Advantage Ford Brand New F-150 Truck $15,000

[2BLUE]

I'm actually looking for a new superduty, but today I noticed they have 2013 Ford F150 for $15,000 Cash.

What am I missing here?

Advertising on the radio, in their showroom etc.

http://i1221.photobucket.com/albums/dd469/roadtripman/were1_zps249f99cd.png

[Dalking]

They can't be selling for 15k even???? That makes no sense. If so I should get one too.

[2BLUE]

...I must be missing something here :dunno:

[Dalking]

That's weird man. I am going to find out more about it tomorrow and if that's true I definately need to get some of these keys in my pocket!

[nobb]

Keep us updated. If it's too good to be true (especially from a dealer), then it usually is.

[ricosuave]

A coworker was making big noise about going down and getting one of these on Monday - never heard a peep out of him the rest of the week, and he's still driving his beater, so I'm guessing there is more to it.

[bourge73]

Pretty sure its a prepayed lease. Dirty bastards. You certainly wont be owning that truck out right for $15 Grand.

[GTS4tw]

it says: "15,000 cash Drive it away" Doesnt say anywhere that you will own it.

[Aleks]

15k discount on msrp if you pay cash (no finance or lease) :dunno:

[corsvette]

The manager there is very old school pushy, sneaky, smoke and mirrors car salesman type of guy. Be very careful, as he say's "every day is a good day at Adfvantage Ford" And giving 47k trucks away for 15k is not going to make "his" day good. The customer will get screwed here somehow.

[Masked Bandit]

Originally posted by bourge73
Pretty sure its a prepayed lease. Dirty bastards. You certainly wont be owning that truck out right for $15 Grand.

This is the most likely outcome.

[kvg]

Does for still make the v6, rwd, single cab, power nothing version?

[spikerS]

^^Yep, but the add claims quad cab.

Either way, something is up. And since when could you purchase a new vehicle with a CC? I thought they refused to do that.

my bet is a prepaid lease or something.

[benyl]

Originally posted by spikers
And since when could you purchase a new vehicle with a CC? I thought they refused to do that.


They only refuse to do that because it costs them 2-4% of the deal. There is no other reason, other than your limit, that stops you from using your CC.

[GTS4tw]

Originally posted by benyl


They only refuse to do that because it costs them 2-4% of the deal. There is no other reason, other than your limit, that stops you from using your CC.

Yeah and getting $15,000 down will help make up for that haha. I don't get how people fall for these ads? Any dealership doing this kind of thing is probably one to stay away from, clearly they want morons as customers.

[Mixalot27]

I contacted them about this offer and received this barely legible reply:


This is Stephane at Advantage Ford,

Thank you for your inquiring, your are looking for the great deal on the F-150, who its work you are driving the F-150 for two year after the two year you have the option to keep it, return it, or trade-in which will be the best option because after two year you will in a positive situation you will make money of the trade-in, we do sell a lot with that program we do have a few left, let me know when will be the best time for you to come see me and choose your new F-150.

Thank you.

So it sounds like essentially a prepaid 2 year lease?

[benyl]

Stephane needs some ESL courses.

[GTS4tw]

Originally posted by Mixalot27
I contacted them about this offer and received this barely legible reply:



So it sounds like essentially a prepaid 2 year lease?

Sincerely Crown Prince Ford. Nigeria.

[darthVWader]

Originally posted by benyl
Stephane needs some ESL courses.

"It may seem like I have bad grammer, but I write the way I speak we French people can't help it"

http://www.advantageford.ca/ContactUs/OurStaff/StephaneStOnge/tabid/37897/language/en-US/Default.aspx

[benyl]

MSRP $41,099
XTR package $4,000
GST $ 2,254.95

Total $47,353.95

This doesn't include the tire tax, AC levy, etc.

What they fail to mention is the $9,250 cash back from Ford.

Net price $37,599
Total $39,478.95

Lease payments on the above are $647 / month @ 0.99% (good rate)

Total lease payments are $15,528.

No residuals on the website, so there is no way to know if it is a good deal.

[FraserB]

Pretty sure after two years the buy out would be more than it's worth, not to mention they are not going to give you $32,099 for it on trade.

[benyl]

Originally posted by darthVWader


"It may seem like I have bad grammer, but I write the way I speak we French people can't help it"

http://www.advantageford.ca/ContactUs/OurStaff/StephaneStOnge/tabid/37897/language/en-US/Default.aspx

I can speak French and it doesn't translate. lol.

