cxd213

Also, don't seem too eager. Don't respond instantly to emails/phone calls. Let them feel the anxiety of a sale slipping away.

My typical steps when buying a car go something like this: 1) Determine the car I want and the exact features I am willing to pay for 2) Research prices online (forums like these are great) 3) Email all local (50 mile radius) dealers requesting a price quote on a spec'd out car 4) I generally take 8-10% off the lowest price I'm given and respond back to several of the dealerships who seem willing to playball with an offer 5) If more than one dealership bites, you know your price isn't low enough yet. Tell DealerA that DealerB actually offered you an even lower price by 2%. 6) Continue step 5 above until you're down to 2-3 dealerships. You may need to make personal phone calls to keep hacking away at the price. 7) Make an in-person visit to the remaining 2-3 dealerships. Let them know the situation: you have multiple dealerships competing for the sale and that best price is going to win. Do not buy the car on these initial trips. 8) Wait a day or two and then make a final offer, knocking off two or three hundred bucks off the lowest price you've been able to attain. A few notes about this process: 1) Don't feel bad about lying to a car dealership. Chances are they'll tell you 20 lies during this process. 2) Make sure you're negotiating out the door price, and request it in writing. They'll try to slip in stupid fees last minute (see note #1 above) 3) Educate yourself on the cost of the features. Know what you're paying for. It's an annoyingly long process, but you can really get rock bottom prices on the FFE right now. Good luck!

Doesn't sound too bad for a fully loaded model to me, Doug. Nice negotiating - enjoy the new ride! This move was purely financial for me, so I chose not to include any additional features.

Thanks. I actually wound up getting the same car from a different dealership for a bit less than the price posted here because they gave me $1k more on my trade in. Had it for 10 days now and I've already saved nearly $150 in gas. This move was purely financial for me, with the added benefit of how nicely Ford equips the basic Energi models. Very happy with the purchase.

Congrats, hope you enjoy your new car! I won't be getting mine until Tuesday or so.

No, I'd never lease, I financed through my credit union, and plan to pay off the entire balance owed with my tax credit + return in 2015. Just have to play hardball. Walk out, fight for every dollar, question everything. Don't let them sell you more than you're looking for. Getting dealerships to compete with each other is really the only way to get a deal on a new car. I've always found X-Plan to be a rip off, personally. I've always been able to do thousands better on my two Ford purchases than X-Plan offered me. If you don't have negotiating skills it might be okay as it does protect you from hidden fees (although I never trust a dealership). Just be a hardass and don't take crap. :)

Sounds like too much to me, personally. I'd spend some time negotiating with other dealers through email only. Keep having them compete with other dealer's lowest offers until they begin dropping out. When you're down to 2-3 make personal phone calls, and visit each dealership. Play hardball - these vehicles aren't selling like hotcakes (just look at the quarterly sales numbers). They're selling okay, but not amazing, so you should have the leverage in this situation. Find a dealer with one on the lot to buy, even if you have to settle for less options. Just so you can compare, I fought hard with a few local dealers using the process above on a model with no options at all. My final vehicle price was $29,150, minus $750 in Ford private cash, minus $500 in College Grad rebate, for a total of $27900, plus taxes/tags/title/processing (negotiated processing down to $100, also). Combine this with the federal tax credits and my local credits and I'm pretty far under the cost of just the Hybrid models. Not knocking you, but when you really think about it, is pushing a button versus turning a key really worth a few hundred dollars? Is a moonroof (yet another mechancial part that could wear/fail) worth a grand? Rearview camera is a decent deal and could be viewed as a safety feature... Those other things are all optional/nice-to-haves in my opinion. Don't let those cost you negotiating power and thousands of dollars - just not worth it. Beauty of the FFE right now is the money savings - 100mpg-e + federal credits + local credits, etc. Don't get wrapped up into the bells and whistles and put yourself behind financially on a great money-saving investment. Good luck!

Yes, I believe it does based on the battery size of the Energi (Maryland).

This is before state and federal tax credits, btw (which amount to 4607).

After pitting several dealerships against each other, stacking private cash and other discounts, I've agreed to a price of $28.2k for a black-on-black 2014 Ford Fusion Energi model. No options selected (this move is all about money savings). The Luxury SE model comes very nicely equipped in my opinion. Anyhow, how'd I do?