Ford X-plan?

[orb]

Anyone know anything about this? I'm looking to buy a new Volvo station wagon for the wife and supposebly you can get a great deal if you buy one through a friend or family member that works for Ford or a company Ford works with.

Any truth to the rumor?

 

[jwstewar]

I work for a company that buys most of its car from Ford. We can buy vehicles through the X plan. The deal for the car is OK - not great I've done better just through normal negotiations. My experience was though, if you have a trade don't bother. They won't give you anything for the trade. If no trade it does at least stop the whole negotiating process and get you at least an OK deal.

 

[dmccarty]

orb,

I used the X Plan to buy my Truck and it worked ok. At the time
there where not any incentives and even now in my area I don't
see that many great ones. A better rate on loans and that is
about it.

I did a trade in and I got an ok price. The tactic to use with a
trade in is to get the deal done on what you are buying before
moving to the deal on the vehicle that you are selling. I sold
my old truck for about $100 less than what I thought I should
get. Given the market on used vehicles I got an ok price for
it and certainly worth it since I did not have to bother selling
it myself.

The problem that you have is that the discount that Ford gives
for Volvos is not all that great. You can sign up with Ford to
get your X plan number. Once you have done that you can,
at least with Ford's vehicles, view the X plan pricing on the
car you want or want to build.

Depending on the market in your area you might be able to get
a better deal buy negotiating vs X Plan. But X Plan does not
cost you anything so give it a shot and see...

Good luck,
Dan McCarty.

 

[cowboydoc]

X-plan gets you about 2% below invoice and NO REBATES. I usually can buy at 5% or so below invoice and get the rebates or special financing. It's easy to get xplan if you know somebody that works there. Alot of dealers will just give you xplan without having to mess around with doing the whole thing.

 

[jerrym4]

Just bought a car in August with the X-plan and I DID receive all of the rebates currently available....Plus a free sunroof only available to x-plan customers. My final price was nearly 14% off of invoice.

Here is some text from the ford partner recognition web site
"19. Am I eligible for other incentives? Yes, for most. Partner
Recognition participants are eligible for all public incentives and many incentives normally paid to the dealer. There are some offers that are not compatible with this offer. Your dealer can best determine which incentives you are
eligible for.

"

 

[AndyM]

You've got to watch, sometimes you can get the car cheaper through regular negotiation than with the X plan price when the dealer is running some specials.

X plan is offered to Ford suppliers and employees of companies that buy Fords for their fleet. The company I work for uses Fords and offers the X plan to us, but I never used it.

The A plan and Z plan is for Ford employees and Ford retirees, respectively. You get the exact same price with A plan as you do with Z plan. It's dealer's cost minus all rebates and other holdback. Pretty sweet deal! Needless to say, as the son of a Ford retiree, this is the only way we buy our vehicles!

Incidently, the A plan price is also available on New Holland tractors, but you have to be the actual employee, not a family member. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[thcri]

I just bought a F150 Crew Cab 2004. I am able to buy on the X plan and a D plan. The X plan pricing is ok, the D plan is great. However the F150 2004 did not qualify for the D plan and since it is so new there was no rebates or anything else on them yet so the X was the best for me at the time. We can buy E250's and F250's on the D plan but not the 150. The D plan they will take over 10 grand off a list of 33,000.00

If you are a good negotiator the X may not be your best deal.

murph

 

[dmp437]

If you have a family member that works for Ford that would be the "A" plan; the employee discount. Those are good discounts.

 

[Inspector507]

I "used" to get mine on D plan. But the brother no longer sells Fords, so I'm hoping GM has a similar plan 3 years from now /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[AndyM]

Those are REALLY good discounts. That's why all we have are Fords in my family-- I'm a son of a Ford retiree. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I see Chrysler is offering really low one year leases to their employees right now. Someone was showing me their flyer the other day, but I didn't study the details too much.

 

[dmartin88]

I bought a 2004 Thunderbird using X plan pricing from Ford, about 14% off MSRP which put it a bit below invoice. Probably could have done as well (or better) negotiating but never been good at that so this at least got me a decent price with no hassle?

 

[5030]

Andy:

You are right about the "A" plan on NH. I bought my round bailer last year and the bailer is in my brother-in-laws name. I make the payments though. It looks pretty strange but it works. My brother-in-law lives in a subdivision. I wonder if NH thinks maybe he is bailing his lawn?? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Wait until I buy a combine. That will be a hit in the subdivision /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[AndyM]

I never bothered looking into doing that. I didn't want my father to go through the hassle of having my tractor in his name. Besides, I think I got a pretty good price on my TC18 without the A plan price!

 

[5030]

Andy:

Bill, the owner of the NH dealer where I bought the bailer, showed me the dealer invoice for the bailer. He said I had to pay freight and prep in addition to the invoice. That amounted to about $500.00.

I asked him how he made any money on the sale. He told me that Ford sent him a check for about 10% of the total.

My only problem is dealing with NH credit. I usually pay more than the stub amount and three times now, they have credited all the payment to the principal and none to the interest. Then I get a late notice. I call them in Pa., and the person I get on the phone I can't understand. I don't know what language they speak in Philadelphia, but it's not English. Sounds like an Arabic dialect.

 

[Egon]

Call centers.

When you dial the call may go anywhere in the world. Cheapest bidder.

Egon

 

[5030]

Egon:

I don't know where the call goes, I just can't understand the person on the other end. I was beginning to think that NH sold out to the Arabs!!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Maybe NH will become Manhindra!!

 

[AndyM]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I don't know where the call goes, I just can't understand the person on the other end. )</font>

It certainly goes to the cheapest bidder. I remember a few years ago, if you called JCPenney for a catalog order, you were talking to someone at one of your friendly neighborhood prisons. I guess they don't just make license plates anymore! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[AndyM]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Bill, the owner of the NH dealer where I bought the bailer, showed me the dealer invoice for the bailer. He said I had to pay freight and prep in addition to the invoice. That amounted to about $500.00.

I asked him how he made any money on the sale. He told me that Ford sent him a check for about 10% of the total. )</font>

Ford does something similar on A plan on their new cars--
They sell their cars at invoice minus all rebates and holdbacks, but they give the dealership a commission on each A plan sale... We bought a 2000 Ford Contour in the spring of 2001, and the owner of the dealership wanted it off the lot so bad, he signed over his commision check from Ford over to us to discount the car further!