Originating Dealership
UPDATE: After feedback from several people, it seems that this is not an accurate way to determine the original dealership your car came out of. I did hear from one person that he got his by calling Ford Customer Service.
If you saw my post on window stickers, one thing you might want to know as you gather information is the original dealership for your car. Most of us who are not original owners don’t know that but I think I am on to a way to determine it. The My Ford section of Ford’s web site displays dealership information. It has been such a long time since I signed up that I don’t remember the process (I do remember that it wouldn’t take my VIN right away) but once you get your VIN added to your account, it will list dealer information. Although, the wording on the dealer information page is a little confusing:
Your original selling Dealer is automatically designated as “My Dealer.” It is either:
• The Dealer from whom you purchased or leased your vehicle, or;
• The Ford Dealer nearest you if you have moved.
* Note: The Dealer information listed above your vehicle image is your original selling dealer. The dealer information above this image will not change, even if your Preferred Service Dealer differs from what is listed above.
It is the “Dealer nearest you” part that makes me less than 100% sure that this is, in fact, the originating dealership. But, I wonder if that statement only applies to the “My Dealer” entry and not the dealership listed near where the picture of my car should be (I guess 1993 is so old that they do not have a stock picture for it). To add to my confusion, those two entries are the same and are the dealer that was physically closest to me but is now out of business. I would think the “Ford Dealer nearest” me would only include those that are still operational. Furthermore, from the research I have done on my car, this is NOT the dealership mine was sold out of. I guess it may be possible that it was shipped to this dealership and then transferred to the dealership I was told it was sold out of.
So, I ask for your help. If you have registered (or do register) for My Ford, does this dealership stuff make any sense to you? Are any of these entries really the original dealership?
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I contacted Ford today to try to find out where my car was sold at. They suggested getting a dealer to do a ‘point of origin’ request as the only true way to determine where your car was sold. I did get them to tell me the name of the dealership that was associated with my car. There is no guarantee that is the dealership that sold my car but at least it gave me a starting place. I am not sure how receptive the dealer is going to be about helping me but I guess I will find out. I tried to register the car on “My Ford” but it kept giving me an error message.
Amy, thanks for the feedback on your experience. Hopefully, the dealership will be receptive. I’ve mentioned it elsewhere here but my car was owned by the office manager of my selling dealership. I went there last year and she as well as a salesman were interested in talking about their memories of the car. They even ran a Carfax for me and searched their records for any information they had (which wasn’t much).
Your welcome! Wow that is great that your car’s dealer was so willing to help.
Just a quick update… the dealership was friendly but really could not help me. They ran my VIN and did not have any records for the car. But they did tell me the dealer has changed hands and gave me the correct name of the dealership for the time period when my car would have been there. The carfax that we had run before we bought the car named the same town as where the dealer is located as the location where the car was first titled when the car only had 334 miles on it . So I am going with that dealer as the selling dealer until I can prove otherwise.