Ford Putting Pressure on F-150 Lightning Dealers Not to Take Advantage of Reservation Holders

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Ford has issued a warning to all dealerships that are attempting to take advantage of 150 Lightning reservation holders and requesting more money from customers. But it looks like that might be an issue on preventing markups.

In a report by electrek, they published how some Ford dealers are taking advantage of the huge demand for the Lightning and are marking the sticker price by as much as $30,000. Some of them were asking for ridiculous prices for the first few units of the electric pickup truck that they are expecting to get. A few of them were also asking for bigger deposits to get access to those early units.

Ford has sent out a bulletin to its dealerships that they (Ford) is attempting to crack down on some of those businesses.

In a message that was leaked on a site by Andrew Frick (Ford's Vice President of Sales in the US and Canada), he stated-

"It has come to our attention that a limited number of dealerships are interacting with customers in a manner that is negatively impacting customers and damaging to the Ford Motor Company brand and Dealer Body reputation."

Frick went on to say-

"Examples of these negative interactions include demanding that customers who are already on the reservation list for the 22 MY F-150 Lightning make additional deposits or payments. These actions are perceived as threatening customers by withholding their opportunity to convert reservations to orders."

The VP warned those that these mark ups go against a clause in its dealership agreement and it could decide to "redirect" allocations of the Lightning to other dealers.

However, the warning sounds like it is more about dealers asking for additional payment pre-delivery to maintain a position in the reservation list rather than asking for a higher markup, which Ford can’t control much.

Ford also tells its dealers its dealers that is supports them adding a "no-sale provision" to its contracts with F-150 Lightning buyers that would prevent them form selling their newly bought pickup truck for a year. This was also posted in the bulletin statement from Frick.

Sure hope most of these dealers don't get greedy and take advantage of its customers because there are a lot of new EV's coming out and customers will remember how they were treated!
 
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