Ford.com/finder website

[climateguy]

What can a person expect when using the Ford.com/finder webpage?

I used the webpage to select an F-150 Flash with certain options, like MaxTow package, Oxford White color, all season tires, etc. The Ford.com/finder page doesn't get into all the options a buyer might want to make a choice about but I assumed a dealer could clarify.

The webpage named my local dealer and said although the vehicle with the options I had selected had not actually been produced yet, the local dealer will have that vehicle "available" in June.

I then contacted that dealer via email asking if different tires could be substituted, what type of bed protection is the Ford.com/finder page listing, are they actually honoring the new MSRP for the 2024 Flash, etc.

The salesman didn't respond to email for a week, until I sent a copy to someone at the dealership I thought might be one step up in the food chain, i.e. someone who identifies as a sales manager. The next business day the salesman I contacted originally sent what he said was a list of all the Flash models his dealership has on order. None of them were the vehicle with my selected options that the Ford.com/finder webpage said that particular dealer would have available in June. None of them had the MaxTow package which, other than "2024", and "Flash", is my major minimum requirement.

I rechecked the Ford.com/finder webpage. Now, it states that a 2024 Flash meeting my requirements is "In transit to dealer - available in 3–4 weeks", as opposed to what it said last week, i.e. not built yet, available in June.

Is this your experience? That is, does the Ford.com/finder webpage have nothing to do with reality, or is this salesman not aware of what Ford and his dealership are doing?

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[Fulgur]

Their finder really sucks when you are trying to fine tune a search.

The way I got it to work was that I had to limit the search to a very narrow price range that I thought would more likely find Lightnings that had the options I wanted. It is little more difficult because the Finder uses Net price, and not MSRP.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Is this your experience? That is, does the Ford.com/finder webpage have nothing to do with reality, or is this salesman not aware of what Ford and his dealership are doing?

Two things I learned in 2022, the local sales staff are severely out of sync with what Ford Corporate is trying to achieve when it comes to e-commerce ordering and tracking inventory.

The sales staff avoid the regular email correspondence, I had to go into the dealer like you and try to get direct answers, but with them being unaware of what we're seeing, creates a huge roadblock.

When searching for potential builds like we would want the truck spec'd, that vehicle could be a match anywhere in the country, then the games start with negotiating trades of spec builds before they are manufactured and routed by rail to your dealer instead of the original dealer. But once built and shipped and sitting on lot, then a variation of horse trading occurs with dealer-to-dealer transfers.

 

[climateguy]

Their finder really sucks when you are trying to fine tune a search.

The way I got it to work was that I had to limit the search to a very narrow price range that I thought would more likely find Lightnings that had the options I wanted. It is little more difficult because the Finder uses Net price, and not MSRP.

The way Ford.com/finder works when I look for a new 2024 Flash on my laptop, it does not allow a user to select a price range, only a select set of options, which do not include some of the optional choices available, at least as I understand what options there are.

 

[climateguy]

I phoned Ford. My question was, does the Ford.com/finder webpage produce reliable information?

The Ford rep explained that they would be filing a report to somewhere in the Ford organization detailing my experience of using the finder.

In the meantime, they stated that the only information a prospective customer should rely on regarding what is on a dealer's lot or about what will be appearing on a dealer's lot in future should be obtained directly from the dealer, and NOT from Ford.com/finder.

Which is too bad. It would be great to be able to use something like what the Ford.com/finder purports to be.

 

[Fulgur]

The way Ford.com/finder works when I look for a new 2024 Flash on my laptop, it does not allow a user to select a price range, only a select set of options, which do not include some of the optional choices available, at least as I understand what options there are.

Looks like they changed the finder for 2024 year and removed pricing filter. Here it is for 2023.

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