Get An All Expense Paid Sync And MyFord Touch Course. At Your Ford Dealer

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Ford brought two pieces of good news for their dealers at this year’s NADA meeting: The dealers will get more cars. And they will get more cash. But wait, there will be less …

Ford will increase its production targeted at its U.S. dealers by 13 percent this quarter. If the market wants more, Ford will make more. They will even lay on more shifts, says the Wall Street Journal.

What usually makes dealers much happier: Ford will dole out extra spiffs. Ford dealers will get $50 for every vehicle they order with Sync and $75 if they order cars equipped with Sync and MyFord Touch. This “technology allowance” is meant to reimburse the dealers for the extra time it takes to teach customers how to use the in-vehicle technology.

Dealers had been complaining that the new technology eats up their precious time. Automotive News [sub] wrote recently that “delivering a new vehicle used to take a dealer 45 minutes. It now could take up to two hours for some. That’s productivity time lost by the salesperson who could be making another sale instead of teaching a customer three different ways to turn on or adjust the air conditioning.”

So that was the good news. “Later Sunday, Czubay and Jim Farley, Ford’s global marketing chief, told Lincoln dealers that Ford wants to reduce the retail network from 434 showrooms to about 325 in the country’s 130 largest markets,” writes the Freep. There had to be a catch.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Z71_Silvy Z71_Silvy on Feb 07, 2011

    If these systems from Ford were remotely intuitive, easy to use, and well designed, there wouldn't b this problem. Fact is, Ford half-assed these systems, rushed them ti market, and now you need HOURS of training just to increase the temperature in the appliance.

    • See 4 previous
    • Ophelia Ophelia on Feb 07, 2011

      There are still physical buttons for temperature adjustment apart from the touch screen. Choose room temperature (~72 degF) and press auto. Simple. There's also an off button and a defroster button too. I wasn't too keen on the touch-sensitive hazard light switch in the Edge Limited though. I kept bumping into it when experimenting with the touch screen controls for audio (at a stop and parked of course). It took me a little while to learn that the big Home button wasn't the same as the menu button.

  • Mtymsi Mtymsi on Feb 07, 2011

    GM had the same problem when they first introduced OnStar. The sales person had to activate it upon delivery without any compensation for the time spent doing so. It was a royal pain and cost me more than I can calculate in lost sales because I was unable to wait on a new customer, instead sitting in the vehicle being delivered for an extra 30 minutes on average activating and explaining OnStar. The problem was eliminated after three or four years when GM started activating the OnStar system at the factory. Will be interesting to see how many dealers pocket the money vs. those that pass it on to their sales staff, the ones who are losing money sitting in the deliveries explaining how the system works.

  • Zackman Zackman on Feb 07, 2011

    All I want are simple, easy-to-use knobs and buttons and sliders. What a concept! If I have to make a call, I'll just use my cell phone when it is safe to do so. I'll plug in my own GPS if need be, too. Keep it simple, OEMs, keep it simple. "Old 'fart' in training"? Not me. I am an "O.F.", but do my best to stay young at heart.

  • Ion Ion on Feb 07, 2011

    We need to stop catering to people too lazy to read their owner's manual. I get alot of people at work who have no idea how to use something as simple as their trip computers or how to turn on or off their automatic headlights. Hell, I get people who can't use options they paid for like nav systems or foglights.

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