Buying one new car is complicated enough, but buying two at (almost) the same time might be a little ridiculous. However, I found myself in that position not too long ago because of the Ford Maverick. I, like many others, became smitten upon learning of its existence. It’s an affordable family hauler with great fuel efficiency, a bed, and towing capacity.
What more does one need in their late 20s when all you have is a cat and a penchant for camping? The Maverick was the perfect evolution of what I like in my cars and what I hope to do with my future.
And, because of a quirk in Ford’s ordering system and the popularity of the vehicle, I was able to order two Ford Mavericks and resell one of them, lowering the total price of the truck I actually ended up with. It wasn’t a perfect experience, but I learned a lot about the process and how to use it to your advantage.
The First Meeting
This journey goes back to 2021. Ford had teased the arrival of an upcoming hybrid truck that could fit in normal parking spots. It sounded wonderful, but I was skeptical about putting money down on a new blue oval product, especially with friends still living with the nightmare that was the Focus’s dual-clutch. Heck, I even went down to Motorbella in Pontiac that September for the chance to look it over in person. A solid first impression but a parked show model can only tell you so much.
However, my mind was put at ease when the review embargo was lifted on Oct. 5. The consensus among writers who are much more knowledgeable than myself is that it was empirically good!
I was ready to open up my heart and I wanted to take the plunge. But I still wanted to get hands-on with the Mavierick before handing over a check.
Ordering Maverick #1
Roughly an hour southeast of my then apartment in Lansing, I located a Lariat Maverick. It was charming in its Hot Pepper Red paint but mated to the wrong engine, a 2.0L Ecoboost. It wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but the dealership was kind enough to let me poke around the vehicle and cruise around their parking lot.
Compared to being behind the wheel of my grandfather’s early 2000s Dodge Dakota, this “trucklet” handled like a dream, almost no different than my family’s 2008 and 2017 Ford Escape. Adding this experience to my collection of evidence, I put pen to paper and ordered my very own. Lo-and-behold, the dealership could place an order without a deposit, and there was no obligation to take delivery of the vehicle if I was unhappy with it.
There are many firsts in life: moving out of your parents’ house, going to college, getting a place of your own, and receiving your first mailer from AARP. This was the first time I had ordered a new vehicle. I learned quickly it required even more paperwork than buying used and, because of the pandemic-related supply constraints, a heck of a lot of patience.
When you’re at a grocery store’s meat counter or the DMV, you take a number and patiently wait your turn. Ordering a vehicle felt more like weekly raffle drawings, but the person pulling out your ticket might decide they dislike your hat and suddenly grow an aversion to odd numbers. So there you are, number 24601, and going home empty-handed because your boating hat offends.
For those unfamiliar, Ford’s allocation system is not too different from the above scenario. Your order is submitted to the automaker but when it’s fulfilled, whether it actually gets fulfilled is based on a variety of factors. The bigger the dealership, the more allocations are filled at a time. But those allocations also depend on what parts Ford has on hand at the time.
The more packages, features, and even accessories can create bottlenecks, slowing down your order. But at the time of order, no one knew quite how dire things would get. Blissfully unaware, I crafted the trucklet of my dreams. A Velocity Blue XLT with Co-Pilot 360 and the Luxury Package, a rear sliding window, and a sunroof. It would be the adult version of my long-since totaled 2nd Gen Prius, with the ability to do anything I needed, and just enough tricks to make it the perfect campsite companion for my family and the dog. Upon finishing up the paperwork, the salesman assured me I’d have the Maverick by the Super Bowl. I should have asked which one.
I Order Truck #2
About a week after placing my order, a slightly devious thought crossed my mind. If the Southeast Michigan dealership allowed one to place an order without a deposit, there had to be others. Could I try to improve my odds of getting the Maverick sooner rather than later and minimize the depreciation on my 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT that I’d be trading in?
