[Ron]

If this car pans out as advertised and speculated upon, I expect I'll be getting in line for mine fairly quickly.

Anyone have any experience ordering cars with a dealer right when they announce availability? More specifically, should you expect to pay a premium, and if so, how much would you think the ST would command?

I don't replace cars very frequently, and when I do, I do my research and feel pretty well-armed when dealing with the sales team. Its a process I definitely don't enjoy, but I know what to expect and what I should be paying for the model and trim level I'm shopping for. Rushing out to get one of the first ones would seem to scream out, "Charge me as much as you want, I'll pay it!"

Any thoughts?

 

[VoicelessWinter]

No experience, but I would hope that you wouldn't pay any more right after the car is released as you would a year later.

That may be a bit naive though. Dealers always try to make their money (obviously), so maybe the best option if you want to get one right off the bat is to spec and order it from the Ford website. You'd still have to deal with the sales guys, but at least you'd have a price already established

 

[Chad]

If you order from the factory then you won't have much room to wiggle the price from the dealer. I don't see how they could add a surcharge the car if ordered from the factory. And if you put a deposit on the car as well.

Of course you could have your:

• Dealer Fee (Negotiable)
• Regional Advertising Fee
• Destination Fee (not Negotiable)
• Bank Fee
• Limited Quality Fee (In a free market economy this happens when there are shortages, and items are in very high demand.)

I have had only 5 encounters with dealers.

1. with my dad to buy a car, but did not buy
2. With my dad to buy a Kia, he bought
3. To buy a 2011 Fiesta, they ended up screaming at me, because I knew they were trying to screw me on my lease. They tried to convince me that $269 + tax was a good lease, and I did not see it. I pay $195/m + tax currently.
4. To buy my current 2011 Fiesta, which was very smooth because I got the car from them and I knew I got a good deal.
5. To buy my wife's Mini Cooper S, we spend 5 hours at the dealership...but we got a good deal on our trade in and lease.

I would NOT pay a surcharge for this Focus ST, simply because the Ford must produce at least 10,000 of them in the first year of production. I would think that the would have at least 2-3 Focus ST's on each deals lot.

This would be a car that..If I were Ford, I would not screw around with, as far as availability. Just because of the intense competition that this cars market segment is in.

The other thing is, why would a dealer make you pay more than the MSRP, if and when you can go to Mazda or VW or Subaru and get a better deal.

We don't know... So we are counting on you Ron, and others to let us know how it is out there.

The brave ones.

 

[wagonman]

I am hoping I can use my X-plan to get a decent deal. The plans current price is a little over $1K off MSRP for a Titanium 5-door. I hope the ST discount will be similar.

 

[JdubST13]

I am hoping I can use my X-plan to get a decent deal. The plans current price is a little over $1K off MSRP for a Titanium 5-door. I hope the ST discount will be similar.

I doubt you will be able to use the X-plan discount for the ST. The discount does not apply to "special vehicles". I tried to use the X-plan when I bought my Roush Mustang and the dealer said its only valid for standard cars.

 

[Chad]

I doubt you will be able to use the X-plan discount for the ST. The discount does not apply to "special vehicles". I tried to use the X-plan when I bought my Roush Mustang and the dealer said its only valid for standard cars.

This is likely... I also have access to X-Plan. But I did not factor that into my purchase decision. In other words, I will still buy to car even if I cannot use my X-Plan.

 

[STephan]

guys, what the hell is an x-plan ?

 

[Chad]

X-Plan

http://fordemployeeplan.com/pricing.html

[URL]https://www.fordpartner.com/partnerweb/login.do[/URL]

 

[STephan]

i haven´t seen that in germany. we only ask "what is your last price?" is that really you last price?

 

[VoicelessWinter]

I doubt you will be able to use the X-plan discount for the ST. The discount does not apply to "special vehicles". I tried to use the X-plan when I bought my Roush Mustang and the dealer said its only valid for standard cars.