That being said, you can get this deal at any Ford dealer (well, maybe not the CC part).

The discount on the monthly payments of $500 is because you prepay the lease.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Originally posted by darthVWader
"It may seem like I have bad grammer, but I write the way I speak we French people can't help it"

http://www.advantageford.ca/ContactUs/OurStaff/StephaneStOnge/tabid/37897/language/en-US/Default.aspx

After working with a lot of national construction accounts over the last few years I can honestly say that you should likely never trust a frenchman in business, at least not one from Quebec. :)

[Boosted131]

Originally posted by Mixalot27
I contacted them about this offer and received this barely legible reply:



So it sounds like essentially a prepaid 2 year lease? Your are looks for a ferd f150

[Kloubek]

Very misleading ad.

There is something called the "competition bureau" who monitors advertising practices in Canada. The problem is that they generally don't waste their time with small to mid-sized businesses and instead get their money out of large companies. I'm certain an ad like this would not pass their scrutiny if they took the time to look at it.

[GTS4tw]

Originally posted by Kloubek
Very misleading ad.

There is something called the "competition bureau" who monitors advertising practices in Canada. The problem is that they generally don't waste their time with small to mid-sized businesses and instead get their money out of large companies. I'm certain an ad like this would not pass their scrutiny if they took the time to look at it.

Its not really misleading, they are just assuming people won't actually read it. I'm sure if you gave them $15,000 then you would drive it away.

[FraserB]

Yeah, not too misleading if you don't bother to look into the terms and conditions. I've got a feeling they get a ton of people through the door with that ad and then they walk out when they get down to signing for a $650+ monthly rental fee on a truck they will be upside down on in 2 years.

So long as they let you drive it away for only $15,000 and give you the option of using your CC, they are in the clear. I'm a bit surprised they don't have "Subject to terms and conditions" on there though, probably gets them into a lot of arguments.

[89s1]

Originally posted by FraserB
Yeah, not too misleading if you don't bother to look into the terms and conditions. I've got a feeling they get a ton of people through the door with that ad and then they walk out when they get down to signing for a $650+ monthly rental fee on a truck they will be upside down on in 2 years.

Upsidedown nothing my buddy Stefane is in the know (he works for ford) and he says I'd make money on this deal

:rofl:

[corsvette]

I worked for a Ford dealer in the late 90's, they had this "deal" on F-150's

$0 Down (nothing but the first and last months payment) $199 per month plus gst. Not kidding the place looked like Wal Mart on december 24, they had just over 100-$199 pickups in stock that all sold before 11am Saturday (the ad came out in Fridays paper for a Saturday only sale) Then they had the upgrade models that came in at $249 per month and went up from there. Total sold that Saturday was over 150 pickups!!!!

Now most people did not even care to read the small print, nor did the sales rep care to or have time to explain the lease, even reps that went over the details said the customer didn't really care anyway. they just wanted that new truck. You were allowed 12,000 kms per year, thats where most guys got hit hard. Two years later these trucks were coming back with 60,000 kms + on the clock. Ford wanted 10 cents per km over the 24,000 km. Do the math, these guys were very upside down just returning the lease truck.

At the 2 year mark trucks were constantly coming in after hours with the keys in the ignition. people just left them at the dealer hoping that way they could escape any extra mileage charges. One guy had 175,000 kms on his, he owed either 15k in excess km or residual payout that was $21,000 on a truck now worth $8,000.

One must be very careful with these "deals"

[revelations]

^ How do you prevent stupid people from being stupid??:dunno:

[FraserB]

Originally posted by revelations
^ How do you prevent stupid people from being stupid??:dunno:

Sign the ridiculous car loan and get a free, mandatory, vasectomy.

[2BLUE]

Pretty busy down here!

I think my Superduty will be coming from Airdrie though.

They gave me the best price so far.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Originally posted by corsvette
One guy had 175,000 kms on his, he owed either 15k in excess km or residual payout that was $21,000 on a truck now worth $8,000.

One must be very careful with these "deals"

Should have sold it on ezcarsandtrucks.com, would have had no hassles getting 21k from their pool of pre-qualified buyers.

[Kloubek]

If there is supplimental mice type explaining the terms and restrictions, then they are mainly covered. I see no such mice type, and I see no asterisk on the $15,000 which indicates there are further details. Both are required by law.

