New car, option I specified now standard

AdrianC

EmmyLou30 wrote: »

The OP explained in a later post that: Base price of car is price protected, any options specified at time of order can be removed or others added upto the date when a build slot is allocated.
When I heard the option was going to be fitted as standard, I rang the dealer and asked for the option to be removed, it was no longer possible to, not because the car had a build date, but because it was showing as being a standard feature, the other options I'd specified were still possible to remove or different ones added.

Let's say we're talking about leather trim.

The original order was with leather trim - at extra cost over standard cloth.
The leather trim cannot now be deselected - because there is no alternative cloth available.

Sometimes, leather is standard, but cloth is a no-extra-cost option. People may wish to take that option because they prefer not to have leather, or because the cloth comes with split-fold rear seats while leather does not. In that case, it would be possible to deselect the leather without a cost implication. But since leather is the only choice available now, it cannot be deselected.

EmmyLou30

I'm playing devils advocate somewhat really. I can totally see that he agreed to pay X for the car of a certain spec and is still getting that same car and spec for X and I doubt Ford will do anything to change this and he should be happy with that as he's been protected from the price hike.

But at the same time you could also view it that he agreed to buy the standard spec for say £25k which is a protected price and covers whatever the standard car is at the time it gets built in the future. Plus £5k of extras (£500 of which is whatever this thing is that's now standard). So from the OP's point of view he's now getting the standard spec car as agreed at £25k but only £4500 of extras as one of his extras he no longer needs to pay extra for.

I'm not saying one is right and the other wrong but I can see why he might be miffed if you use the second example. All depends how your mind works really. I think I'd be thinking along the same lines as the OP really but that's just me.

AnotherJoe

Ask the dealer if the now redundant money for the option can be transfered to another option.

Marvel1

Maybe the price increase is due to the extra optional you wanted is now standard.

AdrianC

EmmyLou30 wrote: »

But at the same time you could also view it that he agreed to buy the standard spec for say £25k which is a protected price and covers whatever the standard car is at the time it gets built in the future.

If the option had remained an option, but gone up by <say> £200, would the OP have been happy to pay the different price for it? Or would they have argued that the option's price was covered by the agreement, too - in other words, that the agreement was for car including option for the agreed price?