I am wondering if somebody would explain how you get to Invoice price and what’s a good deal under that price? I understand how to get MSRP with the window sticker.

Should I try to be calculating my best deal as a percentage off of MSRP or a percentage off invoice. Once you have that percentage off either MSRP or Invoice do you then add in the Ford rebates like financing rebates and inventory rebates or does those add into percentage invoice or MsRP?

I also have a PCO so wonder how that fits in. I want to negotiate best price I can on an 2019 and would think I should be able to get a good deal right now.

Thanks!

 

This is an example of a truck I found that is confusing to me. This looks like a great deal to me better than the rest of the dealers 2019 inventory that doesn’t have all of these discounts.

 

Funny, I was just getting ready post pretty much the same question, only on percentage of discount on ordering a 2020. I’ve only gotten a 9% discount on MSRP from a couple of dealers. Anybody doing better on ordering a 2020? I’m pricing a $75,000 350 diesel.

 

While no expert I do buy a crap load of new cars. Here is what I do.

1) Print window sticker
2) Use a website like nadaguides.com to input the exact options from that window sticker. It will show you MSRP and Dealer Invoice. Make sure the MSRP matches window sticker.
3) I look for all available rebates and incentives by using dealers websites and forums.
4) I look at truecar, kbb, auto trader and try and gather what prices others are getting.
5) I write all my numbers down on that Window Sticker I printed off (monroney).
6) I always exclude financing and financing incentives or trades. I "may" choose to take a financing incentive for the money and pay it off in a few weeks with a credit union loan but don't muddy the waters with financing. Dealers always want to talk payments.
7) Find other dealers with a vehicle (exactly if you can) like the one you printed off.
8) Determine the price your willing to pay: Invoice less rebates, etc. I use line 4 above to gauge if I am realistic.
9) Armed with all the above send out emails or online requests to dealers with the vehicles that meet your criteria.
10) Negotiate the price first and then talk trade. Carmax will give you a 7 day offer to purchase but 90% of the time I get better prices on trade.
11) Sometimes, like last week with my 19 F250 Limited I will throw an unrealistic offer and if that dealer is hungry or desperate they will take it. In this case I was able to get $5k more for my trade over competing offers with the same negotiated vehicle price. $5,000 plus my $2,500 made for a sweet deal so I selected a color that I didn't want to buy.

I hope this helps.

 

Whether using invoice or MSRP any eligible rebates will be subtracted from that amount. I've never had a PCO, I get D Plan pricing from Ford thanks to my wife, but if the cash comes from Ford, as opposed to the dealership, that should also come off invoice or MSRP. Due to the multiple problems we had with a new Focus in 2001 that I bought for my daughter, I did receive a $2,000 trade assist from Ford. That came off the D Plan price at the time.

 

It's a bit tougher when you are ordering your truck. Many rebates state "when taking delivery on an in stock vehicle by xxxx date". It's harder to negotiate a price if the dealer hasn't been carrying it on their floorplan.

 

Throw MSRP out the window. If you want truely stress free shopping, I recommend using COSTCO auto buying service. We used it for our 2018 King Ranch. They set you up with a participating dealer. We ordered ours optioned with exactly what we wanted. I believe we got $2000 below invoice, plus all available Ford incentives, plus $250 Ford parts gift card...

 

Forget a percentage off of MSRP. That is not an accurate way to deal.

Make it simple..
Simply ask the salesman to show you invoice price. They will..
After that, there is at least 3% of invoice that remains out of the picture called “holdback.
If you can get half of that back, you are doing great. Then, add in all incentives and that is your clean deal.

 

You believe, or you know for a fact that you did?
Costco is a great program, especially for travel and definitely for renting cars, but I would bet your price was slightly better than X plan. I don’t see Costco being as competitive as Z plan.

 

Msrp... stated full price for truck
Invoice.... bogus wholesale cost dealer pays ford for truck

 

you really will have a hard time getting anything better than Z plan. It's possible but not likely. I'm lucky enough to have had Z plan through my father in law and brother in law.

 

DING DING DING… we have the winner.

 

Exactly. I hate the fricken game they play...so I just threw out Xplan and went with it. I only had to negotiate my trade.

PS...don't tell them you have a PCO until you settle on a number. Dealers will try to screw you out of a portion of it if they know up front.

 

Actually invoice is what most manufacturers charge dealer as a cost..... sort of. The dealer pays the manufacturers invoice, but will receive advertising credits of a few hundred dollars which they can apply to the cost or shift to their advertising budget. Also, when they sell the vehicle they are paid a holdback, normally around 3% of invoice. There also may be floor plan credits if you floor plan with them, but they aren’t enough to cover the interest they’re charging you. There may also be additional dealer incentives for selling a certain amount of vehicles but normally those are pie in the sky numbers that cause you to lose more money than you make back. Bottom line is invoice is what dealers pay, but there are additional funds paid to lower that cost once the vehicle sells.

 

What the heck is PCO ?