FoMoCo Dealers: Widespread suffering with intermittent fits of GREED.

Two items of interest:

1. www.fordboldmoves.com "Community Buzz" (http://www.fordboldmoves.com/communitybuzzdetail.aspx?episode=1&id=f3b9eb88-6812-4ce9-a684-61508f706ab7 ) posted a link to a MOTOR TREND board discussion of engine weights.

Not much enlightenment among the MT set (no hard data). But embedded in the thread was this salient comment on rampant FoMoCo dealer gouging:

"I'm not sure that GTs are sitting on lots around the country because they're not desirable, or because people react to them the same way your girlfriend does. I may be wrong, but let me at my 2 cents. I think it's due to the greedy $#@% dealers. This is anecdotal, so take it for what thats worth. The dealership in town has 2 GTs in the show room(at least two weeks ago) and owner has refused to sell them for MSRP. According to my salesman, the owner has had a lot of $10K to $25K offers above the sticker, but he wants $50K for the white and blue GT, and more than that for the Black and Silver GT. If the cars had started out at $200k that'd be one thing, but anyone looking at a GT knows that the MSRP is just under $150K. The GT has been out for over a year and I think folks just get %*^$%$# when they understand that dealers are trying to rape them."

"My salesman tells me that a guy from LA has expressed considerable interest in the White GT, and has made a number of offers. That tells me that all of those dealerships with GTs are pulling the same crap. Otherwise, why negotiate a sale in Arkansas when you live in LA?"

"Dealers are killing this car as surely as they rotted away interest in the Thunderbird--with that car, a mid $40K car, all but one dealership in our area refused to let people test-drive the t-bird, and all of them were asking outlandish 'premiums' for the first year and a half. I think I told everyone about my mom's experience at the local Ford lot while looking at t-birds--wasn't good."

"Even if Ford, GM, and DCX change their way of doing business and produce some very desirable rides, their crappy network of dealerships are going cause a lot of problems."

http://forums.motortrend.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=90634&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=all&vc=1

Of course L-M dealers did the same thing with the 2003-2004 Mercury Marauder--even though its paltry 300 h.p. and minimal added value wouldn't really even support strong sales at MSRP, much less the outrageous additional dealer mark-ups ("ADM") that killed initial demand.

And its happening already with the GT500.

One dealer rep I interviewed said "We won't have a GT500 until next month. . . and we won't have it long. We've already sold it for $30,000 over sticker . . . . We even turned down a guy who wanted to post a $30,000 cash deposit . . . We only expect to get two of them . . . . "

Such antics make it hard to have much sympathy for FoMoCo dealers. Or for the FACTORY which is enabling the performance customer "rape-fest."

2. Yet Automotive News reports that horrible "mainstream sales" are driving many FoMoCo and other Detroit 3 dealers to the poor house. Only half of the Ford dealers surveyed said they were profitable (as compared with 91% of Honda dealers). Twenty-five percent of Ford dealers are losing money.

Yet despite sales that are significantly below last-year's depressed, pre-employee pricing sale numbers, Automotive News reported that a full 2/3rds of FoMoCo stores polled don't want another "employee pricing" sales blitz to clear the floor(plan) for 2007.

Of course, any price cutting will undoubtedly ignore Ford's high performance models . . . .

A "BOLD MOVE" would be to treat Ford's loyal high-performance customers as fairly as the ordinary "mainstream" mopes Ford works so hard to court.

Don't count on it.