Ford operates on dealerships and recently a customer posted how much Ford charged for Mustang Mach-E. An additional $9,999 was charged under “Document fee”. According to the comment section, the owner pre-ordered the car in March and the delivery is surprisingly early.
Though it turned out to be good news for the buyer to know that the additional $10k charge was a glitch. It could have been a waste for the customer if they failed to notice or somehow assumed that it was the same price for everyone else. The owner who initially posted, also added that the rest of the process was smooth and it went well once the mistake was rectified.
Apparently our local Ford dealer thinks it’s okay to add $10K in doc fees on the Mach e we ordered
byu/Gonzotiki inelectricvehicles
This glitch raised so many discussions on how such a large sum of money could be called a glitch. The buyer, u/Gonzotiki replied in one of the comments that he was aware of “a Ford exec that said to hit him up if dealers attempted shenanigans.”
After 3 hours of the first post, u/Gonzotiki updated the post saying, “UPDATE! It was a website glitch!! Whew. We’re paying MSRP plus tax. And we’re getting a CA Clean Fuel Reward rebate of $1500. Sorry to disappoint! No shenanigans-it’s been remarkably smooth,”
What is a document fee?
Usually, a document fee is charged to cover the expenses of the back office staff at the dealership. This is why the extra charges seem highly suspicious. These additional charges were up to the dealer who is dealing with the sale of the car. Adding thousands of dollars to the fee, and claiming it to be a glitch is not agreeable according to many customers.
The highest document fee can be $600 and the lowest can be around $55. Purchasing the car itself with dealers in between is a tiring process. Some locations have good and trustable dealers, but other times it can be time taking process. According to a study from Beepi, 87% of people in 2016 disliked purchasing cars from dealerships. And around 65% of Americans feel that the dealers are taking advantage of the situation.
Ford competing with Tesla, would possibly need to work on these instances. Dealership can have its perks but Tesla keeps proving to be flexible without any middlemen. The upcoming competition is going to be different and Ford usually tackling issues in a traditional way, is most likely to resolve the issue while still having dealership processes. For decades automakers have been using dealerships and there are instances where dealers make some money from it.
