What the heck is a "Market Value Adjustment"?

My local Ford stealership has a tag on the 2011 Fiestas that says "Market Value Adjustment" and adds $1500 to the selling price.

That's ON TOP of the sticker price which has already inflated by over $4000 when I looked at one 6 months ago.

What I could have bought in June for $15,000, now has a $21,000 price tag on it.

BTW- the MVA tag is NOT the window sticker. It's a hand printed tag stuck NEXT TO the normal window sticker.

I'm thinking that "Market Value Adjustment" = "Whacking You with a Premium Just Because We Can"

Am I missing something?

SVreX wrote: My local Ford stealership has a tag on the 2011 Fiestas that says "Market Value Adjustment" and adds $1500 to the selling price. That's ON TOP of the sticker price which has already inflated by over $4000 when I looked at one 6 months ago. What I could have bought in June for $15,000, now has a $21,000 price tag on it. BTW- the MVA tag is NOT the window sticker. It's a hand printed tag stuck NEXT TO the normal window sticker. I'm thinking that "Market Value Adjustment" = "Whacking You with a Premium Just Because We Can" Am I missing something?

No you got it. They don't ever put that on there when they are dropping the price. Wait 6 months and see if it's still on there. Or find a different dealer.

Basically I have only seen that on brand new cars with limited production, like when the STI first came out, or the EVO, its basically saying "if you want it pay up or shut up" and they either sell out or take the tag off in a month or two... but wow, surprised on a ford...

It's called pure profit obtained by duping the unwary or early adopters that cannot wait.

The dealer is "adjusting" the price to the current "market value"--or what he thinks he can get for it, as bigbens^ pointed out, usually found on new, high demand cars. Best example was when Honds introduced the CRX, and dealers went crazy with overpricing--and got it. High mpg car intro'd when gas prices were zooming up. Dealers were getting 6 grand over sticker BACK THEN in southern cal, and taking desposits on cars to be delivered in 4 months at whatever color came in. It was nuts.

The ones you're seeing now have more options, which accounts for the price inflation on the sticker. The Market Value Adjustment is the sticker that tells me to go to another dealership.

Yep. I bought my TDI before Katrina for well under MSRP. After Katrina when gas was around $5/gal, you couldn't touch a TDI for $2000 over MSRP and I could have sold my car (an even more rare wagon) for more than I paid for it with 30K+ miles.

The Miata was the same way back in 1990.

This is not even the first in awhile for a Ford. Many early '05 Mustangs were sold with MVA's added on.

Some manufacturers apparently frown on the practice, so dealers find other ways to boost profits. My g/f bought her '03 MCS off the showroom floor. The dealer had added a painted dash to her car (2 years before it became a factory option) and charged $895 for it. It was also equiped with the dealer installed factory driving lights for another $800. She wanted the car (it was otherwise exactly what she would have ordered - which would have been at least a 3 month wait) so she paid it.

It used to be called ADM - Additional Dealer Markup.

When we bought our 1979 Honda Accord four door, they were in super high demand. Dealers were adding every imaginable option to them, even trunk mounted luggage racks, Tek-Tor seat protector and then the ADM. They were adding way over $2000 to a $6700 car. We got lucky. My wife had driven by the dealership (Cale Yarborough Honda-Mazda in Florence, SC) on the way to work and saw them unloading a bunch of the cars. Wife called me and said go see what we have to do to get one. I walked into the dealership just as the salesman had gotten of the phone with the person whose car this was supposed to be. They had already found a car somewhere else and he sold me this car on the spot without going the the list for the next person in line. No markup, but list price. BTW, their service dept was great. The last one I have let do all my maintenance.

Its just asking for what the market will bear. If you can wait 6 months or a year to buy your Fiesta, they will be the right price again. If, on the other hand, you have such a raging chubby for the car that you can't get behind the steering wheel, pony up the dough. Its call free enterprise.

It's stupid that the dealers are allowed to even do this, but they are and they do. What's really surprising is that they are doing this to a car that has had not-so-great sales so far. I was reading a report a few days ago that stated that it was getting outsold by the Chevy Aveo!!!

