I have read several posts in here today that deal with purchasing a new truck. There are several talking about the X-Plan and others, and I wanted to tell them that any "plan" is a joke. For those who do not know how the pricing structure works on new vehicles I am going to do my best to help. First of all, the actual cost that the dealership pays for the new vehicle is not the invoice. Go to Edmunds.com and figure out what your invoice and msrp is, and then take 3% of the total msrp, and subtract that from the invoice. This is what the dealership pays. For any of you that are paying more than $100 over the invoice price of your new vehicle, YOU ARE PAYING TOO MUCH.. There are many dealerships that are more than happy to order you a new car or truck for that price. It is not uncommon for dealerships to dig into their profits to move vehicles either, ie. below invoice, especially on an ordered unit. If the vehicle has sat on his lot for any length of time it is costing him every month and some are reluctant to do that. When making a new purchase, the only negotiating factor is your trade in, if you have one. The rest is simple. If the dealer that you are talking to is not willing to do what I am telling you here, go to another. There are tons of dealerships that want to move new units. I would save the time and gas by calling them on the phone and asking them if they are willing to meet your terms and that way you can find out right away if you are talking with the right dealership. Make them earn your business.

 

Hello Cody1960 - what is the basis for your statement? Can you substantiate any of the details? The inv**ce and MSRP are easily obtained right from the Ford.com site. What you say goes against quite a few posts I have read on this site.

 

This year I have helped 7 friends and family members make their purchase in the same manner that I described. Is that good enough? I have bought the only 3 new vehicles that I have ever bought in the same manner as well. The pricing structure is explained in edmunds.com as well. One thing that people who are trading have to keep in mind is that the dealerships are selling the new unit to you at basically a wholesale price, so the price that they are going to be offering you for your trade will be wholesale as well. Buying outright (no trade) is always advantageous to you the buyer. The more you become educated about the car business, the better you will understand how it works. Don't be surprised if you are talking to a salesman and he tells you that what you are telling him "cannot be done", because chances are good that he knows less about it than you do. That is why you should save yourself miles of driving by using the telephone and finding the dealership that wants to sell units. Think of it this way, how much money do you think a dealership should make on a transaction that takes them less than an hour to complete? On a 30,000 msrp vehicle, that is $1,000.00 (3%) of profit for the dealership that is built in to the invoice price. So, if you are offering them $100.00 over the invoice price, they are making an $1,100.00 profit in one hour. I don't make $1,100.00 per hour, do you? This is especially true on a vehicle that the dealership orders for you. It is a win-win situation for all parties. If you are in the market for a new vehicle, pick up the phone and call the dealership and you will see what I am talking about. I will say that not all manufacturers have the 3% holdback built in, but as far as I know, the domestics all have the 3% holdback. And, obviously the higher the msrp, the greater the holdback. My cousin, who just purchased a new 04 had to call 3 dealerships before he found the one willing to deal. He knew where he could buy one for the $100 over, but wanted to deal a little closer to home and tried the others first. He wound up buying 50 miles from his home, and they were more than happy to deal with him. I have had salesmen tell me that it was really nice to deal with someone who knew how it worked and that he was glad that he didn't have to play the game of taking numerous offerings back and forth to his sales manager to put his stamp of approval on it. Since I have a dealership that works on my terms, I don't have to go through the process of finding one again, but when you call a dealership, ask to speak with the sales manager so you can cut to the chase and ask him directly if he is going to work with you or not. It works, believe me.