Buying a vehicle from a dealership is the one that causes most people anxiety. There’s the haggling, waiting long hours in a small chair behind a big desk and hoping the dealership doesn’t take advantage of you.

Imagine if you paid 50% more than the MSRP. Unfortunately, a dealer was taking advantage of customers and marking up their Ford F-150 Lightnings $50,000 above the suggested retail price.

The auto market has been in freefall since the shutdown, and the shortage of semiconductors is making matters worse. This new environment allows dealers like this to charge exorbitant prices for their vehicles. Let’s take a look at the dealership and what happened.

A reseller is accused of price gouging with markups

The Lightning Owners Forum is a website for F-150 Lightning owners to discuss all things Lightning. Recently, Inside EVs was alerted to a potential price gouging situation in Thousand Oaks, CA by a forum member.

A member who goes by the “Junk in the Frunk” handle discovered a tweet from the DCH Ford dealership in Thousand Oaks showing an F-150 Lightning selling for $145,309. The forum member said, “A Platinum starts at around $91,000, and obviously there are a ton of options you can add from there, but a +50% market adjustment?! I think the Ford company might have something to say about that. Anyone around Thousand Oaks, CA has experience with DCH Ford? »

However, this particular F-150 Lightning markup was not the only one listed.

Marking on the F-150 Lightning

Besides the F-150 Lightning listed for $145,309, a few others were listed with unreasonable prices. There were two other F-150 Lightning truck options available with prices around $130,000 as well.

Ford had a similar situation with the Mustang Mach-E electric crossover. Due to strong demand for the vehicle, Inside EVs reported that dealers are raising Mustang Mach-E prices by $5,000 to $15,000, even for those who have already placed their order. After being called to Twitter, Ford later released a statement that the markup had been removed. However, DCH Ford of Thousand Oaks took a different approach.

A correction has been made on the site

DCH Ford of Thousand Oaks has since replaced the quoted price with an “Ask for Price” stamped on each truck. It is unclear if they still charge the same price for the vehicles. Electric Vehicles Inside still has the screenshots posted on their website that show the original asking prices for the vehicles pulled from the DCH Ford of Thousand Oaks page.

Ford said dealers would lose their F-150 allowance if they mark up those vehicles. However, that doesn’t stop them from selling the inventory they already have on hand at extortionate prices. Additionally, dealerships are separate entities from Ford and may set their own rules.

Global shortages of most things have pushed prices up to some degree. Some car dealerships would have you believe that vehicle prices are rising because of inflation.

However, manufacturers have only slightly changed the price they charge dealers for these vehicles. Virtually all of the price increases have been on the dealer side. Dealers have run away with huge markups on vehicles as they take advantage of the supply and demand issues currently facing the market. Edmunds reports that 82% of car buyers paid more than MSRP last January. By way of comparison, only 3% spent more than a year earlier.

RELATED: You might want to skip the top-of-the-line 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning