ADM on a GT350 is Not Illegal

[Cruzinaround]

^Okay... just let me know where I've overstepped, because a lot of what I've posted are simply retorts to some genuine nastiness. Perhaps I should complain about it instead of throwing common sense opinions out there???

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[FPCV8YO]

To clarify: Dealers do sometimes sell cars at an actual loss.

Another comedian.

 

[Jackie Chiles]

Another comedian.

Facts are facts. I was lucky enough to buy a car so cheaply that I know the dealer took a loss on the sale in absolute terms, even after holdbacks rebates etc. Why? In this case it was a leftover 2008 that I bought in 2009 as the recession was going in full swing.

By the way, I don't expect that I will be that lucky again in my lifetime.

But it's only funny if you are the guy who makes a such a deal. . Regular folks can walk away laughing if they happen to go into a dealer who is facing missing a particular quota with the manufacturer. For instance, when the dealer needs to sell one more car to meet its quota of 300 cars sold in a quarter in order to qualify for some significant incentives, it would be worth it to take a $1000 hit on an individual car. This happens once in a while, but it's not a particularly rare event.

Try the veal! I'm here all week!

Warmest Personal Regards,

Jackie "Shecky" Chiles

 

[FPCV8YO]

Facts are facts. I was lucky enough to buy a car so cheaply that I know the dealer took a loss on the sale in absolute terms, even after holdbacks rebates etc. Why? In this case it was a leftover 2008 that I bought in 2009 as the recession was going in full swing.

By the way, I don't expect that I will be that lucky again in my lifetime.

But it's only funny if you are the guy who makes a such a deal. . Regular folks can walk away laughing if they happen to go into a dealer who is facing missing a particular quota with the manufacturer. For instance, when the dealer needs to sell one more car to meet its quota of 300 cars sold in a quarter in order to qualify for some significant incentives, it would be worth it to take a $1000 hit on an individual car. This happens once in a while, but it's not a particularly rare event.

Try the veal! I'm here all week!

Warmest Personal Regards,

Jackie "Shecky" Chiles

Thank you for your awesome sense of humor. I'm not so sure that it's the dealership taking the loss if in fact there is a loss.

 

[Cruzinaround]

Odds are there are no losses. Just smaller margins.

 

[Jackie Chiles]

I've been a car salesman, a service manager, a service advisor and a couple other things as well.

I've seen it happen. I've been the recipient of a least one such deal. I know it happens. It's reported in the media.

You're both wrong. Sorry, but I'm glad I could help educate each of you.

 

[FPCV8YO]

I've been a car salesman, a service manager, a service advisor and a couple other things as well.

I've seen it happen. I've been the recipient of a least one such deal. I know it happens. It's reported in the media.

You're both wrong. Sorry, but I'm glad I could help educate each of you.

Why didn't you say that right upfront? I'll believe everything that comes off of your keyboard now.

 

[Kevin1985]

At the end of the day it's just who you deal with and where you are willing to go to buy a car. My local dealership told me this when I sat down with them back in 2013 and ordered my 2014 GT. We sell over 200 cars a month and we don't rape people, as long as we can make $500-$1,000 on each car we are happy. I was thinking to myself at the time, yeah right they will try to jack up the price? Well I ordered my GT and the price was around $42k. I ordered it in March and it arrived in May. Out the door with sales tax included I paid $33k. Sure I had the $750 rebate. But they respected me and treated me right and stood by what they preach in our area. So shop around, find the dealership that's looking to work with you. If you come across a dealership and they have a ADM on what you want just say thank you for your time and walk out the door and go to a different dealership. It's really that simple.

And they plan on helping me out with the same kind of deal on a GT350, they already bought other dealerships allocations and are getting three of them and I am the 1st on their list when order banks open. So just shop around and find a dealership that will work with you.

 

[Cruzinaround]

I've been a car salesman, a service manager, a service advisor and a couple other things as well.

I've seen it happen. I've been the recipient of a least one such deal. I know it happens. It's reported in the media.

You're both wrong. Sorry, but I'm glad I could help educate each of you.

