehicles that gives just as big a rebate for waiting x months for a vehicle to be delivered as the rebate for a vehicle that has sat the same x months on the lot and instead of panic we'll have an orderly line for new vehicles and almost everybody will be happy.

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4 hours ago, GearheadGrrrl said:

Surprisingly, the sorta friendly local Ford dealer came up with a halfway decent offer on the XLT Transit Connect wagon with tow package I want, even though they'd have to trade for it with a dealer 150 miles away. None the less, I found a slightly better deal, so much for letting the sorta friendly local Ford dealer search for you. 

 

Let's see... Dealer finds the vehicle equipped with the options you require, can arrange a trade with another Dealer 150 miles away, gives you what you consider a decent price and you're still not satisfied until you can get a "slightly" better deal elsewhere. The Dealer spent time and effort finding the vehicle, arranged with the stocking Dealer to do a trade, prepared to send drivers or a truck to go get the vehicle, etc. yet you're still shopping! The Dealer did what you asked and it's still not good enough!

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7 hours ago, GearheadGrrrl said:

 Selling vehicles over markup just ads to the panic and Ford and the other manufacturers should come down hard on any dealer who tries it.


First, it’s illegal for Ford to dictate dealer pricing although they can pressure dealers on some vehicles like Mach-E and Bronco by withholding allocations but even that is limited.  Franchise laws rule.

 

Second, you can’t blame a dealer who just went from 200 sales per month to 30 from trying to make maximum profit on those 30.  It’s a free market and a new vehicle is not a necessity like food or gas or electricity.  
 

7 hours ago, GearheadGrrrl said:

 Set up an incentive system for customer ordered vehicles that gives just as big a rebate for waiting x months for a vehicle to be delivered as the rebate for a vehicle that has sat the same x months on the lot and instead of panic we'll have an orderly line for new vehicles and almost everybody will be happy.


That system already exists - it’s called incentive protection.

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