Sorry, but BOSS had to go.

Ford SportTrac Forum

Help Support Ford SportTrac Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Cliff R

Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2005
Messages
71
Reaction score
0
Location
Mansfield, OH
Well, I have been in the dealerships for the last 2 months looking at 3 vehicles. New Sport Trac, Off-Road edition Nissan Xterra, or the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Well, shortly after checking out the Nissan it was out. Great vehicle, just not for me. The Sport Trac was the strongest choice for me for obvious reasons but Ford didn't want to deal. Their sales staff was rude, twice my salesman left me to deal with other customers and then they said they would call me and never didn't. So I go into a Jeep dealer to check out the Rubicon and the sales staff is great. They gave me a great trade in offer. Gave me a discount for being a veteran, a discount for being an EMT, and other incentives. So I went back the next day to work numbers with them. 2 hours later, I drove home a 2006 Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited. I really hated to say goodbye to BOSS, but I would rather part ways while it was still on top of it's game before the age and milage got the best of it. I'll have another ST someday, but for now I'll enjoy climbing and running over stuff with my Rubicon.



I'll post pics in a couple of days if there is any interest.



Cliff
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Cliff,



You could have gotten X-Plan from a member here...namely me! Dealers don't want to deal..no problem. Set price from Ford. No questions asked.





Tom
 
Cliff, sorry to see you in a Jeep, but I probably would have done the same thing. Though I may have went for a Toyota. :D



Tom, while the X-plan offer is a good deal, I think the point is that the average guy off the street should not HAVE to use the X-plan to get a customer service department to sell them a vehicle. Cliff felt they weren't interested in selling a vehicle to him, so he left. I had the same issue with a dealer here when I bought my black ST, so I know where he is coming from. The customer should not have to twist the arm of a salesman to get him to sit down for a deal or return a phone call.
 
Commissioned sales people suck.



The car-buying process is so full of difficulties and is very time-consuming. Even after you make your deal, it still takes a couple of hours to do the paperwork, refuse all the add-on crap they try to sell, etc.



I would trade more often, but buying a car is such a hassel that I hate to go through the process.
 
A friend has a Jeep Unlimited - nice big vehicle (for a Jeep). He's stuck a Rubicon Express lift on it (6 inches?) within days of owning it.



I wonder how many of us own/owned Jeeps and have ST's? I have a '95 Wrangler. Two different worlds - Jeeps and ST's, and I love them both. :)
 
Nelson,



In a dealership there are two kinds of people. The salesman wants you to pay as much as possible for a vehicle. Then we have the customer. We want to pay as little as possible and that is that. If we could get it for free, we would try to.



With that being said, supply of Tracs is limited. The production of the Sport Trac has stoped. Ford isn't making another one 'till next year. So, the dealer does not have to "deal" that much to sell them. Supply and demand. If they are the only dealer that has one in the area, odds are they are not going to give it up that easy when they can hold it for a week or two and get a few grand more out of it.



With X-Plan, t6here is no need for games like that.



As for Cliff buying a Toyota, I doubt that would happen. He hasn't forgotten what country he lives in. He knows who to take care of.



FWIW, Cliff only lives about an hour and a half from me and we have met face to face.





Tom
 
The Rubicons are one of the coolest Jeeps to date. They've got some pretty beefy parts on 'em. I seriously considered one when I bought the 'trac. There are a bajillion aftermarket parts out there for the Jeep Rubicon already too. So you can pretty much customize it as much as you want.

Have fun with it Cliff!
 
Cliff,

So what you're saying is that you did not buy your first vehicle choice, but prefered to buy based on the dealership?



Some people who are too impatient and only think of themselves end up getting exactly what they deserve. Remeber, you went into the Ford dealer because your first choice was a new Sport Trac. But, because you were too impatient, you settled for a vehicle that was not your first choice and never found out what kind of a deal you could have gotten at the Ford dealer. If they were that busy, it sounds like they were doing some selling and were giving some kind of a deal. Waiting another 15 minutes or so could have perhaps gotten you an even better deal on your first choice vehicle, a new Sport Trac.



...Rich
 
Rich-- that is the problem. Customers should not have to plead and beg to buy a car that they want. Car dealers should mark their prices on the car and not jack customers around.



When I bought my Trac, I negotiated for over an hour to get the last $400 off the price. The salesman told my wife that I was stubborn and wanted to know why I spent over an hour for just $400. She told him that I can't work anywhere else and make $400 an hour.



Sometimes when you go into the dealership, the salespeople are all sitting outside smoking cigarettes and no one will help you. Sometimes someone will say they will be right with you but you never see them again. Sometimes they come out and act all interested and tell you they are going to give you a deal, but they piddle around and come back with something greedy like $1500 over invoice.



I won't get into the high level of ignorance that 99% of the salespeople have about their product, options, features, etc., nor the ones that lie to you.



Most of the time, buying a new car is just too much trouble.
 