It was a cute blue hatchback, styled by the former VW Golf designer Peter Schreyer, but its Nu engine was starting to consume oil and didn’t qualify for a mass recall. I quickly repeated the ordering again with my hometown dealership, which for clarity purposes going forward, I’ll refer to dealership #2. They also did not require a deposit or mandate taking delivery.
Now came the waiting game. Months went by with next-to-no communication from the dealerships and nary a peep from Ford. The one update came from dealership #1, with the rep saying Ford was facing significant constraints, and, by dropping down to the base XLT, my odds could improve to move up the allocation list. Undeterred, I was willing to wait for what I wanted. And that patience eventually paid off, twice.
In the spring of 2022, I began to glimpse the faint outlines of when and how my order might be fulfilled. A VIN was generated but nothing more. Then came the joy: the window sticker was finally generated! Under Ford’s system, this is a sign your order has been scheduled for build and should be off the assembly line sometime in the next four weeks. However, something wasn’t quite right… both the Luxury Package and Co-Pilot 360 had been stripped away.
Confused, I contacted dealership #2. The sales rep said this was a mandate by Ford and there was nothing to be done. Once a vehicle is scheduled for production, no change can be made. This was only partially true. Dealership #1 said there was never a mandate and multiple Ford customer service reps confirmed as much. One of those agents was quite sympathetic and suggested the path I’d eventually take, take delivery of the truck, but make the dreaded market adjustments work for you.
Join The Club, We Have Discounts
This is where prior planning paid off. As many of you have probably read, or unfortunately even experienced, low car inventories during and post-pandemic lead to possibly historic price gouging. I was able to sidestep this by utilizing the X-Plan. While not as good as the A plan for employees, the X plan is nothing to sneeze at. Per Ford, X-Plan is Dealer Invoice – (0.4% * Dealer Invoice) + $275 Administration Fee. A discount worth approximately $500, plus you get to avoid all haggling at participating dealerships. I got mine with a $30 annual membership to Mustang Club of America, an organization I was already curious about after picking up a beat-up jellybean convertible two years earlier. If you are new car shopping, it’s worth investigating if any of your current subscriptions, or if even your employer, has a partnership that can help with discounts.
So, come fall of 2022, the first Maverick arrives at dealership #2. Still Velocity Blue, but missing all the bells and whistles. Overall, relatively no funny business with the dealership, outside of a $70 charge for the 3M tape they applied to the doors, supposedly to prevent dings when they opening doors on the lot. Based on my research, if you can escape with less than $150 worth of BS, you’re doing good.
The Elantra GT was now at 60,000 miles and netted roughly $12,000… significantly down from Carvana’s peak pandemic offer of $17,500. However, I acquired the hatchback in the summer of 2019 for $16,500, certified preowned, and 16,000 miles. A net cost of $128/month of ownership isn’t bad. That’s better than leasing and not dissimilar from buying a used car for $7,500 and getting five years of use before it bites the bullet.
Now was the gamble. How long and how far could I drive this Maverick, and keep its value, before the possibly “perfect order gets fulfilled? Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long. At the end of December, the window sticker for dealer #1 order was generated… meaning I had just weeks to determine the best course of action.
Always Get Multiple Estimates
After running the VIN through various online retailers, dealership #1, and any dealership I could find online with a ridiculously overpriced Maverick, Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer was the one with the highest offer, $28,700. However, the catch is I wanted to use the money from selling the first truck to go towards the down payment of the next one.
It was a bit of a timing tango. The first Maverick was sold on January 6, 2023 via the Kelley Blue Book’s Instant Cash Offer to the dealership in South Bend, where I had since moved to, and of course, this added another layer of complexity. Not only did the dealership need to pay off the remaining $20,000 balance to Ford Credit, but there was also then the process of getting the title transferred from Michigan to Indiana. Adding to the fun, it was an e-title, meaning Michigan wouldn’t send out a paper copy until everything was squared away, slowing things down even more. But, hey, I had my Mustang convertible (mid-winter) with its all-season tires to tide me over through the slightly less-than-ideal situation.
