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Ford is cutting F-150 Lightning production due to waning demand (www.engadget.com)

submitted 8 months ago by Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world to c/evs@lemmy.world

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[+] NoneYa@lemm.ee 151 points 8 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 100 points 8 months ago

That’s why dealerships need to die. Manufacturers don’t like that shit either, but dealerships have been banding together to lobby to remain a shitty middle-man that greatly marks up prices.

[-] cosmic_slate@dmv.social 36 points 8 months ago

Don't even have to go far for the lobbying, there are a lot of politicians who own or are involved with car dealerships directly :|

[-] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 25 points 8 months ago

Youre right, car dealer owner running for local office is a damned trope

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 22 points 8 months ago

Manufacturers love the dealership model, because those shitty middlemen at the dealerships shield the manufacturers from direct contact with the consumer and all of the consumer's problems and complaints. And the dealerships absorb the costs of holding inventory and investing in the real estate square footage required to sell cars.

[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 22 points 8 months ago

I don’t know, there are a lot of very recent examples of legacy manufacturers trying to sell direct and then getting caught up in litigation and politics with dealers.

I was recently caught up in a mess with Volvo. I leased direct through Volvo, no dealer. Then the program got shit canned because dealers through a fit. Volvo fought back, and now it’s back in many US states.

[-] burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 8 months ago

Tesla seems to do alright without them?

[-] gastationsushi@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Aren't the repair cost snd repair times significantly higher with Teslas?

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[-] Stillhart@lemm.ee 11 points 8 months ago

People like to hate on Tesla around here, but they were at least fighting the good fight against dealers. Doing the right thing for the wrong reason still counts.

[-] hydrospanner@lemmy.world 48 points 8 months ago

This.

A friend of my parents desperately wanted one of the new Broncos, and they were just selling out everywhere, so they decided to work with the small local dealership and order one direct from Ford.

So they picked out every last detail, placed the deposit, and waited.

It was like 5 or 6 months then they finally got the call to come down, it was ready.

Well when they got there, the fucking piece of shit dealer tells them that he's increasing the price by 10k.

They ask why and what happened to the price they agreed on, and the guy tells them that basically these kinds of customer orders are the only way he can get more broncos from Ford, but he knows he can get more for this one so he's going back on their agreement. So they can either agree to the higher price right now, or go home empty handed and he will still sell it within the week.

I don't know how they walked out of that place not in handcuffs, because I'd have assaulted the guy.

They get home and call up Ford and Ford basically said, "Sorry you had to go through that, but we have no control over our dealers, so they can do that and neither you nor we have any recourse or any way around it."

Basically that story alone meant to me that A. I'll never drive a Ford, and 2. I will badmouth that little locally owned dealership any time anyone I know is considering using them, and I hope they go under.

The thing is, Ford can control that shit, they just have no desire or motivation to do so. Contrast that story with Subaru. Post pandemic when car prices were insane and demand was through the roof, Subaru of America mandated that all their dealers were not too MSRP on any new Subaru vehicles. If they found any dealership price gouging, they got one warning, then SoA pulled their fucking license to sell the brand.

[-] lazynooblet@lazysoci.al 15 points 8 months ago

What's the name of the dealer

[-] Mango@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Steve.

[-] bingbong@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 8 months ago

That bastard

[-] helenslunch@feddit.nl 3 points 8 months ago

It's always fucking Steve

[-] brlemworld@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago

If they pulled that shit on me I would roll up with a fucking news truck

[-] helenslunch@feddit.nl 9 points 8 months ago

Good luck. Something that happens 100x/day isn't news.

[-] PutangInaMo@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago

The dealerships were supposed to protect the consumer from the auto manufacturers. Who would've guessed they wound up being the bad guys? /s

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[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 20 points 8 months ago

Why would a salesman ever say that to a customer! Or even anyone!

[-] breckenedge@lemmy.world 23 points 8 months ago

You don't need to be smart to be a car salesman. I think it may actually be a hindrance.

I had a salesman tell me once that I could get a really good deal on an R32. Someone at the dealership took it out for a joyride and rolled it, but because it wasn’t insured, they slapped it back together and sold it with a clean title.

Another time I had a sales guy try to sell me a truck with 100k miles put on it in 12 months with no maintenance records.

[-] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 4 points 8 months ago

You don't need to be smart to be a car salesman. I think it may actually be a hindrance.

When selling products where demand massively exceeds supply sales staff aren't required at all.

