Ford
- A Ford dealership in Tampa Bay, Florida, accidentally sold a Bronco Sport it wasn’t supposed to.
- The car was a demo model meant to be on display for four months.
- The customer, Adam Sidoti, was allowed to keep the car after Ford stepped in.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
As Ford Bronco Sport deliveries started rolling out at the end of last year, one Florida dealership made the mistake of selling a demonstration vehicle to a customer and had to ask him to return it.
On December 22, Adam Sidoti traded in his 2015 Volkswagen Jetta, put some money down, and financed a new Bronco Sport compact crossover from a Tampa Bay, Florida, Ford dealership, according to local outlet ABC Action News and via Motor1.
Sidoti told ABC Action News he “always liked the Ford Bronco,” and the new Bronco Sport is the more pedestrian version of Ford’s upcoming Bronco models aimed at challenging the Jeep Wrangler and Land Rover Defender. Along with Sidoti’s, Ford sold 5,120 Bronco Sports during the fourth quarter of 2020.
A day later, however, Sidoti got a call from the dealer. It wanted the car back.
“I thought it was a joke,” he told the news outlet.
Turns out, the dealer had mistakenly sold a display model to Sidoti. A back-and-forth followed. Sidoti refused to give the car back. So, ABC Action News reporter Jackie Callaway reached out to Ford to see what was up.
A Ford spokesperson said the automaker had originally sent that particular Bronco Sport to the Tampa Bay dealership as a demonstration vehicle, where it would be on display for four months before being sold.
But it all worked out in the end. On December 29, Ford told ABC Action News that as soon as it found out about Sidoti's situation, it sorted things out and Sidoti was allowed to keep his car.
The Ford spokesperson told Callaway dealers selling display models and then asking for them back is a very rare occurrence. So if you're also shopping for a Bronco Sport, you don't have to worry - but you can read our review of it here.