OK! I guess I’m going to make the rounds this weekend shopping for a new ’05 F250 diesel in and around the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comHouston</ST1</st1:City> area. Can anyone give me any advice or recommendations on a particular dealership? I get the X-Plan and I pretty much know exactly what I want, so there won’t be much haggling on price. The major driver will be who can give me the most for my trade-in OR make up the difference for what I want for my trade-in in incentives. I also want to make sure they have a good shop when it comes to the diesel and will provide a rental if/when it needs to be worked on.<O</O

Thanks!<O</O

 

Try Tomball Ford on FM 249, about 5 miles north of FM 1960.


Go to the used car area and see Howard Rhodes. Tell him Jim Early sent you.

Howerd may be able to work a deal on your trade, then go to new vehicle sales for the 2005 purchase.

I get all my service done by Skeeters Auto on Old Huffmiester, north of Spring Cypress.

 

I would agree, Tomball Ford is an excellent dealer. Bought my 04 screw there and have had all my service done there too.
D

 

McRee Ford in Dickinson. Ask for Dave Kuenneke in Fleet Sales. I've used him in the past and will continue to do so.

 

I bought my truck from Mark Helfman at Helfman Ford and was VERY impressed. He is in the internet sales department which is across the freeway from the main dealership. He is a young guy with very good ethics and in the position to cut you a good deal. I have never been happier with a vehicle purchase than when I dealt with him.

If you go to helfmanford.com and look up internet sales, the 800 number rings his cell phone.

Good luck,
Doc

 

I bought my truck from Mark Helfman at Helfman Ford and was VERY impressed. He is in the internet sales department which is across the freeway from the main dealership. He is a young guy with very good ethics and in the position to cut you a good deal. I have never been happier with a vehicle purchase than when I dealt with him.

If you go to helfmanford.com and look up internet sales, the 800 number rings his cell phone. He will see that you are taken care of before AND after the sale.

I have no affiliation with him beyond just being a very satisfied customer.

Good luck,
Doc

 

See Bill Fick (Owner) of Hillcrest Ford in Huntsville. He should cut you a sweet deal, and he's one heck of a guy. Here's the website, but I would call him direct. Tell him Michael that lives in Lake Windcrest told you about him.

Hillcrest Ford

 

A general comment here that applies no matter where you are.

The way the new car dealers work is on a "holdback" system. Each dealer is initially invoiced for each vehicle. This invoice is what they are billed for that vehicle. The amount that they are billed for a vehicle varies according to how difficult it is to sell that particular model. For example, the Mustang being such a hot seller right now is probably invoiced to the dealer at 90% or so of list price, while a more difficult to sell vehicle might be invoiced at only 80%.

At the end of the year or quarter, the dealer is refunded or credited, or something, a percentage of the price of these vehicles based on the number of units that they sold during that period. If they sold a very high volume of vehicles, this percentage will be greater than if they sold a limited number of vehicles.

This means several things, but the main two things to remember are:

o A high volume dealer pays LESS for their vehicles, thus they can sell them cheaper. The way that the sold more vehicles so that they could pay less for them was to sell them cheaper. Are you catching on here? This means that your best deals will be had at the large volume dealer. I think that a dealer that has a chain of stores can actually combine their sales numbers for more holdback. So, look for a very high volume dealer and NEVER pay over invoice.

o This also means that if you can catch the dealer on the last day of the quarter or the year, you might catch them in a situation where if they can move just a few more units, they will get a greater amount of holdback on ALL their cars. Mathematically it could end up in a situation where they could give a car away and make money. In practice if that were a real world situation, they would probably do something to get around this, but if you are lucky you might get a killer deal on the last day or two of their sales period whatever it might be.


The actual percentages are a carefully guarded secret, but I expect that they are significant. Have you ever wondered how a dealer can sell a car for $100 over invoice and make money. This is the reason why they are so anxious to show you their invoice and assume that you are so dumb to think that they just give away cars for no profit.

Have a great day,
Doc