People put down deposits for every electric truck in development, leaving dealers in the lurch when they eventually cancel all but one::When an electric truck customer doesn’t show up to pick up their order, dealer are left with a car that might be hard to sell to someone else.
They’re complaining about when people with preorders don’t pick up their order - which means those people basically gave the dealer a free $500~1000 with the only string attached being that the dealer now has one more vehicle on their lot to sell.
I’ve put down a few preorders and across the board the story I get is the same: once I fully place my order (customize and lock it in), I can’t get my deposit back. So the only ones really losing, IMO, are those who assume a preorder means a guaranteed sale. That was never the deal they struck, and it seems they’ve forgotten the wiggle room they built into the deal to manage the pitfalls of losing that ‘guaranteed’ sale.
Particularly when it comes to these trucks, both Ford and Chevy promised “$40k” for theirs and that definitely moved massive numbers of deposits. Both jumped to an entry level price of around $70k, and that’s if they even let a consumer buy the lower trims. If that keeps happening to other models, like the promised $30k Equinox EV, they really can’t get mad when people back out once more details are known, or get cold feet when they realize the market’s not in a good spot for them. Personally, I’m not finalizing any purchase or locking in my deposit if I can’t get hands-on time first. If that’s not workable for dealerships, then good riddance. They have one job, and that’s to educate me and let me test drive.
Shadow@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Given that dealers don’t have stock sitting around and are marking up both new and used right now… boo hoo?
Tell me they’re not just turning around and selling that to the next person in the list. Really hard to have any sympathy for car dealers after how they’ve treated consumers.
kiddblur@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Yeah, dealers are the last group that I feel sorry for
luthis@lemmy.nz 1 year ago
You should, I posted a video in my other comment that shows how manufacturers are actually fucking the dealers and they have no way to fight back