Ford Not Publishing Employee F-150 Pricing, Forcing Dealer Visits

Earlier this week, Ford announced that it would apply employee pricing to the outgoing 2008 F-Series line of trucks. At the time, they hadn’t announced how much people could save with the deal. Sometimes when a promotion is implemented this quickly, it takes a few days to update websites, etc. However, Ford has confirmed it is not going to be releasing the employee pricing deals at all and that truck shoppers will have to visit their dealer to find out how much they could save. When employee pricing was first used in the summer of 20062005, those adjusted prices were published.

The only numbers posted on Ford’s website is that the starting price of an F-150 will be $16,274 with the employee deal instead of the MSRP of $17,700. That’s a savings of $1,426. In the small print they detail the truck shown, a 2008 F-150 XLT, and list its employee price as $21,061. The XLT starts at $23,910. The savings would be $2,849. In past employee deals, savings also tended to rise with the price of the vehicle.

As we know all too well at Cars.com, car shoppers tend to research their car purchases online before they go into a dealer. We think Ford’s decision ton hold back the pricing info may stunt the sale’s effectiveness. What do you think?

Comments

[Harry]

The games that Ford and other domestic auto companies play with the consumer is shamefull. They advertise deals with asterisks and fine print mazes that border on false advertisement. They discriminate against buyers by placing some consumers over others. They have been so arrogent that they punish cash buyers by charging them more then a buyer using credit by a minimum of 2500.00$ I know first hand for I have visited all the local dealers this spring and have been told if I buy with cash I will not be eligable for certain incentives.It is a reflection of our society where saving money to buy an item is punished by greedy credit promoters. Price everything so a consumer can't afford it and the common person has to use company money to either lease or purchase a vehicle.
Well now look at them. They are slashing wages, jobs, closing factories and crying that they can't move product. Too bad. Great minds these executives that did not foresee foriegn oil controlling peoples livleyhoods. Who will buy these 20, 30, 40, 50 thousand plus vehicles that get squat for mileage. Certainly not a new Ford employee making fifteen bucks an hour. Maybe the Chinese or Mexican factory workers will buy them. Not.
Don't get me wrong. I am not happy the times are as they are. We all depend on manufacturing and locally the success of the not so big three's effect on everyones livelyhood. From Bricklayer to Baker we all suffer effects from the hard time the car industry here in Michigan is experiencing. However it is insulting that when the times get tough for ford all of a sudden we are all equals in their minds again. I am sure that is still not true for people with cash though. Ford could have sold me a F- 150 last month but insisted I take a loan out from them, "play the game" and pay it off in a month if I wanted. Well speaking for myself I don't want to play their game. Ill just go do some more repairs on my old truck. They can keep their 2008 F-150. If they ever decide to treat consumers with a little respect they may be surprised as to the results. When my cash is worth as much as their credit then..and only then will I consider a new truck purchase.

I thought they were already giving $5000 off the f-150. Maybe it is just in my area LA, but $3500 of it was most of the country. I think this just makes the plants share the pain. But, it looks like the plants have already slowed down. On the models I've been looking for the past few months only white with no options is available in my area. Which from experence is par for Ford, they make too many white strippers.

[Dave T.]

Anon,
The employee pricing is in addition to cash back offers!

[John]

Actually, the employee pricing started in summer of 2005, not 2006

[Dave T.]

John,
Good catch. I of course did a search on our blog posts to 2006 and KickingTires wasn't around in 2005! Thanks.

[Jack]

Employee pricing, cash rebates, financing discounts, etc, are all nothing but a waste of money. Your best buy by far is a two year old one owner pampered car. I just helped two friends purchase this way and we used the Cars.com video section as part of our research. It gives you access to a nice selection of vehicles starting at about 2004/2005. Your only problem is to figure out what to do with the thousands of dollars you will save.

[David Robertson]

It is great strategy - to force a buyer to go to the dealer.

The question is does a buyer rely only on the information on the web? it is toss up, some rely on a word of mouth and others that don't have access to web.

However they have to publicize the discount.

I am looking forward to purchase the F150 raptor when it comes out - and I am not going to cry crocodile tears even if the gas hits $10 because that is what I want.