I've been hunting around for a couple years for a used recent model F-250 that checks all my boxes but have not been successful in finding one. I'm getting ready to purchase a new one, but I'm enough of a tight-wad that I am willing to be a bit flexible on trim levels if the price is right. My preference is for a Lariat with the premium package, but that is not eligible for the employee pricing. I see that the XLT is eligible for employee pricing and that may be enough of a difference for me to go that route, but I'd appreciate some feedback on a couple questions:
1) Can the employee pricing be applied to a special order?
2) What kind of dealer discount should I be able to wrangle on a Lariat trim truck?

I've been reaching out to area dealers for pricing on the Lariat and I think the best I've gotten so far is about $2K off MSRP, but I haven't pushed too hard yet.

Any thoughts are welcome!
Thanks!

 

I’d be surprised of any deal you get. The build sheet at both dealers I talked to were not final pricing, and final pricing is not available until a VIN is generated. Vins are generated weeks after an order and weeks before a delivery.

The dealer I ordered from took the sheet i had, input it, and the pricing matched from his system matched mine.

Both dealers were not interested in dealing on prices with orders. On the lot yes, but not orders.

The one I ordered was actually rolled over to the following year model after 5 months , but they never told me for two more months.

i cancelled that order.

i ended up buying new off the lot in the area and am adding options like fender wells and fifth wheel, but the cost for adding these is at least 50% more than getting an option on an order.

 

Just order from Granger and get 3% under invoice + any rebate at the time of ordering or delivery (whichever is better).

 

If you are related to someone who works for Ford, you can get A/Z plan pricing. If they work for a dealer they get D plan pricing, which is like, $250 more or something. A/Z is about the best you're going to get on an ordered vehicle, plus whatever discounts are available when ordering and/or delivery.

Now you may also be eligible for X-plan, which is more of an 'everybody' pricing, and typical of what dealers offer up as 'employee' pricing. I forget how much under MSRP that is but it should be more than $2k (it is a percentage), Z-plan on my Lariat was something like $8500 under MSRP, X-plan should be in the neighborhood of $4k or so.

 

I wish I knew someone who could get me employee pricing, but no luck there. I can get a "Friends and Family" discount, which they claim is 1% over invoice if I work with the dealer that gives that discount to employees of the company where I work. I may have to investigate that. There are five other dealers closer to me than this one, so I started with those.

I sent an email to Granger Ford, but no response yet. I guess I'm old school to think that car dealers actually respond to email. Sigh... I guess I need to call.

The process of trying to build, price, and order a new truck from Ford has left me speechless on just how stupid it all is. A rant:
- Ford, a multi-billion dollar company appears to hire interns to run their website. When the model year switched from 2025 to 2026, the new "build your own" tool didn't get updated to show the 2026 information until months after you could no longer order a 2025. I'm guessing the same will happen soon with the switch to the 2027 model year. If you dig down to try and compare models (XLT vs. Lariat, etc.), the information provided is completely useless. They show the same options for everything.
- If you use Ford's build & price tool to create your perfect vehicle and then use the link THEY provide to get an internet price, the dealers you send that "perfect build" to do not get any details on what you want. All they see is that you want a quote on an F-250 (or F-350, etc.). You have to use other methods to tell them exactly what you want.
- Using the "Get an internet price" link means sending the dealers your name, email, and phone number AND it asks you what is your preferred method of communication. I specifically selected "email" because I'm old school like that. Within minutes of sending out the info my phone was wringing and texts started showing up. I think only one of the dealers ever sent an email and that was only to confirm my email address.
- And what's with the "we don't discount on orders" thinking? After the dealer pays floor plan fees on a vehicle for a while, which eats into their profits, THEN they'll take an additional hit to their profits to unload it? But when they have the opportunity to spend virtually nothing to sell a vehicle, they won't give a discount? How stupid is that?

Ok, rant off.

 

I was surprised to find out selling a new build from the factory on line is against the law if you have a dealer located in that state.

So by law, the order online tool produces a build sheet you can take to the dealer and they must enter it in their separate system.

They have access to your build sheet, but finding mine was not easy. They still had to print my sheet and enter it in their separate order system.

I also think dealers do not make much money off a direct order and the factory makes more, so dealers did not like dealing with me after the order.

I did order a Tesla and which the ordering process was nice and straight forward with good updates along the way.

I mentioned earlier for my F359, I opted to buy from the lot and traveled to three dealers after an online search. It’s costing me thousands to get stuff put in that I could have got for half price if I got it off the lot that way. I just did not want to have another order cancelled. I had fell for the rumor of the last production year of the 6.7.

