Periodically, I write a tale to make a point and I have chosen today to tell my latest tale. Small picture, it is frustrating, big picture, it is something to think about.
First, a little history.
Years ago, I saw Elon Musk on 60 Minutes and they were talking about his latest adventure, an electric car company he called Tesla. I was hooked. Being this closet conservationist, I decided I would take the five grand it required and put a deposit down. I had a placeholder and it was number 848. They would contact me, via Email when it was time to order. Thinking back, I seem to recall the price was going to be around 54,000 dollars. Hey, latest technology, no need to fill the pockets of the sheiks and mullahs in the Mideast. I was all for it.
Several months later, I received an email that I had been waiting for. Time to order. I went online and the website was beautiful, smooth and easy. I was given my first option, my tires. I wanted the standard tires. Whatever came with the car. Uh, mistake number one. I had to pay for my 20” tires, $2,600. Next came the interior. I am ok with cloth or pleather seats, hey, it’s electric and no matter what, I will be the coolest kid on the block. Not so fast Skippy. You had to buy the seats. Huh? What? Yup, 2,700 for the seats and that was just two milk crates with a seat belt. Heated seats were part of some option package that cost $5,500 (seats included. Hmm, I am not liking where this is going. The car came in black (no cost, surprise, surprise) but if you wanted any other color (only three options anyway) you had to fork over an additional $1,100.
So now we are up to roughly 62K for a car that was supposed to cost 54,000. The kicker that sent me through the roof was the info screen, which basically controlled every function in the car. It had a 12” option ($2,300) or an 18” option which I think was $3,500 or more.
I said enough is enough, why wouldn’t they just price it at it’s true base of 65K and then allowed you the option to upgrade? Didn’t make sense and the slogan “We want to do things differently” had a whole new meaning. I called and cancelled and to their credit, I had the money back in my account within 12 hours.
Round two with this group of hucksters. Tesla came out with the Model 3. The car for “everyone”. Yea, ok. Advertised at a very affordable 37,000 or something like that. I said, “Here you go Elon, here is a thousand dollars, let’s see if you can get it right this time”. Months go by and I am in a Tesla showroom and see the Model 3. Very nice car and the salesperson said that the car comes with everything. The only option is the extended battery at $7,500. Which was fine. I get that email again from Tesla,”Time to order your love”. Nice touch. I log in and the car is no longer $37,000 for the base model, it is now $48,500. That was it! Screw you Elon. I got my money back (two weeks this time).
I learned my lesson with this order online nonsense and continued to drive my Toyota Tundra. Zero problems, ate gas like a black hole but it was mine.
All of a sudden, I hear Ford is coming out with a fully electric F-150 and it looks great. It can charge a small city for 3 months. It has the towing capacity of a Cat diesel dump truck and it will have three four price points. I am in. I never learn apparently but I am going to give it a shot.
I put the 100 dollars down on it and I am like 189,000th on the list. Good chance they won’t produce that many trucks in the first go around. Who cares? My Tundra is running through 20 inch snowbanks and keeping me safe and warm and still looks great. I wait. I read all the online commentary. Most of it very positive about the truck but I see some nasty comments about the dealerships. No surprise, car dealers are not known for their integrity or honesty.
Ford, in its infinite wisdom, raised the price of the truck (every model) five thousand dollars. Supply issues, or chip technology issues or inflation or Black Lives Matter. Whatever the stream at that time was, they used it as an excuse.
The truck I picked out was 47,000 when I got my reservation. Now it is 52,000. I am still ok with that. Great truck, a few additions and it’s 56,000. My Tundra will trade in for around 30,000 so I am looking at probably a 28,000 net cost. I am good with that.
Well, Ford ha better idea. Somewhere along the line they raised it another 7,500 dollars because of the increased cost of the chips. Obviously, they think we are all stupid. It will take you 15 seconds to go online and research that little ditty. The cost of chips in any vehicle is roughly 700 dollars. Even with a 100% increase, it still does not add up to the increase. I kept my reservation. I am in no hurry, just like this story.
So last week, or was it the week before, I get an email, “Time to order the Excitement”. Yea, ok. The day before they announced another price hike on the truck. So now my base went from 47,000 to 63,500. With no options it still will now be around 66,000+. For a midline truck.
If that wasn’t enough, the dealerships have been charging a “Dealer added” fee of anywhere from 5,000 to as high as 40,000 for this truck. That was the last straw.
I called my salesman at my local Ford dealership and he was kind enough to give me the pre written explanation about price increases (load of crap) to the added dealer fees (more crap). The story the dealer is going with is this: Ford delivers the truck as is and the dealership makes zilch on the sale of that truck. I may have bought a piece of the Brooklyn Bridge when I was younger but I am older, wiser and if they think that any Ford dealership in the country is going to deliver any vehicle, especially a F-150 (which historically is the dealerships bread and butter) with zero profit, they have to be delusional. Because of Ford not allowing dealerships to run a profit on distributing this truck, they are allowing them to mark them up. Yet, Ford has vehemently denied allowing this and has forbidden any dealership from doing it. The stories don’t match.
This is a prime example of a company not thinking longer term. It has decided to basically bend any customer or potential customer over a barrel and find a very large hot poker and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine to maximize profits in the short term. I get when a car is very hot pricing is at an imbalance due to supply and demand but this is egregious. Both the company and the dealership are taking advantage of a unique situation to hose their customers and forgo the possible long term relationship for short term gain.
Oh, I had mentioned the Ford Bronco. A really nice looking truck that is very well thought out and from what I have heard, very well built. I said I won’t be buying the Lightning but I may be interested in the Bronco. He explained that they are the hottest vehicle on the market and Ford is no longer taking orders now for them. Which I knew. However, we do have a couple of “Gently used” Bronco’s in stock. Ok, let me have a look. They have a 2020 with 10,000 miles on it and it 63,000! I said you are kidding right/ Brand new, with the options it had on it’s sticker, it was 54,000. No thanks.
I will take my $100 deposit and get my 2014 Toyota Tundra detailed and an oil change and will drive it for another 100,000 miles.
The big picture point of all this is fairly simple. Politicians, conservationists, et al want the World to go electric. We need to do it now or the planet will heat up and become Mercury before our kids and grandkids have a time to learn to drive. Yea yea yea. Enough with this forced transition to electric vehicles. You have a system that is, at this time, incapable of providing the means to get to that place. We have car companies that want to hold our feet to the fire and make us pay out the ass to buy these vehicles. The liberals and the progressives can’t seem to grasp that this abuse in supply doesn’t affect the upper middle class or the rich. It only affects those on the lower rungs of the economic spectrum, their base.
What third year school teacher making a decent living is going to be able to afford any electric vehicle at this point? How is an NYPD officer going to be able to afford an electric car and a home for his family?
Forcing people to switch over to electric cars is not sustainable on any level. Forget that this country is probably 15 years away from having adequate infrastructure. It is financially impossible for most Americans to go electric.
This whole electric car thing is driving me nuts. As I explained from a personal perspective but also from a long view perspective as well. Car companies are making this huge push getting their message out but not a single one of them can provide a consistent supply of electric cars except Tesla. You may wait for three months but you will get the car you ordered. My experience with Ford has now gone into it’s 18 months and I am not satisfied. Not one bit. And I have no truck.
Time for the whole of humanity to ramp this crap down and be more realistic about our future. We need gas powered cars. We have the technology to produce better, more fuel efficient, safer cars every year. I know that the shift will eventually happen but it should be a choice rather than a mandate.
Thank You for the "truckless" ride. Very enjoyable with breakfast.