I also managed to put off visiting the Southeast Michigan dealership for a couple of weeks while waiting for the South Bend dealership’s money to clear. It was messy, to say the least, but it all worked out. I finally picked up the “new new” Maverick on January 28th.
I Went To School For Sports Communication, Please Don’t Ask Me To Do More Math
Actually, math is ok. Stats is a form of math… so I’m good. Without further ado, let’s add this all up.
The first Maverick was bought at dealership #2 for $26,756 before tax. A couple of months later, dealership #2 sent me a check for $1,244 check as part of Ford’s price protection plan. This lowers the price of Mavierck #1 to $25,512 (the original order at plan pricing would have been $24,448, subtracting the Luxury Package and Co-Pilot 360). It was then sold for $28,700, resulting in a net profit of $3,188. The second Maverick was bought at $28,980 *but* because that price also crept up from rolling over from the 2022 to 2023 model year, (originally $27,610 when ordered), I was able to apply a $2,750 rebate at the point of sale (an option I wish dealership #2 had given), lowering the price to $26,230.
Account for the profits of the first vehicle sold (and completely ignore tax), one could look at it as buying a 2023 XLT Maverick, fully loaded, for $23,042. All-in-all, thanks to a boatload of waiting (sometimes not so patiently), trucks holding their value, and this particular model being in high demand, I managed to come out on top. This was one of those rare occasions where someone actually scored a deal amidst a dealership nightmare.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a completely happy ending. My heart had been set on Velocity Blue, a stunning metallic shade, but they discontinued it for the 2023 model year. Ford replaced it with Atlas Blue, which while nice, just doesn’t have that same wow factor. Yet, my family and significant other seemed to prefer the new color, so it’s a bit of a mixed bag. You win some, you lose some. And hopefully, at the end of the day, you’re wiser for it and have made enough cash to buy even more toys.
All Photos: Author
The state of Michigan thanks you for your tax contribution. The only profit seen by you was the mileage on the first truck that got sold, which was never mentioned. The dealer in South Bend made the money in this story, you just transported an in demand vehicle to their lot after a slight detour.
If you’re going to write a story about money, include all the details.
As others have said, tax was ignored.
Furthermore, how much was registration? Was there excise tax?
And I really wonder why you took delivery of a car you didn’t want when you could have just waited on the other one.
Even worse, the general ickiness of the tale wasn’t even offset by a sense of humor.
But the dog makes this all ok. Such a good doggie.
I have a previous comment that went over the initial tax on Maverick #1 and offering it to other prospective Maverick owners at a break-even price.
As referenced in the article, taking possession was a move to stave off any further depreciation with my 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT. That hatch was valued by Carvana at $17,500 in early 2021. Changing conditions led it to be valued at $12,000 by the fall of 2022 with $6,000 left on the loan.
There were also multiple people I talked to at Ford customer service who theorized the dealership purposely modified the order. Under that line of thought, the dealership could take possession when I declined to and then put a $10,000 markup on the truck. Not sure if I believe that but we’ve all heard worse when it comes to certain dealerships and I was going to be darned if they profited from manipulating my order.
There was a capital gains tax. It came out to roughly $88. The vehicle was registered in the state of Indiana, which charged for 15 months (the remaining months in the year and the following year). However, once it was sold, I was able to get a prorated refund. There was no additional cost to register a vehicle that was new compared to used.
You’re right about humor. There might not be much to be had for this unless there’s a slight joy or satisfaction in “sticking it” to a dealer. I did what I thought was best at the time, morally and financially. Next time, I know to carefully review a dealer-submitted order on a monthly basis before it is scheduled for build. But I also hope there isn’t a next time and I can hold onto this truck for 20 years. It’s that good!
Thank you for the kind words about the dog! Her name is Amber, she’s our “dingo” and I’d die for her.
Hey thanks for the generous response. I’m a product of a Liberal Arts education so I have some opinions on writing (insert smiley face)
Honestly I think with a little more back and forth with an editor this story could have better aligned with what we demanding readers expect from our favorite website in the whole of the simulation.
