The all-electric 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E is coming, and fans (and dealers) are getting excited about the crossover’s forthcoming appearance on dealer lots. And sure, there are going to be markups. Dealers can and should make a profit—but how much is an open question. A few threads over at the Mach-E Forum show that some reservation holders are frustrated about markups at their dealer of choice. And at least one other thread is gathering the names of dealers that won’t markup their Mach-E inventory. Basically, if you don’t want to pay more than anyone else for your own Mach-E, this might be an issue to keep an eye on.
The original poster (OP) of this thread says their Southern California dealer of choice wanted a full $15,000 over MSRP for the Mach-E they’d reserved, and also refused to accept one of Ford’s friends/family/employee discount plans known as X-Plan. And others have reported various markups over MSRP at dealers they’ve contacted. Ford, it seems, doesn’t disallow markups. In reality, pricing is determined by availability and demand. You’d expect a hot, highly-anticipated, low volume car to carry some sort of price padding, but the forum users here feel that some of the numbers they’re being quoted are a tad excessive.
As far as we’re aware, Ford isn’t officially discouraging markups, but a report from CarsDirect claims that a dealer bulletin advises against advertising the new model for less than MSRP. There are also reportedly incentives for dealers that adhere to the Blue Oval’s pricing policies. It’s all in the name of meeting customer expectations, the report notes. And it doesn’t set any limits on the actual transaction price. We’ll see how it works in practice.