The Forzani Group (before we were bought by C. Tire) got find massively for not being super explicit in our ads. We were just doing what everyone else did, but they made an example of us. Now that we've been through that B.S., I'm pretty well versed with what is required when creating retail ads and unless there is more to this, this ad does not at all comply.

[spikerS]

Originally posted by Kloubek
If there is supplimental mice type explaining the terms and restrictions, then they are mainly covered. I see no such mice type, and I see no asterisk on the $15,000 which indicates there are further details. Both are required by law.

The Forzani Group (before we were bought by C. Tire) got find massively for not being super explicit in our ads. We were just doing what everyone else did, but they made an example of us. Now that we've been through that B.S., I'm pretty well versed with what is required when creating retail ads and unless there is more to this, this ad does not at all comply.

Dealership adverts rarely comply. Usually any vehicles advertised at a crazy price like this, have stuff hidden away in the fine print, or they have the crazy deal on a specific unit, that was magically sold just before you got there.

[Mixalot27]

Originally posted by Kloubek
The Forzani Group (before we were bought by C. Tire) got find massively for not being super explicit in our ads. We were just doing what everyone else did, but they made an example of us. Now that we've been through that B.S., I'm pretty well versed with what is required when creating retail ads and unless there is more to this, this ad does not at all comply.

Kind of off topic. But I thought the reason Forzani Group got fined was for having "Jewish Sales", pardon the expression. They would artificially inflate the regular price of the item to make it seem to be a larger discount than it really was. For example an item normally sold for $39.99 would be advertised as 50% off with regular price $59.99 so now on sale for $30.00. Which in reality is only 25% off the actual regular price.

[GS430]

Originally posted by Mixalot27


Kind of off topic. But I thought the reason Forzani Group got fined was for having "Jewish Sales", pardon the expression. They would artificially inflate the regular price of the item to make it seem to be a larger discount than it really was. For example an item normally sold for $39.99 would be advertised as 50% off with regular price $59.99 so now on sale for $30.00. Which in reality is only 25% off the actual regular price.

I swear to god I noticed that before. I thought I was losing my mind..

I've seen a lot of companies actually do that, it's bullshit.

[ddduke]

Originally posted by GS430


I swear to god I noticed that before. I thought I was losing my mind..

I've seen a lot of companies actually do that, it's bullshit.

Urban and Underground do it all the time. Mark Diesel jeans for $400 then drop them down to $200 when at the same time they're being sold at Henry for $229 regular price.

[Kloubek]

Originally posted by Mixalot27


Kind of off topic. But I thought the reason Forzani Group got fined was for having "Jewish Sales", pardon the expression. They would artificially inflate the regular price of the item to make it seem to be a larger discount than it really was. For example an item normally sold for $39.99 would be advertised as 50% off with regular price $59.99 so now on sale for $30.00. Which in reality is only 25% off the actual regular price.

Hell... most conversations on Beyond tend to be off topic. Nothing new there.

As far as your assessment of the situation: yes and no.

Disclaimer as to not cause my company or I any harm: Everything I am about to say is as I remember it, but is not meant to be a photographic record. It is my opinion/recollection, and not necessarily that of the company's.

Basically what happened is that a competitor *thought* exactly that was happening, and complained. The competition Bureau felt there was merit to the complaint, and came rushing into our offices one day like agents from the Matrix. It was quite crazy actually, with them simply taking paperwork and files as they saw fit. Really massively disrupted the everyone, with essential files and paperwork simply vanishing. (We never got this paperwork back either, btw)

In the end, of the tens of thousands of products sold covered in their investigation, they found a handful (like, a dozen?) that had been advertised as marked down based on an original price which had only been at that original price for a very short period of time.

For the huge investigation done, they actually never came away with a single instance where Forzani obviously and truly mislead a customer.

The Bureau dragged the investigation on so long in an effort to find wrongdoing that there was no end in sight. The legal fees were through the roof by that point so Forzani settled on a fine of something like 1-1.5 million and then were also forced to pay the Bureau's legal fees.

Quite honestly, and *not* speaking as a Forzani employee, it was pure and utter BS. They tried so hard to make something out of virtually nothing, with competitors and other businesses producing advertising blatantly misleading in comparison. To this day, I see advertising everywhere which is far more misleading than anything they found Forzani had produced during the period of time that was investigated.

