Ford Dealers To Offer 14 Day/1K Mile Money Back Guarantee On CPO Cars
Ford Blue Advantage launched early last year as an all-new used vehicle sales platform designed to help dealers better compete against competitors like CarMax by offering many of the same benefits, including guaranteed pricing, home delivery, and a vehicle return policy. The new platform immediately proved to be incredibly helpful for Ford dealers struggling to obtain new vehicle inventory because of the global semiconductor chip shortage, and also helped FoMoCo win Vincentric’s 2022 Best CPO Value in America award.
Competition in the CPO market is heating up, however, with Ford’s cross-town rival, General Motors, launching its own Blue Advantage rival of sorts, which is called CarBravo. Now, Ford dealers will be taking a page out of CarMax’s book by offering a money-back guarantee on CPO vehicles, sources familiar with the matter have told Ford Authority.
Ford Blue Advantage will offer customers a 14-day, 1,000-mile money-back guarantee – from the date of sale – for those that are not satisfied with their CPO purchase, starting on February 1st, 2022. Previously, the program offered a four-day, 200-mile return policy, but CarMax provides a more generous 30-day grace period that likely played a role in this change. Additionally, Ford’s pilot return program found that less than one percent of customers actually returned a vehicle, while it helped drive sales and improve customer satisfaction at the same time.
There are, of course, a couple of caveats to this policy. The dealer is responsible for paying off or canceling the loan contract, and also manages the titling process. At the same time, the customer is responsible for any negative equity that occurs during the time they own the vehicle, and if that equity isn’t rolled over into another vehicle purchase, the customer will need to pay it out of pocket. Also, if a customer trades in a vehicle for a CPO model, that trade-in will not be returned to the customer if they return the CPO vehicle, though this decision is ultimately up to the participating dealership.
SOURCE: FORD AUTHORITY