[+] NoneYa@lemm.ee 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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[-] MrZee@lemm.ee 6 points 8 months ago

I honestly wanted to walk when I heard that but my mom and her husband wanted to still give them a chance.

You must be young. You need to find someone with sense to help you with the car buying process. Your mom and her husband are not it if they still hadn’t figured out the dealership and sales guy were shady at that point.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I swear half the popularity of Tesla is being able to avoid dealerships/saleslizards

Previously we seemed to have decent luck at Toyota dealers but for one car we had such a bad experience that we went to a different dealer and said we’d be willing to pay more if the original saleslizard doesn’t get a commission.

I definitely don’t even understand - when a customer has something very specific they’re looking for, how do you waste both your and their time and abuse the customer enough to lose an easy sale? I can see the attempt to upsell but come on, try something that might work

[-] Stillhart@lemm.ee 3 points 8 months ago

He had also asked me about what I did for work and when I mentioned some of the stuff I did, he made a condescending remark to me too.

Lol, car salesman making condescending remarks on someone else's job! That's the funniest shit I've read all day!

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[-] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 3 points 8 months ago

Because this was during peak pandemic stock shortages when dealerships were selling everything they had with zero effort. They had a free years there where they had salesmen who never had to put any effort into selling a car.

[-] hark@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago

I was surprised to see this headline because I remember how high the interest was when it was first revealed. What a shame that EV adoption is being hampered by price gouging. The industry is ripe for competition.

[-] helenslunch@feddit.nl 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Put a sour taste in my mouth for anything Ford ever again in the future.

Sorry to tell you but that's not a Ford thing. That's a dealership thing. Ford has tried to control it but there's only so much they can do.

Dealerships were created and mandated to improve competition. Letting the OEM decide what prices they can charge would be completely antithetical to that.

[-] BeautifulMind@lemmy.world 111 points 8 months ago

They marketed the Lightning at $40-something-k, everyone wanted one. Then they only made them cost twice that, and "suddenly nobody wants one"

Same energy as "nobody wants to work anymore", really

[-] Mango@lemmy.world 46 points 8 months ago

No demand?? I want it. I just can't afford it. Do something about THAT.

[-] Chriswild@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

An 800v LiFePo truck would actually be able to tow reasonably as chargers improve. You'd have to stop every 120mi and change for 10-15 mins but I could live with 15 min stops every two hours.

Plus they don't have thermal runaway and burn your fucking house down while charging.

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[-] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago

Gas at Costco is 2.75. When it jumps back up to $4, they’ll start selling more again.

[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 29 points 8 months ago

I think Ford’s bigger problem is that the R1T is a cooler truck that costs about the same.

[-] invertedspear@lemm.ee 3 points 8 months ago

After driving both I went with the lightning.

The R1T is cool. It’s a single person camping truck all the way. A little smaller, more capable of getting in and out of tight places that are predominately Jeep accessible. But the center rear seat is very uncomfortable, the payload capacity is lower both size and weight wise, and for me being forced in to one pedal driving was not ideal.

The lightning is wider, and heavier. But also more comfortable for everyone inside, can tow better, and I have loved having the power options, no need for a generator.

The audiences are similar but a bit different. I do think that Ford is nuts for saying there’s no demand. Make the ER pro for 50k and you could sell them all day. But you can’t even order that option, much less get it for that price. Maybe it costs more than to produce, but I’m willing to bet not. They would just need to be able to sell them direct to public to make it worth it and most states don’t allow for it.

[-] Stillhart@lemm.ee 5 points 8 months ago

and for me being forced in to one pedal driving was not ideal.

I don't know anyone with an EV who hasn't eventually moved to one pedal driving. It's one of those things that you think feels weird at first but once you try it for a few days you never want to go back.

Make the ER pro for 50k and you could sell them all day. But you can’t even order that option, much less get it for that price.

This is the obvious issue. They marked the base model up by $12k before it ever came out and then didn't make any. I would have one right now if I could get one for $40k like they said originally and I don't even like trucks!

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[-] BigTrout75@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago

My friend bought one for 80k and loves it.

[-] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 5 points 8 months ago

Yeah wtf, I thought demand was nuts, just that no one could get ahold of one.

[-] Euphorazine@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

There was demand, and then you see a sticker that says $15,000 dealership markup and you walked away.

[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Initially, yeah. But it looks like things cooled after the initial wave of people who were eager for an EV pickup.

[-] Taco2112@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

As someone that drives a truck for work, I’d love to have one but I don’t have the money for a new one right now.

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this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024

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