Ford Offers Discount For Jumping Brands

Just weeks after canceling their Friends and Neighbors program due to lack of interest, Ford has sent a memo to its dealers detailing the automakers plan to increase sales numbers in January and February.

Ford has announced a new program, which allows employees and retirees of Ford to share their employee discount with anyone who has a competing brand vehicle. The friend, family member or acquaintance has to own or being leasing a 1995 or newer non-Ford vehicle. However those customers are in no way required to terminate their lease or trade in their vehicle in order to be eligible for the discount. Once an individual decides to buy a vehicle though the Ford sales program, they must provide a special PIN code to get their discount. According to MarketWatch, a dealer notice indicates Ford distributed the program on January 8 and it will run though February 29.

Besides offering new vehicles at a discount and during a traditionally slow sales season, a Ford spokeswoman told the WSJ the new Ford initiative is intended to “reward employees and retires for a good year.”

Part of that good year for Ford included the holiday season and Ford’s launch of the “Friends & Neighbors” pricing program, which gave the same vehicle discount normally reserved for automaker suppliers or other business partners. However, that Ford pricing program was discontinued after four weeks. Ford claimed the pricing event didn’t get the response they were looking for and according to MarketWatch, the automaker felt consumers were more interested in cash back or zero-percent financing offers.

The last time Ford introduced a special pricing event involving passing discounts along to others, they cut it short after a month. Do you think the new employee-pricing program will last longer? In your experience, what do you think customers will want more: employee pricing, cash-back bonuses or zero-percent financing?