I recently leased a '23 Mach-E GT that came with a good deal of incentives at lease signing from Ford. Taxes on the lease agreement signed at the dealership were in the ballpark of $1,400. However less than a week after signing, I received a letter from Ford Credit stating “The estimated amount for fees and taxes shown on your lease agreement was incorrect.” The correct amount they provided in the letter was around $3,400. The letter goes on to say “This correction does not change your payment schedule. No further action is required from you.”
Does anyone have any prior experience with this? I am inclined to follow up with Ford Credit and/or the dealership to get more information and confirm that this won’t come back to bite me.
The dealer is out of the picture. Your contract is with FMC, not the dealer. Did FMC send you an amended lease agreement show the correct amount of tax? You need to keep the letter and insist on an amended lease agreement. After confirming the error, I would contact the dealer and hold them accountable. These people are often incompetent or don’t take the time to do things correctly. They’re often in a hurry and seem like a bunch of nervous wrecks. That’s why I always insist that they email me the completed lease contract and their worksheet so I can review them to ensure there are no mistakes. Never negotiate inside of a dealership. Create a professional-looking lease proposal and email it to them… All calcs better be spot on, otherwise, you lose credibility.
This is what can happen if you don’t thoroughly review a lease agreement and the dealer worksheet BEFORE signing. You need to know how all calculations are done, including taxes. If not, you are at the mercy of the dealer and are allowing them to control the deal… bad idea.
Thank you for providing two opposite perspectives
To answer the question above, Ford Credit did not provide me with an amended lease agreement. Instead, the letter advised me to keep it for my records. Though I will call them to ask for an amended lease agreement so I have the complete picture.
That said - if this doesn’t negatively impact me in any way, I’m not inclined to be terribly concerned or to spend the time escalating with the dealership. They certainly had enough time to put together a deal accurately, and it seems I am not being held responsible for the error. If it does negatively impact me, they are welcome to take the car back and unwind the deal - there are plenty of Mach-E’s out there available at discount prices.
If I were to guess - it would be MF -or- the dealer forked over $2k to eat the difference rather than risk me returning a car and unwinding a deal that took them 9 months to sell. I leased it using X-Plan pricing/incentives - so they did well on their side of the deal as it stands.
