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Price Protection - Make Sure You Know How To Get It And What It Should Be


BigVette

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Starts at about the 30 minute mark. The takeaway here is know how it works with price protection, particularly in this crazy year of hyperinflation. 

 

I ordered my Navigator in January and it finally just arrived at the dealer yesterday. When we went back with the F&I guy my numbers were way off (much lower) than his because he was basically showing me the invoice at the current MSRP. For those who may not be aware, there were at least two price increases that I observed throughout the time I ordered my vehicle, between January earlier this year and now in August. The really cool and important thing to note as well, which this guy explains and verifies, is that any subsequent amendment to your order also qualifies at the pricing level that was in place when you originally ordered your vehicle. 

 

Long story short, I was expecting to get just $1,290 in refund for price protection but I have since discovered, since I ordered in January and even though I added Lincoln Play when it became available in April, I still qualify for January pricing. With my X-plan pricing, I should be receiving a check for $2,764 instead. (Total discount will then be about $8,100 under the current MSRP). 

 

Also, I said GM doesn't do it this way and the dealer can sell you the vehicle at the price you're supposed to pay up front, as long as they know what they are doing. Been there and done that recently on a C8 Corvette. Because I had to pay a higher price up front and expect a refund check in the mail from the dealer (once they get it from Ford,) I also had to pay an additional $172 in sales tax which was completely unnecessary. We'll see what they say on that but heads up to the rest of you. 

 

I also pointed out they charged me $150 in doc fees and pointed them to the X-plan literature that says Ford caps doc fees on X-Plan deals at $100; I expect that refund, as well.  

 

 

Ford_PriceProtection_2016.pdf

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What do you mean “GM does it that way?”.  That’s how all dealers should operate.  Your Ford dealer should be giving you a price up front and honoring that price no questions asked.  Ford offers price protection so the dealers can do just that.  Unfortunately many dealers are either clueless or are just trying to screw you.  But this has nothing to do with Ford and everything to do with how the dealers choose to do business.

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1 hour ago, akirby said:

What do you mean “GM does it that way?”.  That’s how all dealers should operate.  Your Ford dealer should be giving you a price up front and honoring that price no questions asked.  Ford offers price protection so the dealers can do just that.  Unfortunately many dealers are either clueless or are just trying to screw you.  But this has nothing to do with Ford and everything to do with how the dealers choose to do business.

GM's process for price protection is nothing new so dealers who know what they are doing can choose if they desire, to only charge you the price-protected amount up front. I'm probably more familiar with their process given my recent experience on a C8 Corvette and price protection, but the thing is, not all dealers will do it that way and GM won't make them, unfortunately. Dealers who don't have a clue will tell you they will send you a refund once they get their money back from the manufacturer. I specifically said to the F&I guy that any dealer who knows what they are doing will know how the process works, and only charge what they should be charging, upfront. He actually smiled and said he was in the middle of a C8 order himself and he should be price protected on it - but still proceeded to tell me that it's Lincoln who will send me a check after the fact. (Turns out it's actually the dealer if you read that PDF.)

 

When I pointed this out to the sales director yesterday he said I made some good points and he would have to check with the Lincoln zone rep to verify how it's supposed to work. The dealer just absolutely drug their feet when I asked them for the front-end numbers after even asking the Sales director last Saturday when we spoke after already previously asking to see the numbers and already providing my X-plan PIN earlier in the week. I didn't even see the front-end numbers until the F&I guy came walking up to where I was sitting in the dealership, and asked me which lender I wanted to use.

I said to him that I haven't even seen the numbers yet and I was of course a tad perturbed. The numbers he then proceeds to show me are the current MSRP and Invoice with X-Plan pricing, although both he and the sales director said I was going to get price protection. The only problem was in my mind, that meant up front and what I was blindsided by was paying at the current August figures up front, and expecting a refund after the fact. Okay if that was the way it was going to be (to the best of my efforts, I was not as educated on the topic as I now am and hence ther reason for wanting to share with this forum,) but the important thing at that point then was for the dealer and I to be certain on what the amount in price protection that I should be expecting in refund because as I learned, it sounds like Ford sends the money to the dealer and it is for they to distribute. Not terribly happy about that. Also cost me an extra $172 in sales tax that I otherwise wouldn't have had to pay. 

I don't think that was ever in question and I expect I will get the refund - but the main thing to get straight at that point was how much of a refund should I be expecting. At first, they were pointing back to my amendment in April where I added the Lincoln Play, and that amount was only about $1,200. My original order of course had a different MSRP because I ordered it in January. January pricing means I should be getting a refund of about $2,700. 

Edited by BigVette
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Ford does not force the refund to go to the customer.  That is entirely up to the dealer.  And the Ford price protection process has been in place for years, maybe decades.  It is not new.  It just usually doesn’t come up when there are only a few special orders and they’re built in 8 weeks.

 

What should happen is you pay the original price and the dealer works everything else out with Ford behind the scenes.  It’s the dealer doing this not Ford.

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38 minutes ago, akirby said:

Ford does not force the refund to go to the customer.  That is entirely up to the dealer.  And the Ford price protection process has been in place for years, maybe decades.  It is not new.  It just usually doesn’t come up when there are only a few special orders and they’re built in 8 weeks.

 

What should happen is you pay the original price and the dealer works everything else out with Ford behind the scenes.  It’s the dealer doing this not Ford.

My faith is the Lincoln zone rep now. The dealer to their credit has always said I will get price protection, I think they were just uninformed. I admit, my situation was less common and the amount in play here is much larger than most scenarios. I did receive a phone call asking me about the survey; I told them I'm waiting on a response from Sales Director. Will escalate if necessary. 

 

Here is another good follow up on the subject. 

 

Edited by BigVette
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Quick update. The dealer is legit and I will get a price protection refund from the January pricing level, which will be around $2,800. I also got a nice credit for the higher amount they charged on my doc fee since I pointed out that the X-Plan caps doc fees at $100. And I also got them to refund me the difference in the amount of State sales tax that I had to pay on the higher amount, so all is good. Would have been better to get it all taken care of upfront but I think both the dealer and I now know much better how the process is supposed to work! All in all, with the two price increases since I originally ordered our Navigator, we ended up getting our truck for just over $8,000 below the current MSRP window sticker. 
 

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  • ice-capades changed the title to Price Protection - Make Sure You Know How To Get It And What It Should Be
  • 1 month later...

Finally got the price protection check in the mail today from the dealer. The amount was the amount promised. All worked out in the long run, but let that me a lesson to everyone and try and get the dealer to call Lincoln up front and only pay the price protected amount up front. 

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