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Hey everyone, Looking to buy a 2003 or 2004 NEW Ford Escape. I am looking for 2WD (please don't try to convince me to get 4WD, if i could afford it and needed it more than once a year I would get it but neither one of those cases apply to me). Looking into the XLT package. The sticker price on the vehicle I am looking at is about 23, 600 approx. The offer the salesman made me today was 22,539, which was a few bucks under "invoice" Is this a good deal? if not, how much more do you think i can knock off?
Invoice on an Escape XLT FWD that stickers for $23,600 should have an invoice of right around $22,200. It shouldn't be too hard to buy an '03 for invoice, as the '04 are hitting our lots right now. We have a $1,500 rebate on 'em in our area, so that brings your cost down to $20,700. I'm assuming you qualify for the $1,500, but remember that rebates vary from region to region.
The Invoice for the 04 one I am looking at is $22,550. The 2003's are about the same. Only difference is the 2003's have a 1500 rebate and the 04 will have only a 500 dollar rebate starting friday I have been told. The salesman keep rushing me into buying a 2003 insisting that the 1500 dollar rebate is going to go away, but I am not sure what I really want. So after all my rebates the price for the Escape will be around 21,639 if I go with a 2004. Is that a good deal? Since I am paying cash (no trade-in) I thought i could get a better deal than this.
I believe that if you walk in with your checkbook and a check made out for $21,000 to the dealership, you will walk out with a set of keys. Be prepared to walk out the door, but if you do I'll bet you will get a call to bring that check back. I also believe that the closer to the end of the month you are the better deal you'll get.
Let's slow down here. you say "invoice" on the '04 is $22,550. With a $500 rebate, that brings it down to $22,050. Then you say you can buy it for $21,639. Am I missing something here? Are there other rebates you're not telling us about? And don't confuse issues with tax and plates getting worked into the deal. There's no way around tax, so worry about that later. If you can buy an '04 for ANY amount below invoice, then take it and run.
As for paying cash to get a better price, forget it. We dealers actually make money on finance deals; the banks pay us a commission on every contract we send them. It takes about 2 minutes on the computer to print all the contracts, so paying cash doesn't save us "hours of paperwork."
I also have a college grad rebate of 400 dollars. The price quoted to me was 22,539 before 900 dollars of rebates (the normal 500 dollar rebate and the 400 college grad rebate). Making the price before taxes and such after rebates 21, 639, which is 911 dollars under invoice.
Don't forget that they have a holdback for floorplanning. I usually can get them to split that with me. Usually it is 3% of the MSRP.
So if you have a $23,000 MSRP with invoice at 22,000 the price before holdback is 22,000 - (3% of 23,000) or $21,310. Then subract the value of the rebates and you are getting closer to reality.
I am getting into this late and he probably already but the Escape but I bought my 03 4x4 XLT Escape for 22,300. I would think that a 2wd XLT would be substantially less????
2 wheel drive escape would probably be about 2 thousand less than a 4 wheel drive version with everything else the same. If i had bought a 2003 i probably could have got mine for 19,20 k but i had to get the 2004 model meaning 1000 less in rebates and no dealer ugency to get rid of it, making the final price for mine 21,639.
That's probably a good deal, I am lousy at determining what is a good deal or not. Even after doing LOTS of internet research I still don't know if I got a good deal. If you're happy that is all that counts.