Direct sales are still a big threat to dealerships. God forbid customers actually get a great sales experience without having to deal with some salesperson or haggle over add-ons and markups. But powerful dealer lobbies have kept bigger automakers from going through with it. Startups like Tesla, Lucid and Rivian have been successful so far, but one major American automaker seems as though it’s taking steps to ease into direct sales.
First spotted by Autoevolution, Ford recently introduced a digital car-buying platform. What’s more interesting is that the automaker did it rather quietly with no real fanfare. Called Ford Finder, you can purchase your car almost entirely online from it. Here’s how it works.
First, you choose your Ford model. Then you choose your trim and powertrain configuration, followed by your spec options like paint, wheels, interior color and other options. Once you get to this page, it shows you both the MSRP and the number of vehicles located within a radius that match what you’re selecting as well as the total number of the model that are in stock in that radius. Once you hit a few options, it’ll show you those vehicles.
When you choose the car you want, the site actually shows what the dealer’s selling price is, as well as the monthly payment, which you can customize with your terms. Like nearly every other digital shopping platform, if everything works for you, you can add the vehicle to your cart and choose how you’d like to pay — be it finance, lease, or bringing your own finance — and add a trade-in. From there you fill out your personal information for the vehicle registration as well as get the estimated amount in taxes and fees. Then you create an account and are off to the dealer for your new car. Cool, right? Except nothing is as it seems.
First, this Ford Finder only seems to be available with the Mustang Mach-E and no other model for now. Maybe because Ford thinks EVs and digital sales go together? Second, and as Autoevolution pointed out, something like this is too little too late. A digital sales platform like this was needed over two years ago when Ford was dealing with the mess of dealers marking up Broncos, Mustang Mach-Es, Mavericks and F-150 Lightnings, some of the hottest cars on the market at the time.
Third, the disclosures on the site essentially say that all of this is for naught in reality:
Ford makes no warranties, representations, or guarantees of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to, accuracy, currency, or completeness, the operation of the Site, the information, materials, content, availability, and products.
As Autoevolution also mentions, this essentially says that it’s on you and the dealer to sort this sale out, meaning everything done on the site has the potential to not be honored by the dealer. All you’re left with is a decent online car research tool that’ll let you find local inventory. It’s a good first effort, don’t get me wrong. But that’s all it is, an effort. As long as dealers across the country stay greedy and keep direct sales at bay, this and any other ideas like it will continue to be just that, light efforts that don’t venture too far into direct sales so dealers won’t get mad.