The company I work for lets me use the X-Plan as well. And I actually think that we will be able to use it. Consider the current list of ineligible cars:

• Fiesta S (100A)
• Focus Electric
• Mustang Boss 302
• F-150 SVT Raptor
• F-550 and above
• Stripped Chassis
• E-450

These are all rather specialized vehicles. While the Focus ST is certainly special, I believe that Ford considers it something more like the Focus equivalent of a Mustang GT. It's certainly not the Focus equivalent of a Mustang Boss 302 or Roush Mustang. That sounds like the Focus RS to me.

I hope that's the case anyway. X-Plan savings would definitely help with my purchase decision

 

[dem778]

I doubt you will be able to use the X-plan discount for the ST. The discount does not apply to "special vehicles". I tried to use the X-plan when I bought my Roush Mustang and the dealer said its only valid for standard cars.

These are all rather specialized vehicles. While the Focus ST is certainly special, I believe that Ford considers it something more like the Focus equivalent of a Mustang GT. It's certainly not the Focus equivalent of a Mustang Boss 302 or Roush Mustang. That sounds like the Focus RS to me.

Ok, I am going to put in my .02.

I also have access to X-Plan. I actually have been using the X-plan site as another resource for information on the ST. I figure it will be on the X-Plan website one of two ways; Either in the list Chad provided which hasn't been updated since 8/18/2011 or as X-Plan eligible.

I believe it will be eligible for X-Plan. The only two "specialized" cars that are not available on X-plan that are enthusiast driven are the SVT Raptor and Boss 302. Both of these cars are very low volume and Ford does not have a large margin on the price of the car. Therefore, if they allow the use of X-Plan on these cars they will essentially lose money.

Also, the GT500 is available using the X-Plan and has a fairly good discount. I assume the ST will be similar, minus the large discount. I would think the ST will carry around an $800-$1000 discount.

The Roush Mustang is not available for use on X-Plan because Ford does not directly sell the Roush. Roush purchases a base Mustang GT from Ford, re-fits it, then authorizes a Ford dealer to re-sell it. The money doesn't go to Ford, it goes to Roush. However, you could purchase a Mustang GT from Ford, then bring it to Roush for the add-ons. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am fairly sure that is how the partnership works. Ford actually builds the GT500 and sells it direct.

Another note on X-plan: The 2013 Explorer is available now, however, Ford has not updated the X-plan website with the discount. It may take some time for them to update it.

Dan

 

[wagonman]

I believe it will be eligible for X-Plan. The only two "specialized" cars that are not available on X-plan that are enthusiast driven are the SVT Raptor and Boss 302. Both of these cars are very low volume and Ford does not have a large margin on the price of the car. Therefore, if they allow the use of X-Plan on these cars they will essentially lose money.

Also, the GT500 is available using the X-Plan and has a fairly good discount. I assume the ST will be similar, minus the large discount. I would think the ST will carry around an $800-$1000 discount.

The Roush Mustang is not available for use on X-Plan because Ford does not directly sell the Roush. Roush purchases a base Mustang GT from Ford, re-fits it, then authorizes a Ford dealer to re-sell it. The money doesn't go to Ford, it goes to Roush. However, you could purchase a Mustang GT from Ford, then bring it to Roush for the add-ons. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am fairly sure that is how the partnership works. Ford actually builds the GT500 and sells it direct.

Dan

Those were my thoughts exactly. When I saw the GT500 on the plan I had a pretty good feeling the ST will be on it.

 

[JdubST13]

Yeah your right about the Roush dem778, I just don't see the dealers giving discounts on a high demand car, but we'll have to wait and see. I just hope there is no dealer mark up like when the GT500 got released. Here in San Diego the GT500 had a $30,000 mark up when it was released so it made it a $80,000 car!

 

[dem778]

Yeah your right about the Roush dem778, I just don't see the dealers giving discounts on a high demand car, but we'll have to wait and see. I just hope there is no dealer mark up like when the GT500 got released. Here in San Diego the GT500 had a $30,000 mark up when it was released so it made it a $80,000 car!

