Ford is switching to on-line sales

General Discussion
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Ford is switching to on-line sales; 2 minutes - this morning’s Marketplace’

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I hate this idea. how are you going to know how it drives? or if the seats are comfortable. so I spend 50k on a mustang or a pick-up, get it home and hate the way it drives and the seats are uncomfortable for me. now I have to live with it or sell it. makes bad business sense to me…

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The only way it would make sense would be for fleet buyers.

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Additional discussion here:
Ford considering a new business model - General Discussion - Car Talk Community

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Ford has gone the Reservation route on several models but still eventually shifted to dealer stock. I believe the idea is not to have 100 F150’s on the lot that are what the dealer thinks the customer wants. Ford would need to give each dealer a demo unit that can’t be sold for a certain time, such as with the Bronco, At least when a new model comes out our local Honda dealer has had a demo unit to test drive,

Toyota wanted my dad to get in line for a new Rav4 without any opportunity to try one out first back in 2006. After one test drive in the CRV dad stopped by mom’s office to show her what he would be getting, just not that exact CRV. Dealer had it off the truck a little over a month later.

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The way Tesla does it is they’ll have a storefront that you can go to and test drive their cars. If you decide you like one of them, you then order a car. Once it comes in, you’re supposed to be able to test drive it and then reject it if it doesn’t drive the way the demonstrator did.

I say you’re supposed to be able to do that because Tesla likes to pull stupid little games, and one of those games is that when they’re doing one of their “build as many cars this quarter as possible” pushes, they’ll sometimes make you accept delivery before you’re allowed to inspect it. That’s because they know the rapid assembly speed means there are screwups, and they don’t want you to find them before you’ve signed for the car.

I don’t think Ford would pull stupid shenanigans like that, however, so I’d be comfortable with that business model. Especially since it would mean I wouldn’t have to deal with salesleaches following me around the lot.

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To me that would be the best part.