Ford caught dealers building fake Bronco customers, and he’s had enough

There’s no denying that Ford’s relaunched Bronco SUV has been a big hit, with over 200,000 customer bookings and tons of media coverage. What has been less of a success is the slow rollout of the Bronco, which has left people so thirsty for the Broncos that they’re willing to pay way above the sticker if they can get one now.

According to a report released Tuesday by Jalopnik, this has led Ford dealers to mess around in hopes of getting more Broncos as soon as possible. What kind of dirt, you ask? Well, how about fabricating fake clients to increase their Bronco allowances? But now Ford is on them, and he’s had enough.

To combat this type of system play, Ford has implemented a policy of matching customer names to customer deliveries through a system called the “2021 Bronco Customer Name Match Audit and Integrity Policy Reporting Platform”. This platform helps enforce Ford’s new rules, including one that says 60% of Bronco sales must come from vehicle reservation holders rather than any geek on the street.

But what if these cunning and enterprising dealers keep trying to cheat the system? Well, there will be consequences. The first violation will get a warning to the offending dealer. The second offense will cause them to lose all Bronco allowances for one month. A third offense will see the dealership sales manager fight to the death in a post-apocalyptic Thunderdome-like situation – or maybe not. In fact, the dealer will lose his Bronco allowances for three months, but I like my idea better.

That kind of flim-flammery is not new to American car dealers, especially those who sell Big Three vehicles. The dealer’s huge markups on the car’s MSRP are sadly the norm, and if this latest instance of “the customer comes last” shows that behavior isn’t likely to change anytime soon. Fortunately, not all resellers do, and we have a list of Bronco dealers who will not mark their vehicles, so check them out.

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