I really don’t like this article at all and I don’t feel like it fits on this site. This is an article that openly describes and celebrates the ordering of two vehicles that were under incredibly high demand with the expressed intent to flip one of them for profit.
Meanwhile we have Mercedes Streeter going above and beyond by sending a few hundred dollars back to the buyer of their former VW Passat manual converted wagon that had a mountain of issues disclosed on the as-is cash deal.
John Gustin wrote here about how he managed to save a few bucks by gaming the car buying system within this wild car market. He clearly feels okay about that since he had a mountain of time to consider and reconsider the ethics of this. Then decided that he was so proud of his exploit that he just had to write a whole article about it. I am glad he feels proud of himself. But I certainly do not respect that decision, nor will I respect anything that John writes about cars going forward. The world is full of people that purposefully “game the system” for their own personal gain and the world is worse off for it.
If ever there was a system ripe to be gamed by customers then the US new car buying system appears to be the one. Especially since it was clearly built to game the customer in the first place.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Still feels icky though.
Between taxes, which you conveniently ignore, the time and pain in the ass factor, and the risk of something in this scenario not working out right, this is not a path I would ever go down. Want to save a few hundred (maybe considerably more) over a period of car ownership? Wait until you can buy it with no financing. Or, at least, put enough down that you are never ever underwater on it. Then, pay it down earlier than whatever your loan term was. If you can’t afford to do that, then that’s telling you that you couldn’t afford the car in the first place.
The ethics on this are not only questionable but this was a breach of contract. When you use X-Plan you agree not to sell the vehicle for at least 6 months. Buying it in the fall and selling it in December would absolutely qualify for that breach of contract, which Ford has in place precisely to stop you from doing this. Shame on you.
I don’t understand what actually happened. :!
Also, there are quite a few typos and other niggles in the body text.
BUT! it sounds like the author got a truck. That’s always fun.
Guy buys two trucks, sells one of them.
This article is not informative or entertaining. I’d rather Autopian pay their core contributors more than spending money for “content” like this.
If you had the genius foresight to order 9 trucks, you could’ve gotten your Maverick for free.
If you did it 350 times you could’ve been a millionaire.
There is a kitchen appliance called Thermomix that uses the same model, if you manage to get 9 of your contacts to buy a $1500 blender, you get 1 for free.
Where can I subscribe to your podcast??
I guess it’s a personal win but a crappy human thing to do. You absolutely screwed someone else from buying truck one at MSRP. You added 3 layers of profit to the unlucky next buyer: the first dealer, you, then the dealer who bought it from you. Congratulations on making someone else pay more than they should have. After taxes you might have saved $300-400. BTW, I’m sure you’re honest enough to have paid capital gains tax on your profit, right?
I’m not sure about the value proposition here. As others pointed out Michigan sales tax eats some of the profits. The end result appears to be one vehicle with the desired options partially paid for by a vehicle without the options. I guess it’s a clever life hack compared to listing your incEl Camino on Bring A Trailer a week after delivery
Incel Camino? Is that a Cybertruck?
Why yes, it is yet another nickname for Elon’s wank panzer
It’s funny you compare the truck to a Ford Escape. The Maverick uses the same basic platform as the current Escape and Mk4 Focus. Same as previous Focus and Escape models.
Also shared with the Bronco Sport and Transit Connect.
On dealer #2. I don’t see your name on the build sheet.
Thats not the actual build sheet. Dealer #1 had it with his name and not dealer #2.
The one that they actually put in to ford will have his name on it.
They could have just not loaded it correctly then bs’d.
Around that time was being pretty aggresive trying to get people to drop options to get the cars build faster, but it was never a mandate.
If I’m reading right, Michigan tax on a new vehicle is 6% so that means you paid $1,605 on top of the first vehicle so a total of around $28,361 before destination, other fees, etc. Since you flipped the first for $28,700 that means you netted $339
We made more than that at our garage sale today, and I got to sit in a chair with a coffee in hand the whole time.
