Ford caught dealers making up fake Bronco customers, and it's had enough
Dealers are scamming ways to get all the Bronco allocations they can, but the Blue Oval is onto them and taking steps to keep them (more) honest.
There's no denying the fact that Ford's revived Bronco SUV has been a big hit, with well over 200,000 customer reservations and tons of media coverage. What has been less of a hit is the Bronco's slow roll-out, which has left people so thirsty for Broncos that they're willing to pay way above sticker if they can get one now.
According to a report published on Tuesday by Jalopnik, this has led Ford dealers to do some dirt in hopes that they can get more Broncos ASAP. What kind of dirt, you ask? Well, how about making up fake customers to increase their Bronco allocations? But now Ford is onto them, and it's had enough.
To combat this kind of gaming of the system, Ford has implemented a policy of matching customer names to customer deliveries through a system called the "2021 Bronco Customer Name Match Audit and Integrity Policy Reporting Platform." This platform helps enforce Ford's new rules, including the one that says that 60% of Bronco sales must come from vehicle reservation holders rather than just any geek off the street.
But what if these crafty and enterprising dealers continue to try to cheat the system? Well, there'll be consequences. The first violation will get the offending dealer a warning. The second offense will cause them to lose all Bronco allocations for one month. A third infraction will see the dealership's sales manager fighting to the death in a post-apocalyptic Thunderdome-type situation -- or perhaps not. Actually, the dealership will lose its Bronco allocations for three months, but I like my idea better.
This kind of flim-flammery isn't new to American car dealers, particularly those selling vehicles from the Big Three. Huge dealer markups over the MSRP of the car are sadly the norm, and if this latest instance of "the customer comes last" shows that this behavior isn't likely to change anytime soon. Thankfully, not all dealers do this, and we have a list of the Bronco dealers that won't mark up their vehicles, so check them out.