That's the great thing about the X-plan! It's not through the dealer, its through Ford. Ford gives the discount, not the dealer. The dealer still gets their "dealer fee" or "holdback" from Ford for selling the car. Ford Corporate is losing the profit from X-plan.

 

[VoicelessWinter]

At this rate, we should just make this an X-Plan thread. I had no idea that such a large percentage of people had access to it though.

Ron, if you want to get a good price without the benefit of doing much research, then maybe you should just wait and ask some of the X-Plan people how much they paid. It's unrealistic to think you would get the same price, but part of the X-Plan involves looking at the dealer invoice, which includes a lot of extremely useful price information. That kind of information, plus some basic negotiating and using tips for dealing with car salesmen could easily get your price to a reasonable level.

 

[VoicelessWinter]

Also, since there are at least 4 people here that are X-Plan eligible, I had a thought. I'm eligible because the company I work for is a Ford supplier. I'm not sure if we will be supplying parts that go into the Focus ST (engine specifically), but I plan to check into it tomorrow.

Are any of the other X-Plan people eligible because you work for a Ford supplier? If you are, and you also happen to be supplying something that goes into the Focus ST, can you access the sales forecasts for those parts? At least for my company, we know more or less when a part is going to go into production, and if we can find out that information for a Focus ST part, then we'll know when Ford is planning to start to build inventory for the release of the vehicle. That should give us a much better idea of when the car will actually be available.

 

[NTIMD8R]

As many of you people are, I also am eligible for Ford's X-Plan because I'm an employee at UPS and UPS helps manage Ford's supply chain. However, that's not the best part... Last year, my wife's sister married a Ford Master Mechanic at a dealership in a small town, thereby qualifying me for Ford's D-Plan for being related to a Ford employee!

Today my brother-in-law ran a comparison on the difference in savings between the X and D-Plans. While savings differ, depending on the vehicle, he compared each Plan's price on a $24,000 Focus. The X-Plan price was $200 over dealer invoice (which IS a very good deal!). The D-Plan was $1800 UNDER dealer invoice! I asked how can a dealer do this? My brother-in-law's reply was that Ford reimburses the dealership the difference in price. BTW, salespeople HATE doing D-Plans because they get little-to-no commission from the sale.

I also posed this scenario...
Since Ford will probably fulfill special orders from us, the public, AFTER it supplies it's dealerships with a supply of ST's for sale on their showroom floors... I asked my brother-in-law if a dealership orders their own cars or does Ford just send them some to sell? He confirmed that they do indeed order their own. They generally receive their ordering books 2 months before the car (in this case, the ST) is available to order by the public. During these 2 months, they order the car(s) that they want to sell on their lot.

My brother-in-law works at a small town dealership (not really near any large city) where most likely they will only order 1-2 ST's (more likely, only 1) to sell on their lot. I asked him, since the dealership knows that I'm going to buy an ST from them... To avoid having to wait for a special order, "Would the dealership order 'their' car with the all the options/color that I wanted on mine?" He said that they would be "more than happy" to do that! WooHoo!!

So there you go...
If you're not related to a Ford employee and can't take advantage of the D-Plan pricing, at least try to get in good with a sales manager at a Ford dealership and maybe he/she will order one of that dealership's STs in the color and with the options you want. That way you don't have to wait longer for Ford to fulfill your "special order" and you'll be on the streets sooner in your new ST!

 

[ShabbaLuv]

I'm a Ford employee. I certainly expect ford to encourage their employees to buy a jewel of a car like the Focus ST. But I expect to be allowed to get the discount employee "A" plan price. What company on earth doesn't offer an employee discount?

 

[Chad]

I will probably use my X plan if I can. Thanks for all of the insight.

 

[STephan]

Just had a Chat with my Dealer. Production will definitely start in JUNE. That means will will get Brochures and Prices SOON (next two months).