Not only did it cause disruption, but now that we're considered a "target" for the Bureau, every advertisement has to be cross referenced and checked against a mathematical formula of time at the original price before we are able to claim savings. You'll also notice mice type all over Sport Chek ads - far more than other retailer. If we are found to be out of compliance again in any way, there is potentially even worse fines to be had. Trying to be so specific and accurate is actually exceptionally time consuming and makes marketing creative look like crap..... but we gotta do it.

So, being well versed over the last decade of what is technically required from a retailer in the eyes of the Bureau, I can quite confidently say that the truck ad (as it is shown) is misleading and would not at all pass their scrutiny... if they chose to take the time to look at it. Which they wont.

[Masked Bandit]

Thanks Kloubek, it's nice to hear the inside information and not a bunch of twisted, third & fourth hand accounts (my cousin's hairdresser's neighbour blah blah blah).

[Mixalot27]

Yeah thanks for the interesting info Kloubek.

It's kinda of surprising more complaints aren't made to the Competition Bureau about these types of things considering the amount of competition as well as disgruntled customers of Car Dealerships.

[Sugarphreak]

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[Sugarphreak]

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[GTS4tw]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak


I didn't see any terms and conditions on the ad posted in the OP

They make a comparison to the MSRP, then show a lower (unrealistic price) and something about a cash deal.

They should have an asterisk with corresponding terms IMO. It is really misleading otherwise.

There doesn't need to be small print, because the ad is not deceptive. No where does it say: regular price: $47000 sale price $15,000. That would be deceptive, this says exactly what it means so it needs no such disclaimer. Also, the case against Forzani had nothing to do with this and the circumstances were completely different, can't even be compared. We went through something similar when I worked for International Stereo, but it is a totally different rule being broken than the one being perceived to be broken here.

[Sugarphreak]

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[GTS4tw]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak


Looking at the ad from a un-bias point of view, it looks like the sale price is 15K... which is exactly the effect they were intending, why else would they compare it directly to the MSRP? No mention of a lease anywhere on the ad, and then with "CASH" written in there, it further emphasizes it is a sale deal.

Aside from the fact your average Joe would figure out that 15K is not a realistic price, there is nothing in the ad that says it isn't a sale price.

I see what you are saying but still disagree that it is deceptive at all. There are lots of cases of the type of deception The Forzani Group got fined for, as I say, I have been involved in one. However despite these sales going on at dealerships every day across Canada I haven't heard of any of them getting in trouble? Why? Because its not deceptive in the same way, if they said, "SALE $15,000" and had no small print I would agree with you 100%, but they word it the way they do for a reason.

Edit: The better one to look into is all these people offering 0% financing, and do not pay for one year deals, if this is deceptive, then thats a downright scam. Yet its somehow legal.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Isaiah]

A few years ago a local Nissan dealership was offering a free Versa with the purchase of a new Titan. No fine print.

[Kloubek]

Where you can get into real potential trouble in retail with the rules is claiming an amount off. If you say 50% off, the original price you are referring to in the savings equation has to be at that price for a significant time. I'm not even sure what the formula is. You also cannot based savings off of MSRP, which is an arbitrary number. You can, however, *state* MSRP so what they did with this truck ad in that regard isn't a violation.

At one time before we were purchased by the Forzani Group, Sport Mart used to show savings based on "compare at" pricing. "Compare at" basically meant MSRP - and that would certainly be against the current rules. Somehow, we got away with it at the time but as soon as we were purchased, Sport Mart had to follow the same rules as the rest of FGL and were then (almost) always compliant.

This ad makes no save story, nor does it specifically say that the car is $15,000 all-in. However, it certainly implies that $15,000 is the purchase price. There are some elements of proper practice that are black and white, and others are more a judgement call. It's pretty clear this ad is meant to bring people into the dealership, expecting a $15,000 truck. Again - if the Bureau decided to look at this I'm sure they'd have something to say about it - but they seldom look at what occurs with smaller businesses. There simply isn't enough fine money to be had with smaller businesses to justify their investigations.

From a business perspective though, I really don't know how the marketers felt this is a good idea. Of the people they bring in thinking they can get a $15,000 truck, how many of them are going to drive out with a truck that costs 2-3 times as much? It might bring people in, but it is going to be sending a ton away unhappy and that's not great for the brand.