(For the record, I really like the Fiesta, except for the hideous US-spec front bumper)

Interesting, when I checked them out a week or two ago at a dealer near me, no markups on them. They had a ton of sedans, and at least 4 hatchbacks. Maybe its a regional thing right now?

Some dealers seem to do it as a matter of course. I was at a local Honda dealership the other day looking at a used S2000, and I noticed that every new car on their lot had a $999 'market adjustment' sticker. Fits, Accords, Civic, everything.

Don't much like the practice, either.

But Ford dealers offer me a cool alternative. If you are serious about getting one, you know how to get in touch with me....

Dealers still need to understand some sticky issues, sometimes.

You've got mail, Eric.

here's the deal it's December!!!! if you want a car get it in the first week of April!!!right before the April 15th deadline.to get your best deal

Never buy a car in December unless you are buying it as a gift for a really hot pole dancer that vows her undying love for you if you did

Looks like you can get the base model for 14K here in Melbourne.

the biggest "MVA" sticker i ever saw was on a Ford GT when they first came out in '04 or whenever.. i think the sticker price was $125k, but the markup was to $225k... and they sold it... another stealership markup that i remember seeing was on a Mercury Marauder that sat in the showroom for over a year with a markup of $5k over sticker price.. about a week after they took the markup off the car, i was in the dealership just looking at new cars and killing time and was offered the car at $5k under dealer invoice just so they could get it out of the showroom.. if i had wanted the payment, i could have had a brand new Mercury Marauder for around$15k.

What is it? It's been called different things over the years but it all comes down to dealer mark up on a car they perceive as "hot" or highly desirable. In other words they believe they can get away with it. What's really sickening is a couple of years ago they were on the verge of bankruptcy and here they are up to their old tricks again. Walk away, never go back.

I went through this same thing about 6 years ago when looking at a tree fiddy Z. They had a $5K mark-up. It was called "Fair Market Value". The financier guy told me he could cut me a deal by taking $2K off the price. Went something like this:

"I'll cut you a deal and take two thousand off it right now."

"Is that off MSRP?"

"No. Off the dealer price."

"I don't need it, so you can park this car up your ass."

Then I walked off.

Why get mad about it? Whenever I see it I just laugh and walk out.

There is always some dummy willing to pay the extra markup to be the first on the block. One of my real fun customers in my VW days was a guy who bought a New Beetle for something like $3500 over list, it was one of the first 4 delivered in Ohio, he then moved to SC and became a thorn in my behind.

The dealership he bought it from belonged to his uncle. So not only was the car a piece of crap but he was pissed at his uncle as well and he took it out on us.

I remind them that they need to sell it, a hell of a lot more than I need to buy it.

Then I offer MSRP.

Then I walk.

Let me show you some math. Car A costs the dealership $10,000. The MSRP is $12,000. Each car makes $2k when sold at msrp. Discount the car 1k, you must sell twice as many cars to make the same amount of money. Get a hot model to sell, add $3k to make selling price $15,000, and you can sell 1/5th as many cars as if you sell at the discount.

This is how the world works, and it is why I giggle as I listen to GM selling Cobalts up here for $11,000 right now. They were losing money hand over fist selling them at $15k. How's that gonna work out for them? Buy high, sell low, make it up in volume, hope for some more taxpayer dough?

jrw1621 wrote: If your really want a Fiesta I suspect that AlfaDriver will be on the board soon enough to help you the employee plan pricing. You may want to shoot him a PM. When anyone here has mentioned the buying of a new Ford he has been quick to help in the past. I too did not buy a '84 Civic Si for the same reason.

To be sure, that's not allowed on a public board. I'm sure all discount programs for anything via employees are the same- no public offering.

Just sayin....

EVERY car I have looked at here in my area, eastern KY and western WV, has a ADM sticker on them. Doesn't matter if it's an Aveo, Caliber, Fusion, Shelby Mustang GT500, Camaro 2SS, or 1/2 ton truck with the base model package V6 stick combo, they all have them.

I just laugh at the sticker and if I wanted to buy that vehicle, I wouldn't be budging off my initial number.

Brian