One deal....just one deal? Seriously. This does not sound like its a rampant problem.

All you've informed us of was how rare it is.

And yes thank you.

 

[Evolvd]

I've yet to see any contribution to this thread as ADM is not illegal and will probably never go away for specialty vehicles. There, now you have my contribution and no one is better off for it....just like this conversation.

 

[Five Oh Brian]

Ford needs dealers to sell their assigned market share to keep their numbers in the black. Therefor, Ford pushes us to move the metal, regardless of the financial implications to the dealers. Ford knows that we dealers do, in fact, have to lose money sometimes to clear out unpopular and/or aged vehicles, so they throw us a bone sometimes in the form of some after-the-sale incentives for selling enough of the hard-to-move vehicles.

The cars we lose money on have nothing to do with ADM's. They are run of the mill basic cars - typically last year's models - and are not popular cars. Of course, many of you know that my dealership doesn't have any vehicles with ADM's (heck, there aren't even any at full MSRP on my lot right now either); we discount deeply upfront as we don't negotiate (we're a 'one price' store), so we sell out of the hot vehicles very quickly. Again, it's the boring cars that sit around unsold that have to be blown out at a loss eventually.

Also, there are some crazy price-whore dealerships in our area that advertise stupid crazy loss leaders every day. Just recently, the biggest price whore in our area was advertising all of their new 2014 F-150's for $15K off MSRP (not just one or a handful). That included rebates and the dealer's discount, but meant that after all the incentives they were still losing $3K to $4K on each on sold and they ended up selling about 50 at that price. All of the rest of us dealers in the area had to follow suit with similar (although not quite as crazy) pricing to attract any truck business.

The good news is that we make some money (granted not a ton of money) on about 85-90% of what we sell, so no need to feel sorry for us. The bad news is that customers are getting so accustomed to buying new vehicles for so far below the factory invoice total that the margins on new cars are almost gone. Most dealers look to their service departments to make all the money to cover the other departments' struggles.

The internet has allowed consumers to know how much dealers pay for vehicles for well over a decade now. This caused a shift in the power balance between dealer and customer long ago as dealers have been backed into a corner not being able to make nearly as much money as the pre-internet days. To compete online, dealers have to put their best foot forward and advertise low, low prices well below MSRP on most everything. Even dealers that still negotiate have to price so low online, that there's very limited room for negotiating much more.

Enter an awesome, limited production car and it's easy to understand why a dealer might want to make a few extra bucks on that car. However, if a dealer asks too much initially and the car sits unsold long enough, the market correction pushes the price down until the price is in line with its market value.

Laws, regulations, & boycotts aren't necessary to bring the price in check. Our economy's "invisible hand" will eventually drive the price down to where buyer & seller can make a deal. If you've never read anything by Adam Smith on economics, I highly recommend you do for a better understanding of the economic principles our founding fathers had in mind. 18th century American businessmen like Samuel Adams fought for their freedom from English economic tyranny and it helped establish our country and our economy, accordingly. Artificially capping prices or subsidizing (a whole different conversation) would have our founding fathers turning in their graves considering all of their sacrifices to free themselves from British persecution.

So, in summary, if you don't want to pay an ADM, simply negotiate better, search a little more, or simply wait until supply & demand bring pricing down. Nobody has to pay an ADM following these simple suggestions.

 

[Evolvd]

Finally, some good info from a reputable source!

 

[mustang_lurkers]

I think that since the production numbers have been leaked it will be easier to get a GT350 without paying the ADM. The GT350R will be more difficulet since it is expected that only 500 per year will be built. 5000 GT350s per year are in line with the Shelby GT500 numbers and ADMs didn't last long for them even when people were not sure how long they would be produced. I have already signed up for on at MSRP and have placed my deposit. I am only waiting for the oredering banks to open. An MSRP or better deal is possible for buying this car.

 

[Five Oh Brian]

An MSRP or better deal is possible for buying this car.

Agreed. And, congrats on your GT350 order.

 

[mustang_lurkers]

Thanks Brian. I hope the GT350 has the BLISS system, adaptive cruise control and shaker pro upgrades available.

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