Unsure if this is a trend or just a pair of isolated instances, but this week came across 2 Ford stores limiting sales geographically.

Park Ford of Wesley Chapel (Florida) has the following language in their disclosures: "Due to local market conditions, all vehicles must be registered in the state of Florida."

West Herr (a chain of various brands in upstate New York) makes a similar point: "Due to limited supply of New Vehicles, we will no longer be selling or delivering vehicles outside of our local market." However, there is a caveat stating that if you live more than 200 miles away but are a previous customer or related to or referred by a previous customer, they will sell to you.

 

Dealers choice. And out of state deals are usually no fun anyway

 

Range Rover has been doing this for years.

 

Really? Haven’t encountered that…

 

Kia dealer in NJ started doing this on ordered vehicles(Telluride) last year. You have to be a local buyer.

 

Respectable position. It wouldn't really work here in the Philly area, being so close to the border of NJ and DE.

 

Just more ways to screw the consumer. On the MB forums people are having success buying cars elsewhere in the country and paying MSRP or even less and then having them shipped vs paying big markups in their local area. Dealers see buyers start doing this and you're seeing collusion amongst them to pinch that off.

Example, here you would have to pay a $10k markup for a S Class. Dealers in SoCal are doing $3-5k under MSRP, so its worth buying it there and having it shipped.

 

oh no i cant fleece local buyers?

 

Dealers from other states are giving fair deals to my local buyers so I can't fleece them!

 

What is the incentive for any of those dealers to limit sales geography then? I saw this as trying to allow local customers (ie, people that will come back for service) to avoid being screwed by out of towners swooping in on low inventory and "good deals".

Why shouldn't those SoCal dealers save their low inventory for locals if they are going to sell every car they are allocated anyway?

 

I think what they are trying to encourage is other dealers to do the same thing, telegraphing to the industry that everybody should just serve their local area. An example of this is Toby Rivers who used to do the Toyota and Lexus extended warranties out of Shreveport. Other dealers complained that he was offering cheap warranties nationwide and they pressured Lexus to put a stop to it. The net result to us is we lost the ability to buy a warranty at a low price from another state.

As to why dealer's shouldn't do that? As a consumer we don't want them to do that, limiting competition raises prices.

 

Talked to the local Acura dealer a couple of months ago when my MDX was in for service. This is exactly their logic. They are is selling at MSRP (except Type S with $2k premium) and limiting sales to middle TN. Says they have so many repeat customers they want to serve, and they can sell their entire allocation locally.

 

Maybe it's the same motivation; but there's not a finite number of extended warranties to sell. I see why there may be pressure from other dealers to stop that practice, but that's really anti-consumer.

But DC dealers are selling every MB that is allocated to them, so customers going out of market and getting better deals doesn't really hurt them.

As an out-of-town consumer you may not like that policy, but as a local consumer, you would like it. I wouldn't want to have to wait longer for a vehicle so the local dealer can sell more cars to people 1000s of miles away.

 

The flaw here is that its supply and demand. The reason the SoCal dealer is willing to sell cars below MSRP is because thats what they need to do to move them. EVERY dealer would prefer to sell locally because out of state buyers don't bring service or parts or repeat business.

My issue with this comes from how well I know the car dealership industry. Believe me, this is not a policy designed to benefit their local buyers. Car dealerships don't have policies that benefit consumers without also benefiting themselves.

And you'd be surprised, there are plenty of MBs on lots here with big markups that just sit there. I posted about the 2021 E63S wagon with a $90k markup. Thats a leftover 2021...its been there a while. The dealers here have just decided that if they are going to part with their inventory they want a markup. Believe me, theres a collusion between them all about it too.

 

while i want the option to buy out of state, i can't blame dealers wanting to keep scarce inventory for local customers and wanting other dealers to do same. dealers do in fact want relationships with customers, hoping they'll become repeat buyers and to get the critical service business. and sure, if everyone's selling everywhere, it's a 'race to the bottom' on pricing, where consumers get lower prices, but dealers struggle. i know, cry me a river.