Ford has seen a tremendous response to the new Bronco since the rugged SUV was launched, but the company has had a bit of a hard time keeping dealerships in line. Weeks ago, dodgy dealers were found to be initiating last-minute markups on Broncos that increased the price by as much as $10,000 in some cases. Now, Ford is taking action to prevent dealerships from creating fake reservations to increase their allocation of Bronco models. Communication obtained by Ford Authority was sent by Ford to dealers, and it explains how the company will evaluate compliance moving forward.

The communication from Ford was titled "2021 Bronco Customer Name Match Audit and Integrity Policy Reporting Platform," which sounds exactly like the sort of email one should take seriously. The policy indicates that dealers will need to maintain a 60 percent name match for converted reservations and final sales. This applies to all 2021 Bronco models. Ford will then monitor this each month. Dealers are automatically in compliance until they sell five Bronco models. After that, they will be evaluated to ensure continued compliance.

If a dealer acts in contravention of this policy once, it will only receive a warning. A second infringement will see the dealer lose a month's worth of Bronco allocations. Finally, a third breach of the policy will result in the dealer losing its Bronco allocation for three months.

It's not only dealerships that Ford is looking to monitor. The policy also aims to stop customers from leaving several reservations with fake names in an effort to acquire more Broncos and sell them again at a higher price.

The Bronco has been plagued by some build quality issues and several delays caused by the semiconductor chip shortage. It's expected that high demand for the SUV won't alleviate lengthy waiting lists anytime soon.