- Thread starter
- #1
Do you think Ford should open their own stores & service centers? In other words, take the route Tesla did?
Sponsored
Ford Factory Stores
- Thread starter Bronco Sport Billy
- Start date
- Watchers 3
As a customer I iwhs I was always dealing directly with the company. As a shareholder it is complicated. There's a lot more overhead when you own every dealer (and by extension service centers). There is a reason why the dealer model start and why large food companies use the franchise model.
Tesla's have very little routine maintenance, there aren't a lot of stores that they operate and people are willing to travel to large cities to buy them. Ford is mostly and will continue to be mostly ICE for a long time that requires a lot of routine maintenance and in order to continue to sell the volume they need to be accessible to small towns and be able to have service centers in said small towns. They also need a large number of store to sell the volume of cats that they do and currently they don't have worry about building maintenance, local taxes, real estate, etc of all of the stores to get their product.
So unfortunately I would venture to guess as Tesla expands into a bigger company they will probably shift to a dealer model before Ford shifts to privately owned stores.
Tesla's have very little routine maintenance, there aren't a lot of stores that they operate and people are willing to travel to large cities to buy them. Ford is mostly and will continue to be mostly ICE for a long time that requires a lot of routine maintenance and in order to continue to sell the volume they need to be accessible to small towns and be able to have service centers in said small towns. They also need a large number of store to sell the volume of cats that they do and currently they don't have worry about building maintenance, local taxes, real estate, etc of all of the stores to get their product.
So unfortunately I would venture to guess as Tesla expands into a bigger company they will probably shift to a dealer model before Ford shifts to privately owned stores.
Tesla has 1 service center in Indiana, you couldn't give me one of those things let alone me paying for it.
No service, No Sale!
- Thread starter
- #4
What if Ford bought existing dealers? Do you think you have a better experience?
I get good service at the dealership here now SouthWorthFord, not sure what the real difference would be.
Interesting read on why manufacturers can't be dealers and the Tesla anomaly http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2014/03/31/why-cant-you-buy-a-car-directly-from-a-car-company.
- First Name
- John
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2021
- Threads
- 0
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 18
- Location
- San Diego, CA
- Vehicle(s)
- Bronco Sport
I think Ford should sell new cars directly while dealers stick to used sales and service.
Maybe they could arrange to have models available at dealers to be a showroom with test drive mules, but, once I make a decision, I want Ford to ship the new car directly to me. I also don't see many people actually wanting input from dealer salesman on car recommendations when the internet works just fine.
I don't want to put up with salesman, search dealer inventory hoping for what I want, and I don't want to take delivery of a 'new' car that has been abused by 30 people on test drives before me.
If Ford cannot figure out how to do direct sales, my BS is the last Ford I buy new.
One nationwide source. Yeah, that sounds great for the consumer.
30 people? How many miles were on your ride? 300? They'll order you one with just 6 miles on it.
It's not just Ford. If you want to limit your choices so much it's your prerogative but I think that's to your detriment, not Ford's. Ford isn't even going to notice you doing that.
Sponsored
