Following a shocking year marked by over 100 recalls and millions of affected vehicles, Ford has quietly rolled out a new scheme to appease its most frustrated customers. The program, dubbed the “Owner Retention Certificate”, was introduced to dealers in November. It’s not a publicly advertised deal. You can’t walk into a dealership and demand it.
It’s intended as a measure “to help retain customers who have lost confidence in their vehicle due to unsatisfactory service experiences”. “Unsatisfactory” here means customers who’ve been subjected to multiple repair visits, sometimes attempting to fix the same recurring problem. It’s understandable that these owners might be slightly peeved.
But naturally, the discount comes with plenty of fine print and a hint of corporate cheek. The certificate is not a flat 10% off the new vehicle. It’s 10% of the MSRP of the vehicle you already own.
So, you can’t trade in your old $30,000 Escape and use the resulting $3,000 credit to slash $10,000 off a fully-loaded Lincoln. The maximum discount is capped at $6,000 for a new Ford or $10,000 for a Lincoln. Plus, certain halo models like the F-150 Raptor are excluded.
One of the more insidious requirements is the age restriction. The customer’s troubled vehicle must be less than 36 months old and have fewer than 36,000 miles. This means the program is primarily aimed at warranty owners who have wasted significant time, but not necessarily money (since the repairs were covered). This also excludes residents of California (for reasons unknown) and vehicles subject to “lemon laws”, as Ford would buy those back anyway.
Who gets the coupon? The power lies largely with the dealer, as the discount is targeted at situations where a customer’s experience has been so bad they are considering giving up on Ford entirely. If you asked CEO Jim Farley why anyone would buy another Ford, he would likely point to his aggressive commitment to improving quality, citing new executives, new processes, and even AI-based quality checks.