Yeah but…. Did you write an article about it? =D
Did you also sell cups of coffee while you were at it?
You could be something like a garage sale coffee king!
Blue is the best car color, however some blues are better than others. That is all.
Yes! Agreed- my favorite color is blue- current car is dark blue
(Which is good but would prefer a regular blue; or light blue like on the 3rd gen Accords which I’ve had 2 of them w/ bad colors- white and maroon but they were great cars)
-If I had a lot of cars, I would want them all to be blue
-If I had a Ferrari, it would be blue since so many are red
-If I had a Viper or SRT-10 they would have the blue w/ white stripes
-My favorite blue on a car is Petty Blue on Richard Petty’s Superbird
-If I could, I would paint my house blue and every room inside would be different shades of blue
-I wouldn’t be averse to wearing a blue shirt every single day
-Also -“Nobody leaves here without
singin’ the blues”
-The Blues Brothers!
Basically, I’m obsessed w/ blue
Thanks for listening!
I agree that the right shade of blue is awesome which leaves me wondering why so many of my vehicles have been red.
I would say that green is the best color on a vehicle…except I own three blue vehicles, so obviously I don’t actually agree with what I just said. I do enjoy a nice green on a vehicle, though.
Green with a tan/brown (not dark) interior… Mmmmmmm
I like many blues, especially on cars.
I wouldn’t call it the “best”, per se.
But I strongly prefer naturally-colorful tones, so greens, blues, oranges, yellows, reds (less so), brown, tan, silver (in moderation, not the oversaturation we have now), etc. Not black. Not white.
Green is my preference, though I’ve yet to own a green car. Had quite a few blue ones, though.
*thinks*
I think I’ve had more blue vehicles than any other color, now that I think about it.
A) Didn’t you pay tax twice, essentially erasing any “deal” here?
B) The only people I know of who can afford new cars in their late 20s are: nepo babies, offshore chemical engineers, electricians, or people who are very bad with money. Which one are you?
I think he was able to offset the trade in amount against the sales tax.
At least I hope he was.
Sounds like he sold to a different dealer than he purchased from, so that wouldn’t apply here.
True, and if that’s the case, he probably lost more than the value of selling to the trade-in/purchase dealer, assuming they were to have given him a good value on it.
As far as B) I will say that it is probably one of the cheapest options out there, it was under 30k. Sounds like he put 8k down and financed the rest. Thats reasonable for anyone decent with money and making somewhat decent income.
*realized he did this with two trucks at the same time, so his credit must be decent as well. But I still don’t think you need to be really rich to do it.
I agree with point A.
I tried this once with a Wii U. I thought it’d be an easy way to net 50 or 100 bucks, but the longer I thought about what I was doing the more uncomfortable I felt. I have been grateful it never sold and I just ended up taking it back.
I definitely wouldn’t write an article about how savvy I was to be artificially constraining supply in order to turn a profit based on a margin I helped create by constraining supply.
This article is every $30 concert ticket you haven’t been able to buy for less than $50, every pack of toilet paper someone bought five of when they only use one every six months, every game console or graphics that was sold out for months except on eBay where they were 2x MSRP.
Dealers are sleazy, we all know this. Grifting and ripping off the next poor bastard in line doesn’t give the dealers what for, it just rips off the next poor bastard.
I meant to comment on this article when it popped up before work but I was late. This comment nails what I was thinking. I thought maybe I’m the weirdo who doesn’t feel comfortable “making a buck” off of some random person because “the market” favors me. If I’m selling something, I want people to feel like they are getting a solid deal.
Well said.
You are correct.
But I feel like you haven’t bought major tour concert tickets in a while.
Should have said a $300 ticket you haven’t been able to buy for less than $1200.
I’m a metalhead. In the last 7 months, Dethklok was $65 after voluntarily paying a markup to a known individual that couldn’t attend.
