Future Ford of Clovis

[brwarrior]

Some background first:

 

Local branch of a chain based out of N. California (Sacramento/Roseville I think.)

The company I work for does business with them and has for years (started with the dealership before Future purchased them) as both a customer (numerous purchases, maintenance, etc.) and we are also a vendor performing electrical work in their service bays. They've done right by us (though we did lose a truck in a service shop fire years ago.) for the most part.

A friend works at the dealership. I'm not sure his actual position but he's over the salesmen bosses, but he's not the GSM.

 

So I got a hair up about getting a new vehicle. I have a company truck and use it for my personal transportation as well. However, I'm dating someone who has kids and I'm not fond of her car and want to do a little traveling. The company I work for is also looking at a merger and I don't know what's going to happen with the truck as a result of that. So I was looking online at the Explorer. I'm a Ford guy and didn't really look anywhere else (make wise). I contact my friend and arranged a test drive. I wanted something on the basic end, but with 4WD/AWD and more ground clearance than a car. I'm also into cycling and I take one or two camping trips a year up into the mountains. Because of the cycling and camping I knew I wanted a factory hitch for a rack and/or towing a small trailer. I'll need a trailer because as it is now I nearly fill a short box F-150 with camping gear! I also need something a bit roomy in the back seat for a 14 year old girl and 10 year old boy.

 

I did test drive an Explorer there. It wasn't a 4WD but it was close to trim as to what I was looking for. I was a bit worried about being able to actually afford one and my friend recommended I take an Edge for a test drive. I obliged and we took it out. (My friend went with us on this drive as the salesguys were having some meeting or something. This was fine as I wasn't really enthralled with the salesman. But then, I don't really like car salesmen. I know they are trying to do their job, but it's just annoying. After the drive I started thinking more about it. More incentives on the lease. That made it more attractive. It didn't feel much smaller than an Explorer. Width wise it seemed the same, just a little shorter. My girlfriend and I are not small so being roomy is nice. We could easily share the center console/arm rest.

 

Later that day I was near another Ford dealer who had made contact with me and wanted to test a 4WD Explorer that was how I wanted it. It was weird when the guy handed me the keys and turned me loose on my own. Told me to take it up the freeway across the river and come back. That was the only good part. After I got back it was typical high pressure dealing. An hour or two later we practically had to make a prison break out of there when we was looking for someone to ask some finance questions of. I hate their offices. Tiny. Cramped. But no door.

 

After a little more thinking I had my friend get me some numbers. They offered $200 over invoice. I tried to get him to throw in a few things (roof rack cross bar, remote start, something to sweeten the deal) but he wasn't biting. I decided that I would go for it in person and try to get them down a little.

 

In the meantime I had test driven a Jeep Cherokee. Nice car, just too small. The salesguys over there were totally the typical stereotypical salesmen. It was a Wednesday, slow and a bit over an hour to closing. Two of these guys started a tag team. I'm not sure if it was planned or if one guy was trying to poach the sale. But I did get a drive down a bumpy road to see how it felt on something other than nice pavement or the freeway.

 

After that drive I wanted to test the Edge on the same road. It was 2 or 3 miles further down the freeway than Future's normal route. I arranged it with my friend. We got the Edge out and had to go put a few gallons in the tank and then head out. The salesman didn't get the memo though and was a little confused but I cleared him up. I let him know I had test driven a Cherokee out on this road. One of my little things is I don't like people screwing with radio controls randomly when I'm driving. He was trying to be cute to show me the mute button and made a comment "What was that?" Now, that's not exactly what you want to hear test driving a car. Was there something with the car? Anyways, we concluded the test drive (I liked the feel over the rough road).

 

I was still on the fence about pulling the trigger on the car. When we got back another salesman started coming around. I wanted to flick the guy away like an annoying fly. I want to deal with one person, and one person only. He wasn't even the salesman's boss. Just go away! But I was kind and just kind of ignored him. I let them know that I was very interested but I just needed to sleep on it.

 

The next day I decided to bite the bullet. IF they would come down. I went back and met with the salesman. I told them if they dropped to invoice, we had a deal. He started filling out the app and wanted. I told him no deal on the price I'm not signing anything. I figured we all got a good deal at invoice. They had the car for less than 30 days. $998 Holdback. Plus whatever back room deal they get from Ford that is above everyone's pay grade.

 

I have to say the most annoying part of the deal was waiting there while signing the paperwork. I didn't really like the electronic paperwork. And Ford Motor Credit's Leasing site/application sucks. They spent so much time moving numbers around until the thing was happy. It was like playing some of those electronic slot machines where you select various, rows, columns, etc and then pull the lever to see what you get.

 

Overall it was a pretty good experience and I would recommend them again. Bonus is their fleet shop is a mile down the road from my house and I can take my car there. WOOHOO!