Greg Darnell Ford in MWC closed up

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j99tc88

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Zeek in Purcell also, I heard that Ford is behind all these closings. Going to very few cars on lots, order like you want them online. No price negotiation, less staff, but building for bigger service departments. Small dealers closed down.
 

Ryan500L

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Zeek in Purcell also, I heard that Ford is behind all these closings. Going to very few cars on lots, order like you want them online. No price negotiation, less staff, but building for bigger service departments. Small dealers closed down.
Ford tried that once before in the 90's when they bought up and closed the smaller dealers in Okc and called it the Auto Collection, they tried no haggle buying. It didn't work very well.
 

TerryMiller

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Where we work with our Summer jobs, they use the Ford Transit 350's for their work vans. They had ordered something like 5 or 6 of them, but Ford wasn't able to supply them, so their order was cancelled. I have to wonder if places like Amazon are buying so many that they can't supply that model to other companies.

They are also building a new showroom at Diffee Ford in El Reno. However, this showroom is to be only for the Lincoln brand. It is on the same property as Diffee's Ford dealership. I think I heard something to the effect that they (Ford) was going to limit the number of Lincoln dealerships. I need to research that idea.
 

MP43

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Ford tried that once before in the 90's when they bought up and closed the smaller dealers in Okc and called it the Auto Collection, they tried no haggle buying. It didn't work very well.
I had a friend that was finance manager at a large dealership just outside the "Auto Collection" territory. He said it was a disaster for Ford, but great for business at his dealership.
 

McNaughty69

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I heard from a reputable source inside the dealership that Joe Cooper still owned the property. They extremely overvalued the lot and building to purchase and the majority partner baulked at the price. Decided to close shop.
 

Ryan500L

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I had a friend that was finance manager at a large dealership just outside the "Auto Collection" territory. He said it was a disaster for Ford, but great for business at his dealership.
Seemed like they bought and closed Fleming in Newcastle, Dub Richardson, Southwest, Broadway and Overall and maybe one or two others. They were all run under the Fred Jones name. Everyone that were buying diesel's at the time starting going to Texas or Lindsay Ford. This new takeover must be why Reynolds sold out in Norman last year after 50 years in business.
 

coolhandluke

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Ford's currently in the midst of restructuring their dealership model and I'm sure this has something to do with Darnell, Zeck, and Mainer closings. There's supposedly been issues brought about by the dealer surcharges that we've been seeing the last few years. Ultimately, Ford would prefer to sell direct to the public and have service centers replace existing dealerships. Not sure if this is feasible, but I think there has been a push to get rid of some of the problem dealers recently. They've also supposedly implemented new rules on dealership naming. Apparently they can no longer be named after an individual or owner unless the dealership has existed for a certain period of time that falls under a grandfather clause.
 

mtnboomr

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Well damn! I bought my truck from Darnell last year. They always seemed to be busy when I went there, and their garage was always full.

A big dealership from Dallas bought out Hudiburg. I wonder if the same thing happened to Darnell?
 

rockchalk06

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Ford's currently in the midst of restructuring their dealership model and I'm sure this has something to do with Darnell, Zeck, and Mainer closings. There's supposedly been issues brought about by the dealer surcharges that we've been seeing the last few years. Ultimately, Ford would prefer to sell direct to the public and have service centers replace existing dealerships. Not sure if this is feasible, but I think there has been a push to get rid of some of the problem dealers recently. They've also supposedly implemented new rules on dealership naming. Apparently they can no longer be named after an individual or owner unless the dealership has existed for a certain period of time that falls under a grandfather clause.
I will try and find the video, but I watched one that explained some of this. It was mainly about their EV sales and the yuge markups dealers were forcing on customers.

Didn't Tesla say the reason they didn't go the dealer route was to avoid this?
 

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