Ford's bold move: Employee pricing opens to all amid tariff turmoil

USA Today

04-04-2025

Ford's bold move: Employee pricing opens to all amid tariff turmoil
Industry experts, economists and automakers seem in alignment on President Trump's newest tariffs: They will increase the prices customers pay for new cars and car parts, and — as a helpful knock-off effect — even on used vehicles, which will start to look more attractive as alternatives to ever-pricier new vehicles. So color pretty much everyone surprised when, the day after the latest tariffs went into effect, Ford rolled out a splashy marketing push declaring it's opening discounted employee pricing up to all customers, regardless of whether or not they know a Ford employee, retiree or anyone else with anything to do with the Ford Motor Company. Ford's catchphrase for this effort is clever, too, with its website blaring "EMPLOYEE PRICING — Ford Motor Company. From America. For America." That's followed up by "You Pay What We Pay."
Wow, right? But is it a wow moment? As part of MotorTrend's preparations for the tariff announcements yesterday, we screen-grabbed the prices of nearly every new vehicle offered in America, from everyone. Acura, Honda, Chevrolet, Nissan, Toyota... and, you guessed it, Ford. We figured the info might come in handy as a reference point, given the wariness on the part of corporations of publicly contradicting President Trump, who in recent days is reported to have threatened domestic automakers against raising prices in response to his tariffs, which, it should be shouted as clearly as possible, will increase costs considerably for every automaker, regardless of who it is. Remember, foreign countries don't pay tariffs, American importers of those goods do — so automakers using imported car parts will soon be paying more for those parts (the tariffs on parts and components appear to be delayed until May 3), while of course those who assemble vehicles out of the country will owe up to 25 percent tariffs (vehicles made in Mexico or Canada and subject to the USMCA trade agreement get a small break — any components originally sourced from America won't be subject to tariffs, but the rest will). Those tariffs are more than enough to wipe out an affected model's profit margin and then some. Unless, of course, the prices automakers charge customers go up, likely even for vehicles made in the U.S.A.
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Which brings us back to Ford's From America, For America employee pricing bonanza. Call it Ford-a-thon, Happy Blue Oval Days, or whatever, it's bold. It catches your attention because it's listing discounts when you'd be expecting price hikes. There are a few things going on here, though — for starters, a big question is which vehicles are eligible for the EP deal. It's not everything — instead, the promotion running between today, April 3 and June 2, will apply to all 2024 and 2025 model-year Ford and Lincoln vehicles except: the 2025 Ford Expedition SUV; 2025 Lincoln Navigator; all F-Series Super Duty trucks; anything Raptor-badged (so, the Bronco Raptor, Ranger Raptor and F-150 Raptor); Mustang "specialty" models such as the Dark Horse, Mach 1, GTD and Shelby series; and finally, the Bronco Stroppe special edition.
Though the discounts aren't listed on Ford's website, the basics of employee pricing are thus: You pay a set price just below the dealer invoice price. Additional incentives can even be applied to that lower price if they're available and you qualify. In many cases, this brings the price of the vehicle down by a few hundred or thousand dollars. Thing is, these discounts won't show up on Ford's website — at least, they don't appear to be showing right now. Instead, all we can see are existing incentives and Ford's listed MSRP — which is higher than the invoice price, or the price a dealer pays for a vehicle. There are some interesting nuggets to be found, however, comparing those MSRPs between April 2 and April 3.
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While most prices are unchanged, a few Ford vehicles have lower MSRPs, suggesting their employee prices could be even lower than they were yesterday. For example, the electric Mustang Mach-E SUV is now listed at $36,495, down from $39,995 yesterday. Similarly, the Bronco 4x4 is cheaper, too, now listing for $37,995 instead of the $39,630 listed on April 2. The 2025 Expedition SUV not eligible for employee pricing, on the other hand, sees its price jump to $62,000 from $55,630. (All prices, by the way, lack destination charges, for simpler day-to-day comparisons.) Intriguingly, there does not appear to be any changes to the price of the Lincoln Nautilus — even though the luxury SUV (and MotorTrend's 2025 SUV of the Year, pictured in red above) is imported from Hangzhou, China, and thus subject (going forward) to massive duties.
The Nautilus marks as good a segue as any as to why Ford is able to pull this off. Reports suggest Ford and Lincoln are sitting on a ton of inventory nationally, meaning plenty of its vehicles are already on dealer lots. These vehicles aren't subject to tariffs, as they've been assembled and, if necessary, imported already. The employee pricing gambit, therefore, is no different than any other run-of-the-mill incentive program for customers. It'll surely boost sales during the eligibility period, which runs until June 2, and should clear out some of that inventory, which according to Cox Automotive data, stood at a massive 126-day supply at the end of February, with Lincoln's supply more than twice the industry average. That's more than enough runway to last through June, even if customers start beating down the doors of their local Ford dealer. Maybe Ford figures that, by then, it'll have the tariffs navigated, or they'll be canceled, or not, but that it'll generate revenue in the near term to cover whatever changes may come, including potentially pausing production on heavily affected models (such as that China-sourced Nautilus and the Mexico-built Bronco Sport SUV and Maverick pickup) or discontinuing others early (the Escape is already on the way to the grave, and Ford stopped producing Edges after the 2024 model year), while garnering it big, splashy press and good vibes.
It could even be a clever opening to Ford negotiations with the Trump administration — it's not a secret the President likes flashy, attention-grabbing gambits, and this would seem to be something designed to get on his good side, given it upends conventional wisdom suggesting car prices would rise in response to tariffs, something he's only recently begun acknowledging in public appearances after initially claiming the opposite. Fluff the feathers and see if you can wet your beak with tariff relief, we suppose.
Photos by MotorTrend