Buying at one dealership, servicing at another. What should I expect?

In '01, I bought a Bullitt GT and, at the time, I recall there was some chatter about Ford cutting-back on Warranty Reimbursements to dealers. I had bought the car from a dealer 150 miles away and the first local dealer I called actually said they would prefer not to work on it since I did not buy it from them. Could they legally refuse? No, but would you want a dealer working on your car that didn't want to? The 2nd dealer said "No Problem" and fixed the issues I had, without question......just depends on the dealer.

I wanted to lease a EB in October of 2015. I struck out with all the local dealers (who said 2015 mustang's were rare like unicorns. They had 1 or 2 V6's and GT's). Because I owned my 2010 Genesis Coupe, I was able to to spend a long time looking for dealers. I called Ford Cust service for advice, and their reply was, "The dealers are independently owned businesses and we can't instruct them to sell you a car, but we can try to talk to them for your"... I was about to give up in December of 2015, when I came across a dealership an hour away. The salesperson thought I was weird because I told him three times that I need him to confirm that they have an EB that I can testdrive AND be able to purchase. This was because on two separate occasions, tried to bait-and-switch. I drove out to one dealership and they said, "Oh... You wanted to see an EB? We don't have those, and the website stock isn't accurate... You want to look at a V6?" and another dealer said the EB that they said I can take a look at, I couldn't look at it because someone, "paid a deposit, so we can't let customers look/touch it. Would you be interested in a Focus instead???". That car was on their stock for next two months, and they said the same thing every single time.

Anyway, I did lease my Silver EB from them. When time came for the FSB's, I called the local dealers in the NY/NJ area, and all of them asked, "did you purchase the car from our dealer?" When I said no, they all responded, "you can get it done from us, but the parts are probably going to be backordered and your originating dealer will probably have a better time getting the part for you".

My lease is up this December, and I originally thought of getting either 2018 GT Premium or 2018 EB Premium with the new lane keep assist... But after the service exeperience(s), I am not sure.

I did take it to the purchased dealer to get the FSB's done (and wheel alignment). My wife drove out with me so that I could leave the car. When I got it back, the steering wheel was crooked when driving down the road, and after the door lock FSB, the handle lock was reinstalled with big gaps between door and lock gasket. I also had a failed Catalytic converter, and it was replaced under warranty, but since then, I have this annoying rattle at 4000 RPM.

I complained and the dealer asked me to come back, and when I returned they gave me a Ford Fiesta rental thru enterprise. I got the car back, and they made the lock better (but still with gap in gasket), but I noticed that they used a screw driver to pry the window switch plate from the door panel, and chewed it all up...

And the driver's door glass seems crooked (the front goes all the way up, but back is about 1/4-1/2 in lower, so the glass no longer seals at the top...

I was livid, so I wrote an email to the Ford Exec for dealer/service.

I was shocked as 6 hours later, I got a phone call from the person. we had an hour of interview where he asked about my purchasing pains, and the service pains. He told me that I should take it back to a dealer and he would make sure that I was treated right...

Only problem is, I don't know if a dealer that I can bring it to, because they ALL have horrible reputations. So, yes, I do agree with you that for me, it did matter (negatively) that I did not purchase the vehicle from them.

crs2879 said:

In '01, I bought a Bullitt GT and, at the time, I recall there was some chatter about Ford cutting-back on Warranty Reimbursements to dealers. I had bought the car from a dealer 150 miles away and the first local dealer I called actually said they would prefer not to work on it since I did not buy it from them. Could they legally refuse? No, but would you want a dealer working on your car that didn't want to? The 2nd dealer said "No Problem" and fixed the issues I had, without question......just depends on the dealer.

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Based on the posts here, it depends on the dealer. My most recent experience, the throttle body FSB for V6 Mustang, was so so. The local dealer, where I didn't buy the car from but had bought another from years ago, said they didn't have the part in stock but would order it and let me know when it came in. That was eight months ago, I never called back to follow up because I've since sold the car.

I would not pay much more to a local dealer hoping for better service, unless I really liked the dealer and want to support them. I have bought cars from local dealers before and have not found they gave me better service just because I bought from them, or maybe they did give me special service but that service was so lackluster that it didn't matter.

jasonc0604 said:

My question is if I buy from another dealer and have the vehicle serviced at one of the local dealers should I expect to get treated differently than if I had purchased my car there?

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No, dealers make money servicing cars and often lose money selling new cars, so most welcome the service work with open arms regardless of where the car was purchased.

