CARY, N.C. -

Ford has partnered with its dealers to launch a digital used-vehicle marketplace, powered by Autotrader, that provides an expanded selection of Ford certified pre-owned vehicles and a more streamlined, flexible way for used-car shoppers and the automaker’s dealers to connect.

With this Ford Blue Advantage platform, launching Thursday during NADA Show 2021, Ford dealers can list and sell their certified pre-owned inventory through a single platform — and do so with an additional tier of certification under which more vehicles would be eligible.  

Meantime, it offers the consumers online/in-store flexibility in the shopping process and peace-of-mind through a Ford-backed warranty, amid other amenities.

“We can now connect the right shopper to the right pre-owned Ford vehicle faster than ever,” Ford vice president of U.S. marketing Andrew Frick said in a news release. “Providing a great digital experience is paramount today, but we know customers still want to touch, smell and feel a vehicle before they buy it.

“Ford Blue Advantage offers the best of both worlds, enabling customers to shop online or come into a dealership, or a combination of both.”

More units now CPO-eligible

Ford Blue Advantage also includes an expanded level of inventory from what would typically be included in the traditional Ford certified pre-owned program.

All inventory on the Ford Blue Advantage platform is inspected by factory-trained technicians and includes additional Ford-backed coverage.

But Ford dealers can now use two different levels of certification for used vehicles: Gold Certified and Blue Certified.

Gold Certified, which is essentially the standard of the traditional Ford CPO program, includes a 172-point inspection and includes a 12-month/12,000-mile comprehensive limited warranty (whichever comes first) and a seven-year/100,000-mile (whichever comes first) powertrain limited warranty.

These vehicles must be 6 years old or newer and have fewer than 80,000 miles on the odometer.

Meanwhile, the Blue Certified tier expands that eligibility. Those vehicles must be 10 years old or newer and have 120,000 or fewer miles. They undergo a 139-point inspection and include a 90-day/4,000-mile (whichever comes first) comprehensive limited warranty.

Additionally, non-Ford vehicles can be certified under the Blue segment.

Both Gold and Blue includes 24/7 roadside assistance and complimentary FordPass Rewards (11,000 points for Blue; 22,000 for Gold) for use during future dealership service visits.

A CARFAX Vehicle History Report is run on each certified vehicle, as well.

“What customers want is (to) address the concern of fear of a lemon and the lack of trust in used-car buying. So, certification is a good way to do that,” Ford’s U.S. used-vehicle manager Andrew Ashman said in an interview this week.

The challenge, he said, is that just 10% of customers are buying vehicles that would fit that traditional Ford CPO criteria, now the Gold Certified segment.

“And so, what we want to do is provide a product, or tool, for our dealers to go after that 90%,” Ashman said.

The coverage costs are lower in Blue Certified and the inspections are similar, he said, with the differences largely being in cosmetic elements.

“We wanted to offer this second level of certification to allow the dealer to kind of really jump into program full bore. Because the other thing we heard from dealers is … 'when I have just Gold, when I have your existing CPO, I've got to find another certified product to address that concern,’” Ashman said. “And this allows the dealer to have one program that he can easily teach his salespeople, and his salespeople can show the customer the value of.

“And that's another reason why we don't limit Blue Certified just to Ford vehicles. A dealer can certify pretty much anything on their lot up to 10 years and 120,000 miles,” he said. “Because as the used-car market changes, one thing that's changing is, dealers are selling older vehicles than they traditionally have been.”

Increasing share of Ford used sales

And with those extensions, Ford dealers can perhaps grab more market share of used Ford sales. The automaker shared internal data that only a little more than a third of the 3 million used Ford vehicles sold in the U.S. during 2019 were sold by Ford dealers.

Ashman said that, “one of the things we've noticed, and the reason why the dealers came to us in the first place is (that) we've seen dealers' share of that used Ford business has declined about 5 points over the last several years. 

“And so that's concerning,” he said. “And not just for the dealer but also for us as a company, because used cars are an important part of the dealer business and we also know that a used Ford customer who buys at a Ford dealer is two-and-a-half times more likely to buy a new Ford the next time around.

“Knowing that it's important to both of us, we thought it was important to launch this program together as one team,” he said.

And of course, it goes beyond just CPO. 

“I think that's a component of this,” Ashman said.  “(But)  our vision as Blue is more of a competitor with just a used car down the road. Now you have a value proposition to tell the customer. And then we have Gold Certified, which is a much more premium product. That's something we didnt have in our portfolio. We always had the premium products. I sometimes tell the dealers, we have the Lariat or King Ranch version of certified, but the market's moving more XLT. And that's where this really fits.” 

Work with Autotrader & other logistics

In terms of the work with Autotrader, that company powers the digital listings piece.

