Good Luck Finding A Ford Maverick Chilling On A Dealer Lot

The Ford Maverick has proven to be one very popular truck. No surprise there, really. It's cheap, cheerful, and incredibly usable. Ford had to stop taking orders on them simply because the Blue Oval couldn't make enough to fulfill the demand for the 2022 model year. We can thank the pandemic and resulting supply chain shortages for that one. While we're at it, we can also factor Ford's war against markups into all this.

Ford doesn't want dealers getting away with charging hilarious markups on what is supposed to be an affordable, entry-level truck for customers new to the Ford brand. CEO Jim Farley has made his stance on dealers more than clear in the past, and the numbers are starting to reflect that, as Ford's sales report for the month of May shows.

Ford's new dealer model, which focuses more on customers ordering direct from Ford than on walking into a dealer to buy a car, means that you'd be damn hard-pressed to find a Maverick chilling at Bob Smith's Ford of Scranton. Instead, dealer stock is basically nonexistent right now.

Ford's books say that a whopping 97% of 2022 Maverick retail sales in May came from orders that were previously placed. That means 97% of customers are getting their cars straight from Ford, without having to step foot inside a dealership. That's right in line with the brand's new sales model.

Here's a quote from Farley himself showing exactly what we're talking about: "We've got to go to a non-negotiated price. We've got to go 100 percent online. There's no inventory, it goes directly to the customer. And 100 percent remote pick up and delivery." This new fixed-price model means that Ford sells cars for what they're worth, exactly at MSRP plus whatever options you order.

Understandably, that's an attractive premise to buyers that have spent the last two or more years hunting a new car while dodging more dealer-shaped bullets than Neo. Ford's drastic restructuring of its dealers is working, but what happens to those dealers in the long term is anyone's guess.