I am seriously interested in buying a new EL. I would like all options except for navigation and moonroof. Looking at a limited or King Ranch, probably. I looked on edmunds to see what the dealer invoice is, and it listed it at about $38k. Does anyone know if that is accurate for what the dealer pays? My wife and I test drove a King Ranch today, and the sales manager basically told us to make him an offer, and he wouldn't be offended, because they are not moving them. He also said that for the first time, they can now get sticker price for rangers and focuses. The Sticker price for the KR was $48k, how low do you guys think I could get the truck for? I am going to test drive some of the competition tomorrow, but I am a Ford guy. I would love to get this truck for low $30's, do you all think that is possible?

 

Edmunds is pretty accurate, as is CarsDirect.com with one exception. Neither website takes into account the dealer holdback, which is a discount given to the dealer on the purchase of vehicles in inventory. I believe Ford's holdback is 3% off of MSRP. Looking at CarsDirect.com for an 08 EL Limited 2WD (assuming you don't need 4wd in TX - WI we have no choice LOL!!) gives an invoice price (with standard options) of 35,877, including 1500 bonus cash and 2500 Retail Rebate, with MSRP of 42,325. The holdback would be around 1,271, for a final price of 34,606. Most dealers in our area charge around a 90-150 "dealer service fee" (sales person's commission) so that still puts you at the low to mid 30's number you were looking for before taxes, tags, etc... This is the number that the dealer can sell the vehicle for and still make some profit. Carefull though, add on a few options, and you quickly can get that vehicle back up into the 40's.

Looking at the Ford website, they also show an additional 1000 rebate if you finance through FMC. 3500 in rebates are good through 6/30, the other 1500 is only good through 6/2. That is important to consider if you want to order a vehicle with specific options. The build time on my EL was about 5 weeks - unless your dealer will guarantee the rebates (mine did) you don't know what you will be paying until it comes in. That being said, my gut is that on 7/1 they will announce rebates that in total will meet or beat 6,000 to clear out the rest of the '08's.

I have found that CarsDirect pricing on the options is dead on. I saw the build sheet on the truck that I ordered, and every option that was listed had MSRP and Invoice for each option - exact matches.

Now - if those vehicles have been sitting for a LONG time, they might be willing to take a loss on them, but I doubt it. Your best bet for them to sell at a loss is if they have '07's on the lot when the 09's come out. I believe in WI, if a new vehicle is 2 model years old when it is first sold it must be titled as a used vehicle, even if it has never been titled before. This can impact financing, because many lenders have different rates for new vs. used.

-Mike
2000 Mercury Mountaineer
2008 Ford Expedition EL XLT
2001 Keystone Bobcat.

 

You sure you want the King Ranch? Are you familiar with that leather? I owned a F150 King Ranch and I was not a fan of the unsealed leather. It fades quickly, it is not sealed meaning spilling somethign could stain it permanently, it requires a lot of conditioning. I was applying conditioner 2-4 times a month to make it look good. Now on the other hand, it's thick and will not likely wear through like the standard 'leather' seats. If you have kids, dogs, etc, the seats show scratches easily. Just wanted you to know this.

 

WOW prices have fallen....ALOT. The sticker for a King Ranch was 56K with all options in Cali on Sept/Oct of 2007. Invoice was being shown at just under 50K. I guess the gas crunch has made Ford more agressive on pricing.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I was wondering about the care of that leather. It is definitely pretty, but I want something that is going to stay pretty. We don't have dogs, but we plan to have a couple of kids.

 

Foxcoupe, All the dealers in Dallas are advertising $ 10,000 - $ 12,000 off list (depending on if you use Ford Financing) on '08 ELs. If they have a buyer you can push them for a bit more. I did. They are desperate to move them.

I really, really, like mine.

 

Yeah, the sticker on the King Ranch was $48k, navigation and moonroof, it would be about $51k, so I guess they lowered it about $5k since last fall. That is good for me.

Today, I went and test drove some of the other large SUV's with my father in law. In summary, the EL can only really be compared to the suburban, but here are my thoughts on what I test drove/ saw:

Chrysler Aspen: Very nice truck. If they offered a longer version, I would seriously consider it, and if I were just looking for a regular length expedition, I would probably buy the Aspen. The sticker on the loaded one (with navigation and moonroof) was $34k, and with the 5.7L hemi, it was way more nimble than the expy. The lifetime powertrain warranty is also a huge plus. This was the most car-like of the lot, but is also the smallest, with the least cargo room.

Nissan Armada: This was really no larger than the Aspen, and it had the same options but the sticker was $50k. The 5.6L was very peppy, but for $16k more than the Aspen, this did not seem like a good deal.

Toyota Sequoya: Did not drive this one, because I really was not interested in it due to the fact that it did not have a long version either, but with a sticker price of $55k, ($21k more than the very nice Aspen with no additional room or options) it was the most overpriced vehicle that I saw today.

Chevy Suburban: Nice truck overall, but the cargo area did not fold flat, and you have to remove the 3rd row, and the second row also don't fold flat, but instead flip up against the front seats, thus probably not allowing you to put a full sheet of plywood in the truck (I did not measure the length with the seats folded in the "up" postion, because I at first assumed that they were removable) Also, the distance between the rear plastics is right at 4ft, and in putting a full sheet of plywood in the back, you would scratch up the plastic. This truck was loaded, but it only had the 5.3L, which had less get up and go that the Expy has.

Expy EL: Today, I test drove a limited with all the exact options I wanted, and the sticker was $44k. Took my tape measure today, and there is about 4ft, 4inches of room between the rear plastics, and over 8 foot from the rear of the front seats to the rear gate. The fold flat seats are awesome, and the air conditioned seats are also great. The expedition was nowhere near as fast on acceleration as the smaller SUV's, but seemed faster than the 5.3L suburban (I did not test drive the 6.0, but I would imagine it would be peppier than the Expy) I also think that the Expy is quieter than the Suburban.

 

Read this thread if you haven't already:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...-vs-08-el.html

 

Are you really going to haul that much plywood???

 

Yeah, I realize that sounds kinda weird,how I reference the size of plywood, but it is a size that everyone knows, and I do a good bit of woodworking.

 

Yes I did read that, and I would imagine that would be the differences for me as well.

 

Sounds like you did what I did and drove a bunch. It worked BUT we never drove the Expy. After all the testing we(me & my wife) got in the third row and said look I have leg room. The sales guy said "so is this the one?" My wife said "nope we were just suprised thats all". We went home and priced a loaded EL. We bought it 2 days later. I have NEVER bought a vehicle without driving it but I got lucky on this one. I'm glad to see other folks are really looking at everything out there and not "steering clear of this or that"-Oh and as I learned NEVER SAY NEVER. I'm from the Ford tough with Chevy stuff crowd...those days are LONG gone.The Blue Oval beat the snot out of the General.

 

When you say quieter, is that road noise, wind noise, engine noise? When tinkering with my Expy, I noticed it has a lot more sound proofing than any other car I have driven.

 

I would say all of the above. the only time you can hear the engine is when you really stomp on it. Wind and road noise is also very minimal.

 

you can fit a sheet of plywood in a suburban. Been there done that.

As for speed i'd be that they are almost the same in the 1/4 mile. A standard Tahoe vs Expedition is dead even in the 1/4 mile. If you look the 5.3 starts pulling away from the expedition at highway speeds. Fords 5.4 is nice and torquey but it doesn't pull like a small block LS(X) series motor on the big end. Check out motor trends test of the armada vs sequoia vs expedition vs tahoe, it will give you some good info.