Update 2-12-2016: My opinions of this vehicle have changed over time. Mostly due to Ford and Ford's franchise dealership's lack of customer service. The truck ended up being a dud I suppose, and Ford made no effort at keeping a customer. If you read this, I would not recommend Ford based on the lack of customer service alone. Linked is one of the blog entries regarding this vehicle's problems...
It seems that customer service continues to go down the tubes in America along with graduation rates and SAT scores. Who ever thought it would be difficult to send a dealer build codes for a truck, get a price, order, and receive a vehicle.
The truck…the 2011 Ford F450.
Any of you out there that have bought a Lariat Crew Cab Super Duty, have probably noticed that Ford does not make very many without the front console. With the needs of our family, we need the extra seat up front which requires searching tirelessly for dealerships that have one on the lot, spending extra when a dealership brings one from another dealership, or custom ordering.
With the newness of the 2011 SDs, we chose to order the perfect truck (for us) so that we (I) would be happy with it (and so Katie could get the next vehicle purchase even though this was for her ;) ). After months of research and anticipation, the 2011’s were out.
Dobb’s Ford at Wolfchase in Bartlett, TN was the first dealership that I could find that had one. Conveniently, it happened to be right down the road from us. While visiting family in Texas for Easter, I searched dealerships from central Texas to Eastern Tennessee. I was shocked to find a 2011 F450, white, Lariat and almost perfect on the lot at Dobb’s. It was the only one found in all my searching. I was excited, but the sticker showed the bad news, a console in the front. Still, we were excited and called Dobb’s upon our arrival. Having had the great fun of purchasing most of our vehicles, I decided to save a few days on the end of my life and let Katie do all the negotiating with me in the background, anxiously waiting the day I could sign the dotted line and grab some keys.
The first phone call went something like this…
Dobb’s Ford.
Yes, I’d like to know if you have a 2011 F450 on your lot.
2011 SDs aren’t out.
Well, there’s one in your online inventory.
No, they’re not out yet.
Have you checked?
No, they’re not out.
Well, can you check?
Yea, I’ll check and call you back.
No calls, but the next day we drove by the lot. There it was, big and beautiful, even with the console. Fortunately, someone was kind enough (or maybe dumb enough, see above comment) to leave the doors unlocked. Right away the improvements to the interior were noticed, specifically with storage. The old SDs had a useless metal contraption under the rear seat that not only took up valuable space under the seat, but was completely useless if you used your crew cab for passengers. This was gone and replaced by lockable and compartmentilizable (made that up) storage. I later found that there is more lockable storage with a 12V connection inside under the front center seat which is a huge improvement.
So, needless to say, Dobb’s was not doing well on earning our business. After we saw it, it was time to start negotiations. I hopped onto USAA’s car buying service for the first time and ‘built’ my F450. It was great, you get done and it tells you the price and three dealerships to choose from in the area based on zip code. Armed with this information, Katie called Dobb’s to get a quote…
Dobb’s Ford.
Yes, I’d like to get a quote for a F450 and I can fax the specs.
We have one on the lot that we can sell you.
It doesn’t have the stuff we need.
Like what?
The 5th wheel prep, a center seat and a spray in liner
Ok.
Later that day we got a quote. It wasn’t terrible, but was definitely higher than the USAA quote (that they didn’t know we had). So, we did the next step, we called Homer Skelton Ford in Millington and asked for a quote. That was a week after Easter and I still haven’t heard anything from them.
I also submitted my build to the third option on the USAA service, West Brothers Ford in Sullivan, MO. A couple days later, we had a call from Doug at West Brothers Ford. He told us that the USAA price is what we would get and we could order it.
Not wanting to drive all day to pick up a truck, we told Dobb’s that we had a better offer from somewhere else and we wanted to see what they could do. We told them we would rather stay local, but we were offered a lower price and a lifetime powertrain warranty. We just wanted a quote for the truck and the Ford extended diesel warranty. The result was not getting a different quote, but being harassed about the options we wanted…
Why do you want a factory bed liner, we can do that cheaper.
What is this 5th wheel prep, we can install aftermarket. I don’t understand what it does, it doesn’t make sense.
We can’t come down in price on the extended warranty, that’s an expensive warranty (meanwhile you can purchase one at a great price online, just google Ford extended diesel warranty).
So, after realizing that Homer Skelton would never call and that Dobb’s didn’t know what they were selling and what options were available and what they actually were, we decided West Brothers Ford was the answer. Though getting the exact build completed seemed to take a little longer than I would expect, we finally got the build with the price we were quoted incentives and all, and gave a deposit. 4-6 weeks and we were going to buy a new truck.
I immediately put my current truck on Auto Trader, and within 3 hours had a call from Lenz Auto. They wanted to buy my truck. We negotiated and my truck was sold. They sent someone to pick it up and the process was great. I’d sell them a truck any day and am considering purchasing an Excursion from them in the future.
So, we survived in the ’95 Honda Accord for about 6 weeks. Once the truck came in, we made the trip to MO. (This is the only caution I have for USAA car buying service, the service showed 226 miles, which turned out to be more like 300ish, but it was still worth the drive.) We arrived at West Brothers Ford, and with USAA’s dealer check, test drove, signed some papers, Doug took us to get a tank of Diesel, and we were on the road.
There was a small hiccup with purchasing insurance. Apparently, not many non-commercial drivers drive F450s, which with 2011 is just a F350 with a different differential. But as I expected, USAA came through and are still the BEST company I have EVER dealt with, I could say differently about UPS, but that’s another story. USAA offers nothing be great products and top notch customer service.
Overall I was very disappointed with the customer experience from the dealerships. I imagined I was a dream customer that showed up with not only the options, but the build codes to enter into the antiquated computer systems and a price that guaranteed a pretty good profit for a little amount of work. I still wish that I could purchase a vehicle like I can buy a computer. Dell’s website will let me customize a computer and show the ship date and price while I build it and change options. If only Ford did the same thing. West Brothers Ford combined with USAA’s car buying service are definitely a close second. I would highly recommend both of these to anyone looking for a new vehicle (and don’t forget to tell West Brother’s that you heard about them from me, contact me to find out more! Did I mention they will ship the vehicle to you?)
-Steve
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