Ordering a custom vehicle at Gary Crossley Ford in Kansas City is as easy as ordering a pizza.
It turns out, though, that ordering a pizza takes a few more steps, a few decisions, and a few more choices than you might think – just like ordering a new vehicle.
You know want pepperoni. Right? Everybody wants pepperoni. But right off the bat, before you even get to pepperoni, you’ve got to decide what size pizza you need. Does a medium really serve 3 to 4 people? Who?
Then there’s thin crust or thick crust or cheesy crust or stuffed crust. Cheesy stuffed crust. My head is starting to hurt.
Now if I get Meat Lovers can I get double pepperoni or should I get a double pepperoni and add sausage?
It’s a quagmire.
Custom ordering a new vehicle or even trying to compare vehicles online can get kind of complicated. You might think a Ford F150 is a Ford F150, and if you’re comparing a 2021 Ford F150 from one dealership to a Ford F150 at another dealership you’d be comparing apples to apples.
But when you’re picking out pizza and apples, you don’t have to pick a trim level.
When you are comparing vehicles online, the trim level can be the deciding factor.
Joey Little, VP of Marketing at Gary Crossley Ford, says that today may be the very best time in human history to be alive when purchasing a new or used vehicle because of all the online tools and services available to help you educate yourself.
First things first, you need to choose the make, model, and trim. You may know you want a Ford F-150 pickup, that’s the make and model. Now you have to pick a trim level.
Todd Gentry, General Sales Manager at Gary Crossley Ford, reels off an impressive Bubba Gump Shrimp worthy list of all the available trim levels on the current F150.
You got your XL and your XLT, but if you choose the larger tire option on the XL, you can upgrade to some of the XLT rims. You got your Lariat, your Platinum. There’s the Raptor and the Ford F150 King Ranch.
The point is there are a lot of trim levels on many vehicles, but then again a lot of Ford customers are trim level experts
“F150 customers specifically have a really good understanding of the trim levels. When they come in here, they’ve typically bought a few already, says Todd Gentry. “This isn’t their first f150.”
And if you’re not a trim-level maestro, you’ve got an advantage that you don’t have when deciding between hand-tossed or New York-style crust. You’ve got Todd
“If you don’t know just call me. We’ll figure it out. I enjoy it just as much as the consumer does most of the time. I love getting questions that I don’t know the answer to. It’s my favorite thing,” says Todd.
“I promise you I will find the answer. It’s fun. I order a lot of cars.”
When custom ordering a new vehicle from Gary Crossley Ford in Kansas City you have to start with the basics – make, model, and trim.
From there you add and take away as you wish until you’ve created the exact vehicle you want. That’s better than pizza!
Each week, Joey and Todd tackle the car biz’s toughest questions:
Why doesn’t anyone in the midwest lease cars?
What the heck is a lot party and how do I get an invite?
When is a good time to be at the store to pet Roscoe & Dozer?
Email your question. They’ll either answer it or make up a reasonably entertaining response.
Ask A Car Dealer is hosted by Joey Little and Todd Gentry. Any views or opinions expressed are our own and not those of our employers, our sponsors, our friends, any of our second cousins, or that girl from high school who follows us on Facebook and likes everything.
