My Bronco Story - Really LONG (some dealer bashing and a reasonably happy ending)

[Johnny Mo]

So most of you outside the B6G Mid-Atlantic forum don't know me, and I know there will be some here that view this as me being a whiny jerkoff with nothing better to do and I should just be happy with my Raptor and let it go...sorry, I'm not wired that way. A line was crossed and this is all about principle at this point. I'm a firm believer in FAFO.

This outlines the unethical and unscrupulous business practices of Brewster Ford Sales and its Owner Ken Volz / Volz Auto Group.

Over the past 2.5+ years I have been waiting for my reserved and special ordered Bronco, after agreeing on a price and signing a contract, upon delivery Ken Volz demanded a market adjustment price increase of $30k on a previously signed and agreed upon price. If I complained publicly or started any legal action, he threatened to negate all other undelivered deals remaining for the same group of 97 buyers. Additionally, he did not provide a referral bonus of $200 per car for the 97 referrals I brought to his dealership. As a result of this attempt to price gouge me, I lost my vehicle and was forced to re-order from another dealership, putting me at the back of an already 2 year wait and subjected to $8k in manufacturer price increases. He is a greedy, unethical, liar and a cheat and should not be allowed to conduct business this way. I entered this agreement/relationship with the best intentions and so there could be some level of mutual benefit, instead when he saw an opportunity to tip the scales in his favor he did and took my vehicle and sold it out from under me and kept my deposit. Now after 2.5 years of waiting, I am on line again with Ford at a new dealership forced to pay an increased price due to the added delays caused by Ken Volz and Brewster Ford. Ken Volz is the stereotypical used car salesman shyster that people don’t ever want to run across in business dealings.

On July 13, 2020 Ford announced the release and opening of reservations for the new 6th generation Bronco. The Bronco had not been in production for 25 years. I was interested, but had never experienced this new process of placing a $100 reservation deposit before, so I waited a week or 2 before seeking further information. By that time, the popularity of the Bronco and the new design was very high and there were over 100,000 reservations in the system. On August 10, 2020 I placed my $100 deposit and reservation with Rye Ford in Rye, NY. On August 13, 2020 I joined Bronco6G.com, as we all know when we reserved our Bronco and got excited about this new reservation process that Ford had implemented being told reservation holders would have their vehicles built FIRST before dealer inventory (that turns out to be a lie) During my time on the forums, many of us started to express concerns about popularity of the Bronco and dealers ability to actually receive enough allocation to support all the orders and for those that didn’t receive enough – would they then mark up the vehicles and squeeze the order holder for more than MSRP – essentially offering the special ordered car to the highest bidder instead. Several members (and some dealership employees) saw this as an opportunity to look to safety in numbers so a few club volunteers picked up the phones and started calling dealers to see if they would be agreeable to group buy pricing. I was the rep for the Mid-Atlantic region in the NY/NJ/CT area. What did that really mean to the 6g community?

In the middle of October 2020, after calling several dealers who were planning on marking up the Broncos ($10-15k) – even the special ordered ones that were “supposed” to be earmarked for the order holder, I made contact with Brian Nugent at Brewster Ford, in Brewster, NY part of the Volz Auto Group. I asked Brian if he was in a position to make a deal for a group buy and that I represented the tri state part of the B6G forum and could guarantee him 20 new customers if he would agree to invoice pricing on the special ordered Broncos, and that those members of the group would upon agreement, transfer their reservation to Brewster. If we did not hit 20 transfers – the deal was null and void. The deal guaranteed pricing for the B6G members that pre-registered through me, and the dealership would still make the holdback on the car. I would be the point person for the club – all questions and answers would funnel through me so that it would not tie up dealership personnel answering the same questions over and over and they could focus on their regular customer base.

Brian said he would speak to the owner and let me know. A few days later Brian had approval, and we had a deal. Brian and I began discussing over email the details of the written agreement and how we would create an actual personalized contract for each of the reservation holders so they would feel comfortable with transferring their reservation. On several occasions I provided comments to ensure the dealership was protected as well. By October 27th and 28th, we had agreement from the Owner – Ken Volz, that the special limited-edition version (First Edition) Bronco would ALSO be included in the pricing agreement. On November 11, 2020 I transferred my order from Rye Ford to Brewster Ford. When the order banks opened I went to the dealership to place my deposit and confirm my order.

See Part 2

 

[Johnny Mo]

Part 2
By the time December 2020 rolled around Ford Corporate began putting information out regarding the popularity, and significant reservation backlog. At this point Brewster had approximately 89 deals of their own and 97 deals that I had brought to them from mainly outside of their primary market area. So Brian and I discussed closing the deal to any more participants. I had provided Brian with a spreadsheet which he then converted to a shared Google sheet so we could both update it.

