Earlier this month we told you about a Ford dealership in Foxborough, Massachusetts telling customers they would need to pay a $5,000 “market adjustment” to guarantee a spring delivery of the F-150 Lightning.
That is now looking like a good deal after another dealer has been found to be adding a market adjustment that nearly doubles the original price of the electric pickup truck.
Koons Ford Falls Church in Virginia sent emails to existing reservation holders informing them that if they want to be one of the first 25 to receive the Lightning, they will have to pay a $30,000 market adjustment.
They don’t stop there, asking for an additional $5,000 deposit, which is not refundable if the customer decides to cancel their order at a later date.
Even for those customers who don’t want to, or simply can’t afford pay an additional $30,000, a $10,000 market adjustment is being applied to all other orders.
If you think Ford would be outraged at the clearly predatory tactics of this dealer, you would be mistaken. When asked to comment on Koons Ford market adjustments, the automaker simply said final pricing is out of their hands.
“Ford shares recommended pricing for all vehicles with dealers and customers. Ultimately, customers and dealers will agree to the final pricing.” (via Sam Alexander)
These dealers feel like they can apply these market adjustments because of the increasing demand for the Lightning. Just before these emails were sent Ford recently stopped taking pre-orders after amassing around 200,000 reservations, and is scrambling to increase production.
The automaker is only planning to produce 80,000 trucks per year until 2024, meaning a long wait for many customers.