Cradle of Filth and Devildriver were $40, base price, IIRC. I did get ripped off for Cannibal Corpse & Gorguts were $108, though, not realizing I was even buying from a third party website. At that point I just considered myself lucky not to have my identity stolen and took the lump. It should have been $35 or $45 (that was last fall, I don’t remember exactly).
I stand corrected and acknowledge that my experience lately is limited to someone in my life wanting Taylor Swift tickets, in which case my numbers are accurate.
That did not happen.
Sounds like the key is to be a fan out of the mainstream.
P.S. I have never heard of any of those bands, and I consider myself decently well versed in music, although not at all in Metal. I possibly have a self-serving definition of mainstream.
Hope you get in on Archspire’s “Everything’s Fucked” tour for like $30 after fees. And the Lamb of God/Mastodon tour is a little under $60. Definitely one of the best genres for concert prices.
I am so fucking excited for Archspire. I’m actually inspired enough that I’m trying to get in better shape to be more of a force in the pit.
Omg
I was stoked for LoG until I found out Chris Adler quit a while ago. I wanted to see him drum more thank anything. I’ve seen Mastodon many times, they freakin rule.
$108 for CC and Gorguts is a lot, but those Claw sessions at Wal-Mart get expensive.
Considering the games dealers were playing with car prices during that time, that swaparoo was fine. People who needed a vehicle were paying markups happily. Playing the dealer’s game and coming out even with a more reliable and trustworthy vehicle is good. There’s no black and white.
Getting out of a ticking time bomb of a vehicle into a cheap new vehicle is sometimes a great financial move. A fixed payment every month and no big unexpected maintenance bills for a few years does give predictability to finances. Plus helping to establish or rebuild credit.
I have seen many stories of buyers having too pay prices above MSRP. I haven’t seen any where the buyer was happy to pay it.
Not happy in the sense of “glad I paid the dealer more because they’re good people” but “glad I have a replacement car and got the best deal possible under the circumstances”. New/used didn’t matter. When used cars jumped in value by a few grand, that’s a markup too. It’s not stated on the sticker is all.
No. Ethics are not conditional.
That’s the system we have where car dealers are going to pry every penny out of someone’s wallet.
Rereading your comment, I can see your perspective. My initial interpretation was that you thought dealers were thieves for marking up cars and that gave you permission to steal, too. But that’s not what you said. The game is afoot!
The game is indeed afoot. DTC sales didn’t help either. Tesla was just as bad as the dealers. The people who signed purchase contracts the day before the first massive price cut were probably especially incensed.
“People who needed a vehicle were paying markups happily”
I’m calling BS on the ‘happily’ part.
This is slimy behavior, IMO…not to be celebrated, and not worthy of this site.
Really confused on how to feel about this. But overall don’t like it. It was more a “hedge your bet” that you took too far IMO. You are part of the problem during covid and further, that was talked about here and other places. Car flipping new cars is gross to me. I do understand this isn’t quite that black and white, but the way you framed this, and schemed…. I expect better from this website.
It does bother me that we are writing about flipping new cars and not old project cars someone like Dave worked on, or found a fun quick fix to inform the readers about.
I feel like I need a shower.
Regarding flipping older cars: there’s no money to be made here. Trust me, I know.
It’s always more broken than you think it is.
And the tin is more rotten than you think
Um, taxes are a not-insignificant cost in most states. What was the bottom line profit on the flipped truck, and was it worth it?
Michigan has a sales tax of 6%. The out-the-door price would have been approximately $28,300. So accounting for the price protection check and what it sold via KBB instant for, it was somewhat worth it. But this situation was mostly one massive headache. If my memory is correct, it was strongly implied if I declined to take possession of the base XLT from dealership #2, they would turn around and sell it at a large markup. At this time, Mavericks were seeing “market adjustments” upwards of $10,000.
