New Car Negotiation

kmitch

New Member
Apr 5, 2008
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Roanoke, VA
I will be ordering a new 2009 CS, as soon as pricing is available. I'll be getting X-Plan pricing on the vehicle, but I'm also planning on having the dealership install the FRPP Suspension pack and some other additional accessories prior to delivery.

My question is what's a reasonable starting point for negotiating the price of those accessories and the installation? Is dealer parts cost and paying the normal labor rate on the accessories too low? Dealer cost + 10%?

What about negotiating future service? Employee discount on service (does such a thing exist)? Dealer cost + 10% on parts + normal labor rate?

Now is the time that I have the most leverage, and I want to make the most of it...

Thanks for your insights.
 
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This is a tough question to answer because each dealership is different. At my dealership (not a Ford dealer), our parts cost for the sales department is exactly the same as the retail cost, that is how they make a large sum of money on our new car sales. Therefore, you could ask for cost plus 10% and wind up paying way too much or you could get a great deal. I would try for cost plus normal labor rate or you could call some of the major FRPP dealers in the country and find out what the lowest price for that part is and get this dealer to match that. There are many different ways to work that end of things.

As far as service goes, there is usually not a true employee cost on things that is not dealer specific and that can get tricky because even if they guarantee you that, which most won't do, you won't even know if your really paying employee pricing. I've seen that done countless times, but usually we just say no to that.

Keep in mind that at any type of employee or family pricing on a car such as the CS which is a hot, money maker, they may not be that motivated to agree to your deals when they no that they could order the car for inventory and sell it at or close to sticker, at least thats what they go for in my area. I've worked for a few domestic makes and now a high-end luxury dealer and we now only get $750 total profit for an employee deal. Thats an average of 1.5% profit when we can normally make over 8-10%.

I hope this has helped at least somewhat and maybe someone with a little Ford dealer experience could give more exact insight. Good luck and its a great car either way.