Purchase Price For 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid Titanium in NYC

[hytibill]

I took delivery on Sunday of a 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid Titanium in Sterling Grey with basically every feature except for adaptive cruise control. The MSRP was $36,795 and the Truecar factory invoice was $34,661. I haggled out a price of $34,135, which includes all of the stupid dealer fees, such as the "doc fee" and "dealer prep fee". After the $750 in private cash and the $1,000 rebate it was $32,385. After tax of 8.875% and tags of $240, the final price was $35,500. That was a nice, even number that I calculated to knock off a hundred bucks. ("Hey, can we make it an even $35,500 out the door?" "Uh, yeah, if you can figure out the math." "No problem!")

 

I told the finance manager that I'd been pre-approved by Chase for 2.6%. Even after knowing that, after a thirty minute wait, he said his best rate was 3.9% and that I had to finance with their guys to get the price. I was going to walk. "You're going to walk over a point," he asked. "Yes. The 1.3% difference on a $33,000 balance is $429 a year, so that's in excess of $2000 over five years. And that's simple interest." The finance manager looks at me dumbfounded because I can do math in my head. "Uh, so I'll give you 3.19% and ask that you try to make payments for six months before repaying it so our dealership gets the cash." "All right. I'll try my best." Deal!

 

The price before the rebate and incentives was about $500 under invoice so I think I could have gotten a better price. However, this is what I would recommend:

 

(1) Keep your private cash a secret until you're ready to sign. I told him about it an hour into negotiations. That was stupid.

 

(2) Eat and drink before you get there, and make sure you have no appointments for the day. These guys will wear away at you so you'll be desperate to leave. I made a crucial mistake by not thoroughly inspecting the car upon delivery because I was tired. I had inspected the car carefully the day before and I thought it was okay already. However, the guys detailing it had ironically stained my passenger door with some oily stuff that I can't get out. Inspect it immediately before pick up!

 

(3) Be very polite and understand that it's a game. I was very honest with the salesman. He blurted out something along the lines of "What, do you want the car for free?" I responded, "Yes, if I could. Wouldn't you?" He laughed. Then I explained that he was trying to get money from me, and my job was to keep money from him, so let's be respectful while we did our respective jobs.

 

(4) Don't be shy about using a calculator to double check everything.

 

(5) All fees are negotiable. Every single damned one except for taxes and the actual fees charged by the DMV. The salesman tried to stick me with the $296.50 "fee" and a $75 doc fee. I said I wasn't going to pay it. He was annoyed and said, "it's a DMV fee!" I pointed to the contract, which said that the fee was negotiable, and since it was negotiable, I wasn't going to pay it. He ended up taking the money off the sale price of the vehicle. Do not pay the marketing fee or destination fee if it's already on the sticker.

 

After the deal concluded, I held a postmortem with the salesman. He said that the price I haggled was $1,000 under invoice and the holdback was $1,080 so I made a very good deal. I knew, however, that the price was only $500 under invoice, which meant that I probably could have knocked $500 off.

 

The TrueCar price was $33,395, but that didn't take the $750 in private cash into account. The adjusted TC price was $32,645. My price was $260 under so it was okay. I think that the prices are going to drop after another month. However, I couldn't find a 2013 Ford Fusion Titanium in stock anywhere in Sterling Grey or Ingot Silver anywhere close to me for a decent price ("uh, we'll give you MSRP and whatever the rebates are." "can I negotiate?" "No, these are hot selling cars, even the 2013." "So you don't want me to come in?" "Um, I'm sorry, I don't want you to make a trip down here for no reason but I can't take anything off MSRP." LOL)

 

I think it was a good price for me but I keep thinking that I could have knocked off $500. However, I do get free oil changes for a year from the dealer and lifetime road inspections!

[neod192]

Congrats, it sounds like you've done this before :) Where are the pictures! ?

[dalesky]

Nicely done! I love haggling with salespeople. I bought two hondas, 2 years apart from the same person, who did not haggle a bit. Took my price, went away, came back with a contract. I told him the first time I met him that if I gave him a fair price and he did not run back and forth with fake price checks we could deal.

Another time I bought a Maxima for sticker, because they had a no haggle policy, and I couldn't believe their price, which was honestly less than I expected to pay.

 

For the Fusion I had to haggle, but after three trips to see the manager (bulls@#t) I told him I would not buy a car if he left another time. I made Ford aware of it also when I got an evaluation to fill out.

Then I made sure I got a copy of his work sheet before I left and before he placed the order. Everything worked out well, but honestly it could be such a simple process if they would accept a fair offer in the first place.

[hybridbear]

Great job! Many dealers around here want a lot for the cars, even now and we were glad to get ours for invoice price offered by the dealer with no haggling. We had X-Plan but the dealer who offered us invoice price since we did an order out was a nice treat and my parents then bought their Energi from the same salesman since he treated us so well.

 

Most dealers around here also won't haggle and will let you walk out the door rather than lower their price.

Edited July 31, 2013 by hybridbear

[GrySql]

Those are all good things to know if you are shopping for a car on a Dealer's lot.

I don't mind haggling with salespeople but would rather not.

 

For this FFH purchase I just called up my credit union's car dealer (Autoland) and ordered a car, was given a price of $500 under invoice, plus tax and DMV.

I ordered it because there were so few actual FFH's at Dealers last October and I wanted one with only certain options.

I never left the house, did not have to pay a down payment and got timely updates of the car's build process. It took 6 weeks to get delivery.