My attempt to remedy this was offering the truck for sale at break-even on Maverick forums. There was a lot of interest but most only wanted it at a major discount or were unfortunately too far away.
You should have included this in the article to defray the haters. Also, reframe it- from the article it’s clear that you didn’t really mean to get both, just couldn’t wait around for the one you really wanted. But the headline makes it seem like you were intending to do a flip too.
Congratulations on your new truck! Enjoy it! I look forward to all the upcoming articles about your experience.
Are you John’s dad?
… I may have called it correctly, based on a little googling. It’s great John has a supportive pops!
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry to disappoint you but I am not his father. (Using the Vader voice)
To be completely and embarrassingly honest, I thought Matt Hardigree had written this.
Still, It’s another person happy with owning a pickup. That’s a good thing.
Being compared to anyone here is high praise, thank you! The writing style is a bit of an adjustment from my background in local news so there are plenty of kinks to work out. I hope you all bear with me and I bring you at least a fraction of the joy the crew here has brought me over the years.
I know some take issue with calling the Maverick a truck but it is! It’s my little trucklet and it’s been eye-opening what one can do with an open bed and a hitch.
Sounds like an Elantra driver’s definition of a truck.
This article is a great reminder of how much I hate dealerships and the new car buying process.
I suppose I would have more of the required umbrage to this article if both trucks had been as ordered and timely in delivery.
It’s a double edged sword, with both sides swinging it. The flippers get to point to Ford as the bad guy for not having supply ramped up and not even building the requested trucks, while Ford gets to point out they don’t need to try and do things right because early buyers are flipping jackasses that will take anything they can get.
Seems like both were right here to varying extents.
Scalping cars. I’m so glad aas-jack moves like this are getting less and less profitable. This is the automotive equivalent of hoarding toilet paper.
We’re now celebrating flipping here?
At first I didn’t like GM’s “keep the Z06 for 12 months (later 6) or lose warranty” policy, but more companies should have done it.
This worked out great for you, but someone else who wanted an MSRP or X plan allocation didn’t get one because you ordered a truck you knew you wouldn’t keep.
All this does is incentivize dealers to charge over, because people who buy to flip are basically taking advantage of those dealers reasonableness during times of high demand.
There are a number of questionable things that went on here getting glossed over in addition to that. Dealer #2 flat out lied about a “mandate” from Ford, then charged $70 for door tape? And that’s ok? Less than $150 of BS is ok? What the hell? I get that it’s a high-demand car and you may have to bite the bullet sometimes, but that ain’t “ok” any way you slice it. Any amount of BS greater than $0 is not ok.
I’m sure that dealer would’ve been happy to cancel the deal over the tape and flip the truck for even more by that point. To be honest I’m not sure that’s how it even works but with most dealerships I assume the worst.
I forgot to mention the $90 charge for wheel locks from dealer #1. Ideally on principle, yes you demand no BS. However, I was willing to compromise on that after waiting over a calendar year for my order to come in.
Yep and as you know that’s exactly what they’re banking on. “Oh they’ve waited this long, already committed to $xx thousand, they won’t fight us on this.”
It’s also easier to not budge when there’s no financial threat. During this time, I was working third shift and barely breaking even. I eventually got a second job, working at Valvoline again, and was scared there was a depreciation cliff with the Elantra GT or that the engine was a ticking time bomb. Thankfully I’m in a much better place now. However, I know there a plenty out there with similar issues, stuck in bad loans or without reliable transportation.
Perfectly reasonable to bite the bullet in that situation. But glossing over those awful dealer tactics like it’s acceptable behavior makes it sound like it’s a thing everyone should just let go any time you’re buying a car.
Dealing with dealerships is more akin to war than a “standard” retail transaction, and they lobby hard to keep it that way. The bigger the dealership, the bigger the battle, and a lot of us have war stories. The one’s that don’t just have no idea how badly they lost.
I’ve known people who thought they had a great buying experience, but when you looked at the numbers you could clearly see they essentially gave away the $10,000 or $15,000+ equity they had in their trade-in. The great deal they got was in fact, not. In any other context, it would have been grand theft.