In May of 2021, the auto group my wife works for as CFO, purchased a Ford dealership here in NY State, I knew that I could help her dealership by moving some of the deals to them, and I also knew that I had only guaranteed Brewster Ford 20 deals. Now that we were at 97, I could’ve easily transferred those 77 other deals away from Brewster, but I do not operate that way – this was always about building a relationship with Brewster who I felt would become my servicing dealership, so why wouldn’t I want to do right by them…that clearly is not how their owner thinks.

As the supply chain problems grew – Ford had difficulty in keeping up with the demand and many people were told they would not be receiving a 2021 Bronco and that their order would be pushed to 2022. My order got pushed to 2022 and I lost the ability to order the color I wanted. On January 24, 2022 Ford offered a lottery to the earliest reservation holders to have a chance to convert their current reservation to a Bronco Raptor trim level. I emailed Brian the next day since I had originally asked to be put on an unofficial Raptor list, but this new process would not allow me to be selected since Ford Corporate was handpicking the recipients. After several calls and emails back and forth with Brian he said that due to the outstanding performance of the dealership and in no small part due to my additional deals that I referred, that the dealership would be getting an additional Raptor allocation that could be sold to anyone they chose – Brian said that for everything I did for the dealership that I deserved it and he would honor the original invoice pricing. I jumped at the opportunity and signed the new buyers order that Brian emailed me. As the GM, and previous signer of the original deal for invoice pricing for “all trim levels” which included the limited First Edition, Brian clearly had IMPLICIT AUTHORITY to make this deal. Normally a sales person would send a buyers order to be countersigned by the dealership – this was coming directly from the General Manager.

Over the next several months more supply chain noise and finally some members were about to receive their Raptors in September/October 2022. 2 Members in particular Mark M and Tim B started to contact me with some concerns they had based on the vague conversations Brewster was having regarding delivery of their vehicles. It soon came out that the owner was upset with the General Manager because he offered the Raptor trim level vehicles to the B6G members at the same agreed upon pricing. (What I found out later in my conversations with the owner Ken Volz, was that his own family member purchased a Bronco Raptor at cost and subsequently sold it behind his back for a significant profit and it was now sitting on a used car lot for $30k more than original sticker (MSRP). Brian then informed me that the owner was forcing him to try and extract an additional $30k from all of the Raptor order holders. I sent letters to Ford Corporate pleading for assistance. In the case of Tim B he had already traded in his older F150 Raptor for $60k and Brewster held on to the money as a payment towards his Bronco Raptor (it was almost a year), they sold his F150 and now were asking for $30k more on what was already a signed and negotiated deal that was partially complete. Eventually Ford Corporate stepped in and enforced the sale to both Mark and Tim because FORD Corporate picked the “Golden Ticket” holders for the Bronco Raptor. I was not so lucky – because my Raptor was an earned allocation for their performance (due largely to my 97 additional deals) Bronco sales/conversions weighed heavily on dealerships receiving Bronco Raptor allocations. But since mine was earned by the dealership, corporate would not enforce the sale to me, even though we all agreed that I had a signed buyers order provided by the General Manager via email.

Things got worse as I negotiated with the owner directly, Brian the GM was forced to resign, terminated, left (whichever story you want to believe), and now the Owner threatened that if I went public on the forum with this issue, he would cancel all the remaining B6G deals. So I become the asshole now.... He told me it was just a “shitty situation, and that he regrets ever getting involved with the B6G community” He claimed he was having $300K stolen from him by the GM offering these vehicles as part of the deal. So after 2 years of reaping the benefits of additional sales, additional allocation from Ford and additional profit during COVID lockdowns – he regrets getting involved??? Really??? Additionally, the new GM Rob claimed that somewhere on the B6G forum they were getting “roasted” based on a customer who had a less than stellar service experience and they said as the point of contact that I was responsible and should TELL the forum members to dial back the negative talk. I told them I was just a member and had no ownership or administrative interest in the forum, policing language or discussions on it whatsoever, but in good faith – I would ask the members to “tone it down”. I did and sent him a screenshot of my message to the forum. This also went disregarded by the dealership…this was never about any sort of mutual benefit, this was always only about Ken Volz’s benefit and now that his unethical practices were being exposed he only became more greedy and more difficult to work with. To his day, I have not done anything to disparage the dealership or Volz AutoGroup, on B6G or any other social media platforms – but now - I don't care anymore, I cannot stand by and not say something about this and everyone think he was a stand up guy.

