At least, if you want a no option XLT. And you live in Texas.

A dealer in the Austin/San Antonio area is offering no option XLT Expy's for $43,745. He has 4 of them.

 

Decent discount, but in Michigan, nobody wants a 4x2. And although I am fine with an XLT most people including me want the basic options like dual climate control and heated seats (the latter again because we're in Michigan). These are like fleet rental or "loss leader" vehicles. They will eventually come down in price, especially because fuel is going up, but I'm guessing there is still a relative shortage of Expy's and Navigators sitting on dealer lots. Looking at a couple large local dealers they have only 1-4 in stock. They are discounting a 202A XLT with 4WD about $9 grand (including rebates) so a $65k truck for $56k.

George

 

Interesting how these options have become "necessary" when only a few years ago they were not even available.

From the skin in, there are few, if any, differences between a $43k Expy and an $80k Expy. Engine are the same (OK, upscale models get a HP bump), tranny, suspension, brakes, no changes. Being able to spend $40k in upgrades, nearly doubling the price, makes my jaw drop.

I know, safety equipment. But most of the safety equipment that you get (or is available) on the upscale models is standard on $18k Toyotas. So the safety stuff does not justify the price increase.

I am not sure that gas prices alone will do it. Interest rates will be the killer of the $80k Expys. A very larger percentage of people are payment buyers (this has not changed much over the last several decades). They walk into a dealer and ask "what can I get for $500/month (or whatever)?". With interest rates low, the payment that they can afford puts them into a Limited instead of an XLT. When interest rates go up, many of the upscale buyers will have to settle for an XLT.

Personally, I got my '17 KR for an '18 XLT price. Of course, I could have gotten a '17 XLT for even less, but wanted to live a little. I am a bad person who does not always follow his own advice.

 

You make an excellent point on interest rates. I admit that I pay vehicles off in a very short term so interest rates don't concern me much, but then again, I choke at any vehicle that costs more than $40k which would put me into CPO if I set out to buy an Expy.

I agree that I used to pooh-pooh stuff like climate control and heated seats, but my wife and I are in our 60's and having heated seats keeps her comfortable (she is healthy but getting a bit creaky) and I have decided they are mandatory for me after getting 8 screws and 3 rods in my spine (it's OK now but keeping the muscles relaxed is helpful). And the dual climate control completely stops the constant negotiation of cabin temperature on short and long trips when my wife needs 5 degrees warmer than I am comfortable with

This stuff is all "content" and makes for big profits for Ford. Absolutely the basic $43k Expy is the same basic truck as the loaded ones, and if it was gonna be a long-term work truck, less options would make it less likely to need electronics repaired down the road.

 

I don't blame them. It should be illegal to own anything but 4WD or AWD vehicles in any state that gets X amount of inches of snow per year. When I had my 2WD vehicle after I moved to Chicago, OMG did that SUCK!!! In 2 weeks I had enough and traded it for a 4WD SUV.

 

I was at the dealer yesterday getting my 2011 truck inspected. Naturally I used the 45 minutes that they had my truck in the bay to look at what they had on the lot. They have one standard length 2018 Expy and it has a state inspection sticker from Feb. 2018. MSRP, $62K. So, some quick math with the phone showed me that even if a fella could get $15K off the truck, finance say $48K with nothing down, you're looking at about $667 per month.

I would never approach a deal like this but it's sobering to me to think what people are willing to pay per month and over the life of the loan if any.

 

When I had a few minutes to kill for some unrelated task at the dealer I got Curious. I got my 2015 with 66K miles for around $27K after T/T/L/Fees. During my search at the dealer I discovered the 2018 equivalent of my purchase was 61K. The only thing the 2018 had over mine was the Vista Moonroof but pretty much identical XLT, Leather, power folding 3rd row, SYNC3, NAV, etc... Add about $3K for 4WD. Crazy also add about $1000 in dealer add ons, Window Tint, etc.... Granted tough to find a TX dealer that doesn't automatically add tint but I prefer getting tint done myself since I don't have any clue what lowest bidder tint company the dealer uses.

 

I've visited all of the Ford dealers in my area. Metro Ford, Plantation Ford, Pines Ford, Lorenzo Ford, Sawgrass Ford, Gas Machado Ford... Out of all of those, it seems like the only honest ones were Sawgrass Ford. Every time I would call the other ones on the phones, they kept bothering me to come in and didn't want to give me monthly payments over the phone. It's like they think that once they get you in there, then they got you and you'll buy a car from them. Then all of these people charged like $700 dealer fees and crap. Sawgrass Ford was the only one that didn't charge any dealer fees. And these people even give free nitrogen fills! WOW! I was about to pay a place to put that in. I absolutely cannot stand the "bait and switch" crap from dealers. If you do get one price over the phone, then when you get there, what they told you is not what you pay. Then they play the dealer fee game again and tell you that everybody has to pay it. And then when I tell them that Sawgrass Ford doesn't charge a dealer fee, they get all pissed off at me. Lorenzo Ford was one of the worst that I spoke with. These guys are like the KING of low balling. You see these amazing prices on-line. Then when you drive all the way down there, which they are far as hell from most people, then the price goes way up because the prices they quoted were so low because you don't qualify for any of the rebates they stacked on. What a joke. The sales people at Gas Machado think their **** don't stink. Some of the worst sales people I've ever had to deal with. Metro Ford is down in the "hood". Talk about a scary area to have to buy a car from. Pines Ford was about the only other decent one after Sawgrass Ford. The only thing that killed the deal with them was their dealer fee again. And the sad thing is, the dealers that charge dealer fees don't even share this money with the sales people. So what are they doing with all of this money?!?! If a dealer sells 200 cars per month and charges $700 in dealer fees, that's $140,000/mo in "extra" profits they are making. What the hell are they doing with this $140k!?!?!?!? If I ran a dealership and charged those fees, I'd be giving free lunch and dinner 7 days per week to all my customers. I don't see any of these dealers giving anything back. The owners are just living large in their multi million dollar homes and hogging all the money for themselves while the poor sales people get screwed.