Reminds me of one of my favorite Far Side cartoons. The wagon train is circled with the cowboys kneeling down by the wheels, fending off an attack. One guy says to the other “Hey, they’re lighting their arrows… can they do that?”
Yes, yes they can. And the dealerships do as much as they can.
My last purchase involved driving to a dealership more than 100 miles away to avoid a mandatory $2,500 add on at the local Toyota shop, and I too pretty much gave away my trade in, but at least they honored MSRP in the height of COVID and I was (mostly) aware what I was giving away with my no-longer trusted old car. Still feel a bit dirty about it though.
I’m sure John has everything under control.
But as a PSA for anyone else reading this, if you are financially barely breaking even, and you’re looking for a second job to make ends meet, then buying a brand new vehicle is not a good financial decision.
You will lose money on depreciation and pay significantly more long term in interest on your car loan.
Instead, take your down payment, and use it to maintain your most reliable existing car. If your current car is dead, then use whatever residual value it has plus what you have in cash on hand (down payment on that new car loan), and find a good deal on a used car.
/The More You Know.
In a perfect world that would not happen. Considering that the COVID car market was insane and they could have sold it with a much higher markup to someone else, given the situation it’s not too bad.
Yeah, it’s the principle of the matter…dealerships are a joke…the “never buy new since it depreciates when you drive it off the lot” still applies (To me, at least) I’d rather have the rustiest car in the world than go to a stealership
Almost every Toyota dealer is charging more than $70 for those shitty “door edge guards”. Something no one bought before COVID and now Toyota packs the stickers with those, $80 USB cables, $400 floor mats that suck compared to WeatherTech or Husky, and on and on.
Hell, it isn’t even all the money with those things. I think they look terrible. I have a 12 and 11 year old car, the side of my door isn’t bare metal because my lack of “door edge guards”.
The only markup I paid for with my GR86 was in compulsory options: the door guards I pulled off the day I got home, the extra heavy shift knob I swapped for my usual $2 wood knob, and the black lug nuts that I actually like. I forget how it broke down individually, but the total “value” of the options was about $250. Apparently due to supply constraints, I didn’t get any kind of floor mats at all (I would have replaced them with aftermarket Maxpiders, anyway). Still OTD under $30k only a month after the order books were opened (payments were within $3 of what I calculated before going in) so no complaints, but I also recognize that I lucked out with that dealer going by the general reputation for Toyota dealers.
+1 for 3DMaxPiders.
I almost didn’t click into this article, and I’m glad to see most of the comments are not overly supportive of the behavior. I agree that in-demand vehicles should have policies to disincentivize flipping.
This one also feels weird because the article specifies the profits, but doesn’t consider the taxes (and I’m a bit unclear as to whether the prices include documentation fees and such). Should have been about $1600 in tax for the first one, then about $1575 for the second one. The “profit” of $3,188 against the higher of those two taxes basically means the profit was just enough to cover taxes on the second vehicle. Almost $1600 on a Maverick isn’t nothing, but I think it’s important to consider that the profit was about half of what is stated, maybe less if licensing and documentation aren’t included in the pre-tax price.
Glorifying flipping may not be the intention, but leaving out context like that means that it looks better than it is. I’d think an emphasis on how little was gained would help this feel more like “I got the one I actually wanted” and less like “I played the dealers’ games to make a little extra money and get some free use out of a pickup in the meantime.”
Largely agree, but TBF, that was a lot of BS to deal with just to make about $1500 or so after taxes and much of that down to luck in timing.
I was reading this and waiting for some autopian twist, but no, just good ol’ flipping bullshit. It doesn’t affect me presonally, since in the EU we don’t have this insane markup practices on the dealers side (if anything, they try to sell you some financial product, be that credit or leasing, as selling just cars for cash is passe), but this is no different from just scalpers buying my precious Hot Wheels cars for “profit”.