In a news release, Jessica Stafford, who is the senior vice president for Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book at parent company Cox Automotive, said: “At Cox Automotive, we believe that the automotive industry thrives when dealers, consumers and manufacturers are completely connected. This philosophy drove us to engineer a uniquely integrated platform for Ford dealers to help simplify, streamline and personalize the car-buying experience for consumers and drive more value.”

Ashman noted that prior to this platform, “we had a listing site that didn't get a lot of views, didn't get a lot of hits, and candidly, was a little bit older in technology.”

As Ford weighed whether to build or buy the necessary platform, the thought was, “why not go with one of the leaders in the industry?” Ashman said.

“They power the site. It's their relevance algorithm, which understands what the customer's looking for, so it serves up vehicles on the first try that are more relevant to that customer, as well as it's tied to our build data,” he explained. “So that way the customer can find exactly what they're looking for. And there's just a lot of other functionality, including just their dashboard, their data behind the scenes that allow us to understand how things are happening on the site, where we need to improve and opportunities to grow even further.”

And Ford is not trying to “swim upstream” when it comes to customers starting the journey on automaker site, dealer sites or third-party channels.

“We know that 80% of customers go to the third-party sites, so we actually have sponsorships with all of the major sites,” Ashman said. “And so all of the dealer's inventory is listed as Ford Blue Advantage vehicles, both Gold and Blue Certified. 

"So, if a customer's on those sites, he will find Ford Blue Advantage vehicles that the dealers offer. And then there are tag backs into FordBlueAdvantage.com, but ultimately, I don't think we can believe that all the customers will come to our site,” he said  “They're going to go to the dealer's site; they're going to go to the third-party site; they're going to come to us; and the important thing to us is that there's consistency. 

“So, they will see consistency: these are Ford Blue Advantage vehicles and they will see the benefits of that in all three locations,” he said. “So that way as the customer's going on that journey, it'll add trust to the process, because they're seeing it more than once.”

Once the consumer reaches the Ford Blue Advantage site, the inventory listed starts locally, but the shopper has the option to expand the search radius, even nationally.

When the shopper selects a specific vehicle from a specific dealer, Ashman confirmed there is a handoff to that dealer.

“Everything here, it is all the dealer inventory, … all the connection points go right to the dealer,” he said. “We’re not trying to get in the middle of that. All we’re trying to do is provide a platform to enable our dealers to be more successful.”

Timeline of expansion

As far as the timeline, Ford launched the Gold and Blue level certifications in January and rolled out point-of-purchase materials to dealers the same month.

The site itself launched Feb. 1.

Additional enhancements are slated for March, with more to come.

“Beginning in March, we'll have limited digital retail capability. We're going to have AutoFi and Accelerate My Deal. They're two different products, depending on what the dealer uses, on the site, to allow a customer to go further down the funnel,” Ashman said.

“We do have a long-term vision of getting to 'search to purchase' so a customer could actually find their ideal used vehicle and go through the whole process. That will take us a little more time to launch,” he said.

“In addition, we're going to learn a lot about how much the customer wants to do (online). But we do know that dealers are getting very adept at digital retail. So, if they find the vehicle they're looking for and they send a lead to the dealer or they go through one of those experiences and start having a conversation with the dealer, our dealers are now at the point where they can take care of all those things,” Ashman said.  

“One of the requirements to be on our digital platform is local at-home delivery. So, if you find the vehicle you want, you can work through all the deals, either email, online or just over conversation on the phone. And the dealer will deliver it to your home.”

And while some consumers might ultimately choose that route on actually purchasing online, Ford’s research indicates consumers “want to touch, feel and even smell their used vehicle,” Ashman said.

“And the fact that smell came up a couple times was really powerful to us. Because we all know what a new car smells like. We don't necessarily know what that used car smells like,” he said.

"So, we believe that we can address a lot of the customer's concerns, do as much of that deal online as they're comfortable (with), but then actually get them in the store because contrary to the commercial, a lot of customers contend they have a really good experience with their local dealer.” 

Ashman was referring to a question involving the latest Vroom commercial, which suggested a less-than-pleasant dealership buying experience, and how Ford might get the word out that, just like the various online players such as Vroom and Carvana, consumers can buy digitally through a dealer, too.

“We've got a few avenues between our partnership with all the third-party sites. We'll do some marketing, but the key to it is, really activating our dealer network. Our dealers spend a lot of money in advertising used vehicles,” he said. “And so by providing a brand that can be communicated across the network, it allows that share of voice to grow significantly. 

“I think one of the challenges of an individual dealer or a small dealer group will face is really trying to compete against the big-box used retailers that are growing very rapidly,” Ashman said. “And so, it will be very challenging for an individual dealer to really compete.

“But if all the dealers are talking and we are talking with one voice around Ford Blue Advantage and the ability to buy a used vehicle on your terms, I think that message will cascade itself and customers will recognize that the dealers are a great place to buy a used vehicle.”