My company offers the X Plan, and I've never dealt with anything like this. How does it work, and what's the best way to go about getting the most out of it?

Should I tell the salesman up front that I qualify for the plan, or should I wait until I've negotiated my best price? Will I still qualify for factory or dealer rebates? Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks

 

my son got his 04 on xplan, $7000 off the invoice and you get all rebates/discounts and whatever else you qualify for. Best thing is to find a good dealer to deal with as I think some do not allow the same all the time.

If they will deal with ya after all the above ya got it made but they pretty much gave it away, with $5000 down he was down to $22000 on a lariat 4x4 then we added all the nice to have extras, finally out the door for 27000.

 

Xplan is no big deal. It's just a bit over invoice. Almost any dealer will give you at least that good of a deal on a new truck. When I bought mine I had Xplan but ended up buying it $1100 cheaper than what the xplan number was on the invoice (including all the rebstes, etc)

 

Here's the deal....

I went with X-Plan and got my 05 Screw 4X4 FX4, for $181 over invoice... that was the X-Plan price, no negotiating necessary......However, there is a $500 X-Plan rebate available in my region (till 5/31/05) so I basically go the F150 for $319 below invoice as the rebate is only good on X-Plan purchases.....

From what I have read people are getting F150's for BELOW and AT invoice from some dealers... It's a common thing......

Keep in mind if you use the X-Plan it will save you all of the negotiating headaches on the price of the new F150... Also keep in mind if you use the X-Plan the dealer CANNOT charge you documentation fees or any of the excessive fees that dealers are known to try and charge consumers...

My dealer tried to charge me a $99 documentation fee... I told them the X-Plan rules indicate that these "extra" fees cannot be passed onto the purchaser.....

In sum, if you live in a region that qualifies for the $500 X-plan rebate but you are able to find a good dealer who is willing to give you a price that is $319 below invoice (or whatever the X-Plan price is on the truck minus $500) on a F150 (ask for the invoice, they can pull it up online and print it instantly, don't let them tell you they can't) and they also won't charge all of the misc. fees (doc's, advertising, etc etc,) then I would pass on the X-Plan and do it conventionally.....

If you can't find a dealer that will give X-Plan minus $500 and who also insists on charging you doc fees etc... then use your X-Plan and save your negotiating energy for your trade.......

Word of caution - make for sure you know what rebates are out there... my dealership was had no idea there was a $500 X-Plan rebate out there... I was told about it in these forums from Mark and Polarbear.....

 

I also qualify for X-plan and was offered what I thought was a good deal w/ X-plan + rebates. I found a truck I liked more at another dealer and discovered that once you go with the X-plan, any better price that might be negotiated goes out the window. I bought mine last Dec when 04 deals were great and was able to save an extra 1650 off the X-plan deal. I don't mean to make this X-plan stuff any more confusing, and by all means bring it up, but maybe they can do better than straight X-plan. In Dec, they were very motivated to move the 04 inventory, but in the middle of a model year, X-plan may be as good a deal as you can get. Good luck!

 

I have used xplan for the last 4 vehicles that my wife and I have bought and what i do is play dumb and get there "best"price and then "rember" that i qualify for xplan and see what they say then both of my trucks has betted me a better price that way

 

Same here, . . . last Dec I negotiated a deal, then brought up X-Plan. At the time, they were really trying hard to move the 04s, . . . and had offered me $1500 of additional incentive money beyond the bottom line we came up with plus the $5K ($4K + $1K financing) incentives available. From what I remember, the bottom line X-Plan cost was close to the same ($100 under I think) as the original bottom line without the $1500 additional money. They tried to apply the $1500 to X-Plan but could not, . . . they had to call Ford to determine if they could use the special money against an X-Plan purchase and I had to wait about ½ hour to get an answer. So, in that case, X-plan would have been lower, but with the extra $1500, I went with that deal.

My advice, find a good dealer that you can work with. Ask them to bring up all available incentives on their computer and go through each one to see if you qualify. A couple of years ago when we bought our ’03 Explorer, . . . in addition to the standard incentive and financing money, we found an owner loyalty incentive that added another $1K. I knew they had those from time to time, but wasn’t sure if they had one at that time. Saw about 20 or so incentive programs (new student, armed forces, etc.). The owner loyalty one was the only one we qualified for. But, my salesman went through each one to see. So, . . . with patience, you might find some that you qualify for. Good Luck.

 

There should be no "find a dealer who is willing to give you x-plan price". X-plan is X-plan. See below:

*The dealer is required to provide you with a true copy of the factory invoice showing the New Vehicle Purchase Plan price on the line labeled "A/Z Plan" (not displayed for Jaguar and Land Rover, labeled as "S Plan" for Mazda). You should also receive a complete and signed New Vehicle Purchase Plan/Red Carpet Lease Option Customer/Dealer Agreement and Pricing Sheet* showing each item and its price. Do not sign this form if it is blank or if you do not understand how the price was calculated.

*The "A" or "Z" Plan price is the amount shown on the line labeled "A/Z Plan" near the bottom of the factory invoice (not displayed for Jaguar and Land Rover, labeled as "S Plan" for Mazda). The New Vehicle Purchase Plan price includes advertising, finance costs, transportation, fuel charges and Company administrative fees. The dealership may not charge extra for these items

*The dealership may also NOT charge separately for document preparation fees, vehicle preparation fees or any other administrative services incidental to the delivery of the vehicle. These expenses are considered to be part of the dealer's normal cost of doing business for which the dealership is compensated by the commission paid.