I also found out when the next year model is offered is regional, and Arizona was amongst the last. I ordered in June or July, which for whatever reason last year, the aluminum factory fire or just a bad dealer, was too late for an online order of that year.

 

Get a quote from Granger, shop that quote, line by line to your local and area dealers to see if they'll match it. If they do, great, if they don't, buy from Granger.
I shopped the Granger quote to 6 dealers in my area. One dealer matched it, saving me an Iowa trip, which I was kind of sad about, lol.

 

....

 

I have an order with Granger and they were very responsive when I first placed my order. I contacted them about potentially changing something via e-mail (never picked up a phone) when the 27 order guide rolled out and they did get back to me after a few days. In that instance I was contacted by someone off of the sales floor and not their online staff. My truck ended up getting scheduled that week so I decided to just go ahead with what I had.

From what I understand their internet staff is kind of a skeleton crew that probably spends a lot of their hours just submitting orders so I wouldn't go to them expecting a lot of hand holding. You sort of need to know what you want, but their pricing on custom orders is about as low as you are going to find. My local dealerships could not come close and likely don't have the same number of allocations. I used the "build and price" tool online and sent them a link to the final specification. They sent me a quote that day, but there were a couple errors that need correcting. They were back to me within a day and we got the order placed quickly. My truck isn't scheduled until July (I placed the order on 3/31) so I don't know how the sale will close out, but am not expecting any drama based on the accounts of others.

If you are going to pursue a custom order you should be mindful of the fact that they are very close to balancing out factory scheduling the 26 model year so the build and price tool might not actually reflect what you end up with. They are factory scheduling July right now and 27 begins as soon as August. If Ford "doesn't get to yours" it will get canceled and rolled over to 2027 which essentially a new order with an unguaranteed price. You can opt out if you don't want to proceed at that point. The 2027 order bank opened about a week ago so the dealership should be able to provide you an invoice for one of those models even though the online "build and price" tool won't be updated until later in the summer. At least that is my understanding of it. If they are slow to respond right now, that might also be a plausible explanation because there is more to navigate? That is just speculation but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

It is often difficult to understand the logic dealers (and even Ford) use for their pricing. The willingness to discount is a very regional thing. Some areas offer big discounts across brands while others offer little if any discount. I live in an area where it is difficult to get a discount and used X plan which is roughly 5% off MSRP.
The dealer that won't discount on orders but will on in stock trucks, is most likely an attempt to push you to an in stock truck. As you mentioned, they have carrying costs they want to avoid. They offer an incentive to get you to buy one they already have. For an ordered truck, the dealer is charging you a premium to get the exact truck you want. Essentially, you are subsidizing the discounts offered for in stock trucks. I'm always a bit leery of dealers who play these kinds of games with customers.

 

I have five dealers within 45 minutes of my house, but they are all small dealers that don't carry a lot of inventory. My preferred dealer has 8 F-250's in stock, but only one is not an XL work truck. My next favorite dealer has a few more, but they are either work trucks or $90K+ units that I have no interest in. It just seems to me that they would act a bit more eager to make a deal, but what do I know?

I think I've talked myself out of a Lariat, or even maybe getting a new truck altogether for the time being. If I can still get a good price on an XLT in Argon Blue, I will probably do that, but from what I can tell, the '27 XLT's will be pretty much the same as the '26's so I can always get one next year. If I don't order one now, I will continue to keep an eye out for a used one that checks the boxes for me.

I really want an Atlas Blue truck, but I was really hoping for a new one instead of a 2022 model. Honestly, none of the colors they are currently offering get me excited. I think all the drab colors are a communist conspiracy or something. 2027 brings back Iconic Silver, which is OK with me, but I'd really like a few more color options that aren't black or gray. I would consider red, but my wife hates red and I've never seen a red vehicle that didn't look faded after several years. I intend to keep this one for at least a decade, so red is out.

 

If you know the secret handshake it might be possible to get one in "gem green." I have never fully understood why fleet orders get special colors or why certain trims get access to "special" colors that frankly don't appear to be anything special.

 

I tried to special order a Mustang last year from the local dealership but they said “sorry full price only for special orders”. It seems like Ford Corporate would be disappointed at the lost sale, but I guess it’s not worth the local dealer’s time & effort?

 

Well, I did manage to place an order for an XLT with the A-plan pricing, but the dealer did tell me that it may be too late. Ford has to decide whether or not to pick up this order as a 26 MY and when they decide one way or the other, I'll find out.

Fortunately I can get a full refund of my deposit if I decide not to convert it to a 27MY order.

Whee!

 

Depending on your order the configuration and packaging changes for 2027 MY might work out better if you are into larger tires.