My wife and I purchased a 2011 Ford Edge Limited AWD from Bill Pierre Ford on Sunday, 12/04/2011. The vehicle is used with approximately 25,000 miles on it. The first thing the sales manager did was show us their invoice price. This invoice price showed they had paid $31,500 for the vehicle at the time it was traded in. The asking price for the vehicle was $36,995 and we were able to negotiate it down to $34,995 plus $8,000 for our trade in. We opted to purchase the extended 100,000 mile warranty for an additional $2,879.00. We left the lot feeling pretty good about the deal but when we got home and started doing some research we got a really bad taste in our mouth.
When we were on the test drive we were told by the sales person (David) that the vehicle was “fully loaded” and when I inquired about some of the features that I thought would be included in a “fully loaded” vehicle in this price range I was told that those items were not available in 2011. When I went directly to Ford and looked up the features available for the 2011 I was shown several packages that were available including the sunroof, the keyless ignition and several others. I also discovered that we didn’t have the full navigation system, but rather a “dumb” system that would provide you with turn-by-turn directions but wouldn't handle route re-calculations.
I was dismayed so I decided to dig a little further. I went to AutoTrader and did a search for the vehicle we had just purchased, and sure enough, it was still listed as available. The price it was listed for $31,877, a full $3,000 under what we had “negotiated” down to.
Time to go back in! A sales manager (Joe) claimed that he was not even aware they were advertising on AT but that they would match the price. I brought up the rest of the discrepancies that we discovered and his only excuse was that “fully loaded” can mean a lot of different things.
Joe then told me that they don’t list anything on AT. He said that AT pulls from their inventory online and calculates what they (AT) thinks is a fair price. He said they had no control over it. This was after he had told me 15 minutes prior that he wasn’t aware they advertised on Auto Trader. This really sounded suspicious to me, but since they were going to match the price, I decided to let it slide.
Joe proceeded to ask me what he needed to do to make things right. I told him that I wanted the price matched, a second master key cut for the car, and I would like him to investigate if it was possible to add the navigation. He told me to come back on Tuesday and resign the paperwork and that he would investigate the navigation.
My wife and I headed in around 11am on Tuesday morning to resign the paperwork. A different sales manager ( Jason) approached us and had heard the news. He said to wait for a moment and he would get everything taken care of.
He came back about 10 minutes later and reiterated the AT story. He then told he needed to reduce the price of our trade in to match the online price. I told him that was not acceptable and that after being lied to they needed to make it right. He agreed (gruffly) and left to go get the paperwork ready. While he was gone I went to Ford and did a search for Certified Pre-Owned inventory directly on Ford’s website. I found the exact vehicle listed on Ford’s own site listed for $31,877. This made me livid and after we signed the paperwork I decided to start asking around.
I received confirmation from two other Ford dealers in the area that the dealer HAS to set the price on Auto Trader and that there is no way an “auto calculated” price would ever be listed on Auto Trader.
In closing, while they did honor the online price they lied to us at least 3 times about options on the car and how their vehicles showed up on AT, over charged for warranties and potentially are showing invalid “invoice” prices. Do yourself a favor and stay as far away from Bill Pierre as you possibly can. Learn from our mistakes.
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When we were on the test drive we were told by the sales person (David) that the vehicle was “fully loaded” and when I inquired about some of the features that I thought would be included in a “fully loaded” vehicle in this price range I was told that those items were not available in 2011. When I went directly to Ford and looked up the features available for the 2011 I was shown several packages that were available including the sunroof, the keyless ignition and several others. I also discovered that we didn’t have the full navigation system, but rather a “dumb” system that would provide you with turn-by-turn directions but wouldn't handle route re-calculations.
I was dismayed so I decided to dig a little further. I went to AutoTrader and did a search for the vehicle we had just purchased, and sure enough, it was still listed as available. The price it was listed for $31,877, a full $3,000 under what we had “negotiated” down to.
Time to go back in! A sales manager (Joe) claimed that he was not even aware they were advertising on AT but that they would match the price. I brought up the rest of the discrepancies that we discovered and his only excuse was that “fully loaded” can mean a lot of different things.
Joe then told me that they don’t list anything on AT. He said that AT pulls from their inventory online and calculates what they (AT) thinks is a fair price. He said they had no control over it. This was after he had told me 15 minutes prior that he wasn’t aware they advertised on Auto Trader. This really sounded suspicious to me, but since they were going to match the price, I decided to let it slide.
Joe proceeded to ask me what he needed to do to make things right. I told him that I wanted the price matched, a second master key cut for the car, and I would like him to investigate if it was possible to add the navigation. He told me to come back on Tuesday and resign the paperwork and that he would investigate the navigation.
My wife and I headed in around 11am on Tuesday morning to resign the paperwork. A different sales manager ( Jason) approached us and had heard the news. He said to wait for a moment and he would get everything taken care of.
He came back about 10 minutes later and reiterated the AT story. He then told he needed to reduce the price of our trade in to match the online price. I told him that was not acceptable and that after being lied to they needed to make it right. He agreed (gruffly) and left to go get the paperwork ready. While he was gone I went to Ford and did a search for Certified Pre-Owned inventory directly on Ford’s website. I found the exact vehicle listed on Ford’s own site listed for $31,877. This made me livid and after we signed the paperwork I decided to start asking around.
I received confirmation from two other Ford dealers in the area that the dealer HAS to set the price on Auto Trader and that there is no way an “auto calculated” price would ever be listed on Auto Trader.
In closing, while they did honor the online price they lied to us at least 3 times about options on the car and how their vehicles showed up on AT, over charged for warranties and potentially are showing invalid “invoice” prices. Do yourself a favor and stay as far away from Bill Pierre as you possibly can. Learn from our mistakes.