Buyer Beware: Bill Pierre Ford in Lake City, Washington
My wife and I purchased a 2011 Ford Edge Limited AWD from Bill Pierre Ford on Sunday, 12/04. The vehicle is used with approximately 25,000 miles on it. The first thing the sales manager did was show us their invoice price. This invoice price showed they had paid $31,500 for the vehicle at the time it was traded in. The asking price for the vehicle was $36,995 and we were able to negotiate it down to $34,995 plus $8,000 for our trade in. We opted to purchase the extended 100,000 mile warranty for an additional $2,879.00. We left the lot feeling pretty good about the deal but when we got home and started doing some research we got a really bad taste in our mouth.
When we were on the test drive we were told the vehicle was fully loaded and when I inquired about some of the features that I thought would be included in a fully loaded vehicle in this price range I was told that those items were not available in 2011. The items included the panoramic sunroof and keyless ignition. We were also told that there was a fully featured navigation system built in. When I went directly to Ford and looked up the features available for the 2011 Edge Limited I was shown several packages that were available including the sunroof, the keyless ignition and several others. I also discovered that we didnt have the full-featured navigation system, but rather a dumb system that would provide you with turn-by-turn directions but wouldnt handle route re-calculations.
I was dismayed so I decided to dig a little further. I went to AutoTrader and did a search for the vehicle we had just purchased, and sure enough, it was still listed as available. The price it was listed for $31,877, a full $3,000 under what we had negotiated down to.
At this point I made up my mind to go back to the dealer the next day and confront them. Why was the same exact car (I matched up the VINs) for sale at a mere $377 over their invoice price online. The sales manager claimed that he was not even aware they were advertising on AutoTrader but that they would match the price. I brought up the rest of the discrepancies that we discovered and his only excuse was that fully loaded can mean a lot of different things.
The manager then told me that they dont list anything on AutoTrader. He said that AutoTrader pulls from their inventory online and calculates what they (Auto Trader) thinks is a fair price. He said they had no control over it. This was after he had told me 15 minutes prior that he wasnt aware they advertised on Auto Trader. This really sounded suspicious to me, but since they were going to match the price, I decided to let it slide.
The sales manager proceeded to ask me what he needed to do to make things right. I told him that I wanted the price matched, a second master key cut for the car, and I would like him to investigate if it was possible to add the navigation. He told me to come back on Wednesday and resign the paperwork and that he would investigate the navigation.
I left feeling alright about the situation and was prepared to still give Bill Pierre Ford a positive review. Then Wednesday came. My wife and I headed into Bill Pierre Ford around 11am on Wednesday morning to resign the paperwork. A different sales manager (the one who had originally sold us the car) approached us and had heard the news. He said to wait for a moment and he would get everything taken care of.
He came back about 10 minutes later and reiterated that they would match the price online and once again told me they had no control over the price was set by Auto Trader. He then told us that they needed to reduce the amount we were getting for our trade in. He said that he was very aggressive on the trade in pricing because he wanted to make sure the deal happened and he still had some profit room to work with. However, if he matched the price of the vehicle, he was going to lose money on the deal. I explained that I felt like I had been misled in several areas and that I wanted the price matched, the trade-in value maintained, and a second key but I would let the navigation go.
He agreed (in a very short and irritated way) and left to go get the paperwork ready. While he was gone I went to Ford and did a search for Certified Pre-Owned inventory directly on Fords website. I found the exact vehicle listed on yourfordpco (Fords own site) listed for $31,877. This made me livid and after we signed the paperwork I decided to start asking around.
I received confirmation from two other Ford dealers in the area that the dealer HAS to set the price on Auto Trader and that there is no way an automatically calculated price would ever be listed on Auto Trader.
I also did some investigation into the extended warranty, and if I were to have bought it from Ford directory (rather than through the dealership), it would have cost $1,554 rather than the $2,879 we paid for it. The price we were given was supposedly the "Friends and Family" discount and they were using the last one they had available for the month.
In closing, while they did honor the online price they lied to us at least 3 times, over charged for warranties and potentially are showing invalid invoice prices. Do yourself a favor and stay as far away from Bill Pierre as you possibly can. Learn from our mistakes.
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