Both Ken and the new GM Rob told me that for me they would take only $15k over MSRP – even though I had a signed deal at invoice (close to a $20k spread) Additionally, after I refused they offered me $5k to walk away from the deal, and I’m sure to keep quiet about it – I also refused. So now 2+ years later after waiting for my car I am told to pay $15k more to get it, or walk away and lose my place in line - so I wrote another email to Ford Corporate and while all this was taking place, my vehicle was built and delivered to Brewster Ford on Dec 15-16th. But still Ken Volz would not budge on pricing and ultimately, I was forced to abandon my order. He did not return my $500 deposit until 5 months later - and I had to ask for it. He sold my vehicle – what I was told for $20k over MSRP (so by offering me $5k he would have cleared $15k over MSRP – which is the price he wanted from me – not exactly doing me any favors considering I brought him $4MM in sales, $150k+ in holdback / profit on the 97 referrals – and not a single $200 referral fee sent to me, not a single dollar reduction in price for the vehicle I ordered, and not honoring a signed buyers order from the General Manager who had IMPLICIT authority to enter into that deal.

My original vehicle was sold by the dealership and I was placed in line again by Ford Corporate at a new dealership now paying MSRP. Since that time I was supposed to have my vehicle from Brewster, the MSRP price has risen twice. From $82,321.80 (invoice) to 84,965 (new price 1) to current price since I haven't been built yet ($98,215) That is a $17,225 difference as a result of the greed and unethical business practices of Ken Volz and Brewster Ford. Additionally, to try and cover their tracks, they deleted the shared spreadsheet of the deals I brought to them – unfortunately for them not before I saved a copy, I also have HUNDREDS of private messages and emails from B6G forum members with their questions, requests to be added to the group buy and words of thanks for helping to orchestrate all of this when they got their Broncos.

I did finally get my Raptor- 6 months after my initially scheduled delivery, but until it was in my driveway - there was always doubt, always aggravation, I was always unsettled. Some of you will say dude get over it - it's just a car, some of you will understand. Either way thanks for reading. Oh by the way the Brewster guys are here reading this too I'm sure.

 

[Johnny Raptor]

Man, that's rough! Glad you finally got your Raptor! I *think* it was you that posted on one of the forums about being jerked around by your dealer and Ford had been brought into it, but didn't want to go into the story at that time. Maybe it wasn't, because it's definitely a common thing, but this story is really WAY past the typical scenario. Congrats for toughing it out and ultimately getting the truck you wanted.

In the end, what really stinks is that it sounds like you may have come out better by paying Brewster the $15k ADM, but maybe I read that wrong. After what you went through with them, I wouldn't have paid them another dime either.

If you don't mind, I've got a couple of questions. Any idea of how many of the 97 orders have actually been delivered to the people that ordered them? That's a LOT of Broncos, so curious if any of them got their trucks at the price they were promised?

Also, did you post this over on B6G? As you already know, you'll get a lot more eyeballs on it over there, but probably a whole lot more feedback than you care to read!

 

[Johnny Mo]

Man, that's rough! Glad you finally got your Raptor! I *think* it was you that posted on one of the forums about being jerked around by your dealer and Ford had been brought into it, but didn't want to go into the story at that time. Maybe it wasn't, because it's definitely a common thing, but this story is really WAY past the typical scenario. Congrats for toughing it out and ultimately getting the truck you wanted.

In the end, what really stinks is that it sounds like you may have come out better by paying Brewster the $15k ADM, but maybe I read that wrong. After what you went through with them, I wouldn't have paid them another dime either.

If you don't mind, I've got a couple of questions. Any idea of how many of the 97 orders have actually been delivered to the people that ordered them? That's a LOT of Broncos, so curious if any of them got their trucks at the price they were promised?

Also, did you post this over on B6G? As you already know, you'll get a lot more eyeballs on it over there, but probably a whole lot more feedback than you care to read!

Yes - it was me that posted the teaser a while back, and on principle alone I wouldn't pay him the extra - I still came out ok - Ford honored my order date pricing. Of the 97 deals - I'd say 75-80% have been delivered over the past 3 years including 2-3 Raptors and 2-3 First Editions. The non-raptors were at invoice as agreed, the Raptors at MSRP as re-negotiated or they'd lose them since it was a golden ticket. But after the Raptor debacle they started getting pissy about things and started monitoring the forums more - if anyone complained about service or mocked them in even the slightest way - the customer was told they were out and that they wouldn't sell them a car. And Yes it is cross posted on B6G and BN. Just for grins I may post on the Bronco Sport Forum also.

 

[Johnny Raptor]

Thanks. I guess it's good that some people got their deals, but it really stinks that everything went south for you. I'll go take a look at the cross posts to see the feedback. I'm sure you'll get a few trolls on there, but usually there are some good replies.

BTW - your Raptor is badass! Hope you're enjoying it!

 

[DEBO294]

What a complete debacle. That Ken guy is some kind of douche nozzle. Sucks you had to fork over $17K more. But you got it! I just paid $110K for a ‘23 including $10K markup, but that’s nothing compared to the $27K mark up locally.