Ford’s CEO Jim Farley mentioned the possibility of going to no-haggle fixed prices again at the brand’s Capital Markets Day. It’s far from the first time that the topic has come up but if Ford does go that route it would be the first of the big three to do so. Past mentions of the move have stirred the ire of dealers nationwide.
At this stage, it’s unclear whether or not Farley was referring just to the Ford Model E electric lineup or to the entire company’s offerings. In the past, no-haggle pricing has been an important part of the future in Ford’s eyes. In December of 2022, it said that some two-thirds of dealers agreed to no-haggle EV pricing. Keep in mind, that’s not the same as non-negotiated prices.
Evidently, the latter is exactly what Farley called for. As reported by Kelly Blue Book, he told investors that Ford would go to a “fixed-pricing model” though his actual quote is up for some debate. The Detroit Free Press says he said “Non-negotiated prices will be part of improving the customer experience for electric vehicle shoppers.” The Associated Press quotes Farley as saying “Ford will go to non-negotiated vehicle prices.”
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Either way, the end result would be the same for whichever vehicles Ford includes in that pricing strategy. Whatever the non-negotiable price is set at would be the final price save for any additional equipment or services sold by the dealer. For now, though, there are no more details on when this could happen or how Ford plans to placate dealers that complain about it.
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Fixed pricing has its own caveats but it does remove the potential for a dealer to chuck an arbitrary markup on a specific model – something that’s happening way more often than not these days with popular cars. It’s not hard to see how a non-negotiable price would improve the customer experience though. Multiple studies show that paying above MSRP harms long-term loyalty to a dealer and to the brand in question.