You should expect great service. Will you get it? No clue

TomcatDriver said:

I will voice one potential issue. Do you live in a small town? It shouldn't matter, but I live in a small town with exactly two dealers (one Ford, one Toyota). Nearest other Ford/Toyota dealers are about 80 miles away. Both the dealers in town have been known to show a little attitude to people who bought out of town, since they know you did it intentionally and were willing to drive a three hour round trip just to avoid their business. Since the local dealers don't have great inventory and tend to have poor pricing, a lot of people do go out of town. I know people who have had to go to corporate to get the local dealers to do what they are supposed to do. So, while it shouldn't matter it really depends on your particular dealer.

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This was my experience exactly. When I went to buy my Mustang, the local dealer only had one GT on the lot and it was a manual which I did not want. They also have a bad rap on pricing and can always be beat elsewhere.

I ended up going to a dealer about 60 miles away to buy my car. When I had my first warranty issue come up, I took it to the local dealer to have them look at it. They basically blamed me for the problem and told me to take it back to where I bought it and maybe they would do something for me.

I ended up having to get it fixed at another dealer that was about 25 miles away I live in a small town and they obviously hold a grudge if you buy elsewhere.

Wayne

70monte said:

This was my experience exactly. When I went to buy my Mustang, the local dealer only had one GT on the lot and it was a manual which I did not want. They also have a bad rap on pricing and can always be beat elsewhere.

I ended up going to a dealer about 60 miles away to buy my car. When I had my first warranty issue come up, I took it to the local dealer to have them look at it. They basically blamed me for the problem and told me to take it back to where I bought it and maybe they would do something for me.

I ended up having to get it fixed at another dealer that was about 25 miles away I live in a small town and they obviously hold a grudge if you buy elsewhere.

Wayne

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Very sad to hear stories like this. Hopefully Ford will read this thread and
drain the swamp

A good service manager doesn't care where the car was purchased. That said, a really good service department isn't always easy to find. If you've found that dealership, have no worries that you didn't purchase the car there.

Find a good ford Service department regardless of which dealer you may have purchased your car. Build a relationship with that store, and you will have much better service.

Dealers make money off of all services rendered, even if they don't charge the owner anything.

Also, if you purchased any of the ancillary services, those are usually interchangeable between dealers as well.

As military buy from one dealer and servicing somewhere else has been "business as usual". Never had any unusual problems or attitudes.

It's not a small-town thing. I live in NYC suburbs, and my story is almost list yours. The dealer 8 minutes away simply was not interested in selling me a mustang, but even at one point mentioned a V6 Taurus or A fully Loaded Focus.

I bought my car from over 50 miles away, and wen I tried to bring in the vehicle for FSB, the first thing local dealers asked me is, "did you buy the car from us?" After my answer of no, their reply is, "Those parts for FSB's are usually on national back-order, so we woudn't be able to look at it for at least a month or so. You should take it back to your originating dealer, because they can probably get priority on the parts".

My guess is that since they barely budge from MSRP (and they up-charge for dealer addons and "hard to get cars" (as they described the Mustang to me)), they make plenty of money from idiots that come in and pay MSRP+ for their vehicles. This is the only explanation that seems to make sense to me.

My_Coyote said:

Very sad to hear stories like this. Hopefully Ford will read this thread and
drain the swamp

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Your US dollars are good at both Ford dealers.

Shop around. I think you should wait a little, the 2018 will be in a good price once the 2019 starting hit the dealers.

now is easy to find a 2018 401A for 35k, over 4k under msrp. It is amazing how much value a mustang can lose in a such short period of time.

If you love the 2017 that is also great, you wont have any problem finding a fully loaded one right now for about 30 - 32k. that IMO it is an amazing deal.

I´ll wait a little and see, getting a 2018 soon.

Good Luck

jasonc0604 said:

So after a 16-month hiatus from being a Mustang owner I am currently looking to take advantage of the current rebates to trade my 2016 Focus SE ("lovingly" named the Slocus) into a 2017 Grabber Blue base GT. Right now, none of the local dealers here in west Texas have any discounts beyond the $2000 off MSRP (and my BiL is the GSM at one of the dealerships and won't budge). Looking in the DFW area, I can easily get an additional $4K off the MSRP and that will wipe away my negative equity on the Slocus. My question is if I buy from another dealer and have the vehicle serviced at one of the local dealers should I expect to get treated differently than if I had purchased my car there?

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What I have found is that just about any dealer will do warranty work for you.

However, what I have also found is that they reserve any free extras, like a loaner when not covered by the warranty, only to customers who bought from them too.