OT: Pic of my new Focus

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen,



The incentives in Jenn's area and mine were identical. As I said, she was promised the $500 Ford Credit financing incentive, available only if you finance through Ford Credit. That same incentive was available to me as well with the same terms.



The only difference is that she was incorrectly told she qualified for that incentive regardless of the financing, then the dealer reluctantly gave it to her when she told them she was financing with a third party. They did that rather than "bait and switch" her. Their misspeak and error was her gain. This is how she explained it to me in the other thread.



I too was financing via a third party. I too would have liked another $500 off. I was told they couldn't do it, lest they lose money on the deal.



So, as described above, I will ask the question again:



Do you think Jenn's dealer LOST MONEY on their deal with her?



I doubt it.



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

TJR,



She got the X-Plan. Ford gives a kick-back to the dealer for selling through X-Plan. They did not lose any money.





Tom

 

[Jenn D]

TJR, you are correct. I never hid the fact that I was NOT planning on financing through Ford. They did attempt to talk me into it, I will not deny that, but in the end, it was never my intention to finance through Ford, and I didn't. It was my dealer's idea and offer to give me the additional $500. To be honest, prior to that I was poised to walk out the door with no harm done. The extra $500 was the "offer I couldn't refuse".



That being said, I sent you an e-mail for your purposes only.



-Jenn

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen,



So is it your opinion that without X-Plan they wouldn't have given Jenn that deal, or if they did they would have lost money?



How much would the X-Plan kickabck to the dealer be for a base to mid-base Focus (MSRP just over $16K)? Is it around $500...a few hundred?



It seems from all reports that X-Plan prices seem to be at or just under invoice. So if one can get a car at, or just above invoice without an X-Plan the dealer might actually be making less money on that deal than if they sold the same car at the same price with the X-Plan...which is what I guess you are saying.



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

I do not know what the dealer gets from Ford from the X-Plan. I do know the dealer gets a kick-back for selling a vehicle that way.





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen,



If you have an extra pin, I will us it tonight to see if the dealer will drop the price even further. If they do, then I can assume whatever they drop it by is less than what they get back from Ford.



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

TJR,



I promise you this is the Gods honest truth, I was clipping my dog when my dad called. The doctor (DDS) my sister works for just had a fire under the dash of his car. It is at the dealer right now and it is out of warranty and they are working on what caused the problem and what it will cost to fix it. The vehicle is about 600 miles out of warranty.



He is considering replacing it and the PIN has been promised to him.



I swear to god that this is the truth.





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

I have no reason not to believe you Tom. Don't sweat it.



TJR

 

[Thomas Rogers]

P.S.



I just finished with the finance guy.



I got the Focus for about $85 over invoice. The dealer showed me the actual invoice of $15,285. My price was $15,370.



The X-Plan price was $14 over the invoice price ($15,299), so I got the Focus for about $70 over the X-plan price, less all applicable incentives ($2500).



I asked about the kickback on X-plan and the dealer said it really isn't much at all on the Focus, but never really quoted a price.



So, I could have saved $71 and some haggling by going X-Plan.



I just wish my dealer snafu'ed and I could have gotten that extra $500 like Jenn got...jeez!



Let's see, another $571 off and I would have paid $12,299 total...still $123 higher than what Jenn paid.



I got ripped off!



TJR

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

Yep you got ripped off...LOL 123.00 more in Ford's pocket. They could use it.

 

[Tom Schindler]

So, I could have saved $71 and some haggling by going X-Plan.

Like I said, you got a good price. X-Plan is hard to beat. It really is. The best part is not having to do all the research to get the best deal. Not having to deal with a salesman giving you a line of BS to get you to buy.



Walk in, say "I am X-Plan, what is the price?" They give you the price, you say yes and you buy the car. The only dealing you have to do is with your trade-in.



No matter how you buy, that is going to happen.



I am glad you got a Ford TJR, I honestly am. I am sure it will provide you with years of flawless performance. It has been recomended by CR many times over.





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

One last thing...



I am feeling quite a bit like a hypocrit because I have never said anything good about an extended warranty, but...



I got the Premium Care extended warranty for the Focus to get my to 5 years, 75k miles. I did this because I plan to put miles on her, and because the price...it was about $370 total and I paid it out of my pocket when I picked up the car.



Now compare and contrast that with the same coverage for my wife's new Pacifica. That was almost $1,700. We passed on that warranty and decided to gamble.



But with the measely $370 I was suckered in. Yeah, yeah, I probably will regret it one day.



TJR

 

[Jenn D]

TJR, glad to see you got everything taken care of. You still got a heck of a deal. Like I mentioned in my e-mail, that $500 would have been the deal-breaker for me and they knew it. I had even tossed around the idea of trying to get a little more warranty out of them at the last minute, but figured I better be safe than sorry (and lose that $500).



As for the focus, I too plan on putting a lot of miles on it. I have already put 400 miles on it since I picked it up on Thursday night. I filled it up on Sunday and am eagerly awaiting an empty tank again so I can calculate the miles per gallon. As for the ST, she's scheduled for an oil change, transmission and fuel system flush, tire rotation and ballance, and a good detailing this weekend.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Jenn...have gone over 150 miles in the Focus...still well above 1/2 tank of gas left. Do you (or anyone) know the tank size? 14gal?



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

TJR,



It should be in your owners manual. It will tell you all kinds of information about your Focus.



You can also download a pdf format at the fleet.ford.com website.





Tom

 

[Jenn D]

Yep, 14 gallons.



When we took delivery of the Focus, it was "full". We have no way of knowing how many miles were driven after the 'fill-up'. However, we drove it a little less than 300 miles and filled it up on Sunday. We did the mpg calculation, under the assumtion that it truly was full and little to no miles put on after the fillup, and we got a little over 30 mpg.



Since the fill-up on Sunday, I have gone 110 miles and am still above 3/4 of a tank. I have been making a concious effort to shift with the shift indicator to see if it helps. So far, I'm finding that it does. It would make sense, I guess, that the indicator would be programmed for optimal mpg. We'll see by the end of the week when I fill up again.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen, thanks. The owner's manual still has the shrink-wrap over it. Like anything else, I figure the car is worth more and in mint condition if I don't break that seal.



Seriously, though, I asked because the wife is driving the Focus today. She has several "high mileage" errands to run today and go out of town to class, so we traded for the day. I get the 14mpg Pacifica...(which I am told can get 18mpg city if you don't drive it like a sports car).



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

Yea, you can keep the shrink wrap on the manual and download the one of the website.







Tom