I walked in after test driving the trac told them what I was willing to pay which was under invoice, told them my credit score, what I wanted for my trade which was $500 over KBB, that I had $5000.00 down payment, what I was willing to pay for interest % rate., got $2000.00 rebate from Ford $1000.00 cash back from Ford Financing, drove the vehicle off the lot 2 hours later. Best buying experience I ever had.:D
 
Richard,



I definately didn't settle for the Jeep. As for the patience, you said wait another 15 minutes. Who are you to say I was inpatient. From that little paragraph I typed you know the whole story and I am just some inpatient person who got what I deserved? I was in that Ford dealership a total of over 4 hours. It was acually a blessing in disguise. For the stuff that I do, the Jeep is acually alot better for me. If I would have gotten another ST I would have had to invest some more money into it to get it where I needed it to be. The Rubicon edition Jeep Wrangler comes stock with Dana 44 axles front and rear and Lockers in both axles as well. Now I know most of are gonna say "When would you acually use that?" Well, quite frankly very often. I have to go off road alot both for work and play so my daily driver sees alot of dirt, mud, and snow that most guys with an ST never does.



Yeah, the dealer pissed me off. I even went to a 2nd Ford dealer after the first one pissed me off and they were pretty rude in my opinion as well. The way I see it, if I am about to drop $30,000 on a new vehicle the least they could do is not be a dick. I used to sell cars for a living and you just don't treat folks the way I was treated. It doesn't matter if I am buying a pack of gum or a $55,000 Navigator you treat the customer with respect.



Imagine you go into a dealer ready to buy the $31,000 truck sitting outside. You spend 2 hours going over features and getting your trade in evaluated. Then you go in to work the numbers. 4 other salesman are in the showroom without customers but everytime the loudspeaker anounces that a customer is on the line for new sales, your salesman jumps on the phone as the 4 other guys who don't even have a customer are scrambling to get to their desks. A little annoying, let one of the other guys who doesn't have a customer get it. Then, a customer walks through the door and the guy says "excuse me, I'll be right back" and he gets up and leaves me to talk to the couple that just walked in. So I stick around for 45 minutes. I check out the new Mustang sitting on the floor alongside the Harley F150, look at the Ford accesories catolog, ect. We sit back down for about 10 minutes and another couple walks in and he says that he had an apointment with these other folks and asks if he can call me. So I tell him thats fine and leave. Never hear from him again, I call the dealer a couple times and the switchboard lady tells me it's his day off or he's currently with a customer (funny he'd jump right the phone when I was at his desk) or some other excuse.



The ST was my first choice, but after the treatment I got from the Ford Dealer, I went to look at the the Jeep and found it was the better vehicle for me because of it's offroad prowess. Now Richard you know alittle more of the story and have a little bit of basis to talk about someone you don't even know. It was that kinda attitude that made me walk away from the 2nd dealership. Richard, I don't mean to attack you here in the open but man your post was like a slap in the face.



Cliff
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Cliff,

Sorry to hear of your Ford buying experience. If you haven't done so already, you should post your experience on the "Dealer Report Card" at this website. It may or may not improve their service, but you will have the satisfaction of telling your story to a large group of interested parties.



Good luck on the new Jeep. I owned a CJ6 - remember the Scrambler? It was an extended CJ5 with a small pickup bed on the back. You know, something like an ST? The Scrambler never took off because it was ahead of it's time.

[Broken External Image]:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Cliff I understand your experience and have had very similar happen to me several times.



Bottom line: The way cars are being sold by the industry turns a lot of folks like us off, and a lot of sales are lost because of the way we are treated.
 
Too bad on the experience Cliff. Sounds like the Jeep is a perfect fit for you which is great. There are a lot of aftermarket parts for the Jeep Rubicon and some great forums.



I've only had two good buying experiencing of cars in the last 8 years and they weren't Ford even though we have purchased three Fords in the last two years. However, it happens to all dealerships no matter what the brand is.



Thanks,

SST

 
Buying my ST, I knew what NADA listed my trade for and what the ST should sell for. I offered them that amount, they said no way, I was trading a conversion van and they "would not be able to get that price out of it". They screwed around for days, I kept going back and looking and when a salesdrone came up, I would leave. Finally, a week later, they call me and tell me to come get the ST, they would meet my price. As I am getting my stuff out of the van (brake controller, hitch ball, etc), another man comes up and starts putting his stuff in my van. He bought it within minutes of me signing the final papers on the ST.



I hate going car shopping, wifes company gets X-plan, I fully intend to use it this time. I do not like the way they try to corner you in a puka arguing over price, and will not let them do it. Write the price down, and I will go into do the paperwork. THEN, they try and get you away from the wife and in with the blond in the miniskirt selling "accessories and warranties".... while good to look at, the theatrics don;t cut it for me either.



Easist car ever bought was a Neon... I walked in, gave the guy a slip of paper with my name and ssn, and a price. Told him I was gong for a test drive, and when I came back, I wanted the paperwork done for that price, bottom line. They actually did it, and had financing to boot that beat my credit union.



If they could all do that, I would buy a new car alot more often.



 
Top