Curious if anybody knows an answer to this.

When a dealer does a search for a car, in this case a mustang, and finds one at another dealership is there a rule that the dealer i'm at can not contact the receiving dealership about the car status (whether it has been sold before it arrived or it would be available for my dealership to get it for me) until the car arrives or is my dealership just blowing steam?

Also does anyone know if when a search is done by the dealership if ordered cars show up to them? Just seems weird that a dealer would want to see a car in a search that is supposed to be bought by someone already.

 

Cars that were order with a type 1 order code (retail order) will not show up on a dealer locate unless it has sat in stock for more than 30 days. They can call and ask about status and availability any time they want. Obviously if you dealer doesn't have one to trade back you can be pretty sure the other dealer isn't going to give theirs up.

 

I can understand the dilemma here. I purchased my 2011 GT from one dealer who found what I wanted at another. So, it is possible and not very difficult for dealers to trade if there is comparable merchandise.

To answer your question, your dealer can find out whether the car is sold or not, however they will want to be careful who they talk to at the other dealer. If your salesman speaks to the wrong person they may catch on to the fact that you want the car and not give it up.

My dealer went through this and was very careful who they spoke to about the trade.

Hope this helps some.

 

+1. My wife is the inventory manager at the dealership I work for. She trades 50-100 vehicles per month with other dealers all around the NW. We can't possibly have every vehicle that customers want, so trading inventory with other dealers is a win-win for all parties. Granted, some dealers refuse to trade with anyone, so it's not a given that ever dealer is open to trading merchanside, but most do (cuz they'll often need stuff we have, too).

 

So does the car have to be physically at the dealership for the 30 days or does that start when it is in transit? The car i'm looking at seems to be stuck in transit and my dealership said they can not contact the other dealership about availability until they receive the car. At least thats the way I perceived what they said. Their words were that they couldn't find out information until the car "hit the ground". They do have a very similar car to trade, i think it just has the 3.73 rear end which the one im looking at has the 3.31. Any other thoughts?

 

My car was on the other dealers lot (in inventory) for less than 2 days. Another car that the other dealer was receiving was a week out and my sales guy was trying to have them just deliver it straight to us instead of unloading from the truck, but I couldn't wait so I bought the one they had.

Where are you hearing 30 days from? Just curious.

 

...and you answered yet another question of mine. I was wondering how my dealer says my car should be arriving soon (tonight) but it's not showing up in their inventory, while they've had cars in their inventory for several days that are still over a week out from arriving. He must have ordered it retail. Thanks for providing the information you do, man. You help out a lot of us on a daily basis.

 

^^^^

 

I can 100% vouch on what Paul says. Look at RK2112's car. I tried to dealer trade for it myself, once I knew his car wasn't getting shipped. I called the store who had his car, but they wouldn't give it to me as they wanted a 5.0 Vert back in exchange. Needless to say, I didn't have one to give up. If it wasn't for Ford stepping in and telling the dealer to ship me the car, we would still be wondering what to do on his re-order.

Ethan, I have dealer traded cars that were NOT on the ground yet. These are dealers that my manager has a good relationship with. I tell them I need the "fusion" that shows as "N/A" on the Days on Lot menu on our dealer locator site. They will usually keep my name on the MSO and when it arrives, they call us and tell us we can come get it. Never had a problem yet.