*The dealership may charge any price negotiated between the dealer and the customer for undercoating, dealer installed options, extended service contracts and other items or services that add value to the vehicle, provided such items are priced separately and listed individually on the retail buyer's order and the New Vehicle Purchase Plan/Red Carpet Lease Option Customer/Dealer Agreement and Pricing Sheet

*Family A/Z-Plan and/or friends & neighbors X-Plan customers may not accept items or services as an inducement or reward in connection with an "A/Z-Plan" and/or "X-Plan" sale or lease

*The customer is responsible for all federal, state, and local taxes, license and title fees

*The New Vehicle Purchase Plan customer is entitled to the price in effect at the time the vehicle was invoiced. Any money refunded to the dealer by Ford Motor Company for price increases occurring after the order is submitted, but before shipment to the dealer, must be refunded to the customer.

*From time to time the Company may offer incentives or rebates. Unless specifically excluded by the Company, incentives or rebates are available to New Vehicle Purchase Plan customers in addition to the plan price. Ask your dealer for details.

*The dealership may require the New Vehicle Purchase Plan customer to make a deposit when placing a vehicle order. Some or all of this deposit may be retained by the dealership if the customer declines to accept delivery of the product ordered. An agreement in writing should be reached with the dealership concerning the amount of the deposit and the conditions under which it may be retained by the dealership if the transaction is not completed.

*Lease transactions may require a refundable security deposit. The security deposit is held until the end of the lease and is refunded, provided that the lease terms have been satisfied. The deposit is usually equal to one month's payment, rounded to the next $25/$50.

*X-Plan
Pre-determined price based on dealer invoice or A-Plan price depending on brand.
The X-Plan price is noted on the dealer invoice

Ford/Mercury: Invoice minus 0.4% of Invoice

 

Yes, X-Plan is X-Plan, . . . but the point is that X-Plan alone may not be the best final deal. It wasn't in my case because there was an additional pool of money available to the dealer but it was excluded from X-Plan pricing. So, . . . if you can find a dealer that will work with you, you can compare the bottom line of an X-Plan vs non X-Plan deal. This is exactly what my dealer did for me.

BTW - I also believe not all dealers have to honor X-Plan. At least that is my understanding from my company's X-Plan website.

 

this is true......

The OFFICIAL definition of X-Plan is "within 1% of invoice"

on most F-150's X-Plan is actualy HIGHER than invoice.. but within 1% as the plan defines......mine was $183 higher than invoice...

so check around to see if there are any X-Plan specific rebates out there (there is $500 one now in my region)......if there is one in your region then go to the dealer and find a truck and see if they will give you a price that is better than X-Plan minus X-Plan rebate... if they will then don't use the X-Plan.. if the won't then USE the X-Plan......

simple math....

F.Y.I - if the dealer honors X-Plan prices on Fords then they have to give you their X-Plan price on any Ford if you are interested in purchasing the vehicle.... If you have a dealer that says they don't honor X-Plan pricing and you think they are lying to you then call Ford to confirm.....

 

Depending on where you live I would talk to either Polarbear or 1956MarkII about buying from them, especially if no trade.Good Luck!

 

X-Plan works great when the sales are up. The dealer is not willing to give incentives, the sticker price is what people are paying. Currently sales are way down. there are lots of incentives, with a little work on your part you can beat X-Plan. Find out and understand "hold back". then look into "Blue Oval" dealers. they get a % above hold back. It was 3% a year ago when I bought my F250. Bottom line, you should be able to get at or below X-Plan in our current market.

 

It was an incentive/rebate, they had to give it to you...they weren't doing you any favors.

Forrest_F150 nailed it.

 

Not true, . . . you were not there when I did this deal, so to say they had to give it to me is a misleading statement at best.

From my understanding, this pool of money was not available as a general incentive to the general public. It was a pool of money made available to dealers that they could use to close deals on F-150s (may have applied to other cars - but I don't think so). This was at the very end of last calendar year. This was also not public information that I could find after the fact. And, this was not listed on the incentives list that the salesman and I went through to see which ones I qualified for. <o =""></o>

From what I found out later on, Ford was running short on sales of '04s and wanted to get to a certain sales number to close out the year. This money was limited in size (once it was gone, it was gone), was above and beyond the available incentives at the time, could not be reserved (only available at time of delivery if the money was left in the pool), you had to take delivery before Dec 31^st, . . . and in this particular case, it could NOT be combined with X-Plan. I only found out about it when I wanted the truck but was not going to close the deal in the next few days (I was going to wait until after the new year to see if the incentives got any better). <o =""></o>

All told, the deal was for a truck with an MSRP of $33.3K. Best dealer price I could get was at $500 below invoice. There was $4K of general incentives available, $1K for Ford Financing with no minimum commitment term, . . . and then an additional $1.5K from this pool of money. Final cost, . . . $22.5K. X-Plan would have cost me $23.9K. So, . . . which one do you think I took?

Point is, . . . as others have confirmed, you need to be able to work with your dealer to explore all avenues. X-Plan may not be the final best solution, . . . or it may be. A good dealer will help you work the deal from all angles and then choose the best one.

 

Gotcha, the rebate was not available to employee/friends & family purchases. So it was available to the general public (those who don't have access to the employee purchase plans) to move the older vehicles. Sorry for the confusion.