About the best price you can hope for is X-Plan price, which is about ten percent off sticker price. X-Plan is discussed in the sticky posts at the top of the index for this forum. That price is a coupla hundred bucks less than invoice. Ford reimburses the dealer about $500 for each X-Plan sale. So without an X-Plan PIN you should be able to buy a new one for $300 more than invoice (plus TT&L, plus dealer packs such as inventory tax and documentation fees, and minus Ford incentives such as rebates and lucrative finance rates). And depending on the market, you can sometimes negotiate a price closer to invoice, plus TT&L, plus dealer packs, minus Ford incentives.
On a 2009, Ford should offer a bigger rebate than on a 2010. So the X-Plan price doesn't change, but the rebate is bigger so the price is lower.
However, there are some hard-nosed negotiators that claim they can get several hundred dollars less than invoice without an X-Plan PIN and without paying for any dealer add-ons. I would be happy with X-Plan price (minus rebate), so I'm not one of those hard-nosed guys.
However, I don't pay dealer packs. If it's preprinted on the sales agreement, then the buying price comes down so the total price would be the same as I computed before they snuck the dealer packs into the sales agreement.
Until recently, Ford didn't allow any dealer packs in an X-Plan deal. But if the dealer goes to the courthouse and obtains your title and license plates, he has a ligitimate cost that he needs to recover. So Ford now allows up to $75 "documentation fee" on an X-Plan deal to cover that cost. (When I lived in Denver, I would gladly pay $75 to have the dealer's clerk stand in line at the county title and license plate office so I wouldn't have to bother. Those were some long, slow-moving lines.)
My current county courthouse (includes the county clerk's office who handles titles and plates) doesn't have long lines like most do, so I take my paperwork to the courthouse and process my own title application and buy my own license plates. So the dealer doesn't have any costs for that. And, (in Texas) the so-called inventory tax is a real tax the dealer has to pay, but it's part of his cost of doing business, so I'm not going to pay for his tax. So that's why I refuse to pay dealer packs of any kind.
Dealers play all sorts of tricks to squeeze you for a little more profit on your deal. So you have to be on you toes, and well informed, to drive off without giving the dealer too much profit on your deal.
Linear Mode
