Pricing Expectations?

[AMA904]

I didn't see a thread on here (I could have completely missed it or maybe it's against the rules) on what people have paid for their C-Max. For someone looking to buy now or soon, what percentage or dollar value off of MSRP (or invoice) should you expect to be able to negotiate? For example, when we were looking at the Mazda CX-5, those people getting the better deals were averaging about $2,500 off of MSRP including the dealer fees, but not including any available incentives. This is before tax, tag, etc...

 

I saw one dealer in the state of Florida who is advertising $24,700 + tax/tag for a 2014 SEL without any additional options. This included the $2,500 in available incentives. That doesn't seem like a very good deal to me. It's only about $800 off of MSRP.

[fotomoto]

You should narrow down the question to specifically what you're looking to buy (model trim, packages, premium paint, etc) because you're going to get answers "all over the map" and from vastly different times.  For instance, early '13 owners paid close to full sticker.  Also, trade-ins greatly affect the deal.  Very hard to compare apples to apples.

[AMA904]

You should narrow down the question to specifically what you're looking to buy (model trim, packages, premium paint, etc) because you're going to get answers "all over the map" and from vastly different times.  For instance, early '13 owners paid close to full sticker.  Also, trade-ins greatly affect the deal.  Very hard to compare apples to apples.

 

2014 SEL with no options and no trade in and no upgraded paint. I'm also looking for people who are buying, have bought, or or have at least entertained offers recently.

[Adrian_L]

I'm not sure a big long list of what members paid or what deals they got would be that useful (or interesting to read ;)   I suggest you do what my wife and I did:   basically find every single dealer selling C-max in a 50 mile radius.  Look on their websites.  Email them.  Ask them for quotes on the model/options that you want.  Then go for a few test drives (we drove the Energi once and the Hybrid twice at different dealerships).  We eventually got a great deal at our least favorite dealership! 

[plus 3 golfer]

I saw one dealer in the state of Florida who is advertising $24,700 + tax/tag for a 2014 SEL without any additional options. This included the $2,500 in available incentives. That doesn't seem like a very good deal to me. It's only about $800 off of MSRP.

Current X-Plan pricing would be $24,289 (including the $2500 incentives and $825 delivery) + up to $100 dealer documentation fee + tax/tags.  X-Plan is currently $1206 off MSRP for a base SEL.  You should be able to get at least $1206 off MSRP.   Here is the calculation for X-Plan:

 

X-Plan Price = Dealer Invoice - (0.4% * Dealer Invoice) + Administration Fee ($275)

[bro1999]

My local dealer is selling MSRP $30.5K SELs for 22.5k, inclusive of $3k in rebates. Seems like a screaming deal to me.

[kostby]

Here's a 2014 C-MAX Hybrid SEL with no options in "central Florida" (Dade City) from a dealer who is apparently "dealing", listing the car online for $22,980, for a total discount of $6,300 off the sticker price of $27,995, including all incentives.

 

The dealership is apparently no longer using dealerrater.com, but the existing ratings for the sales side are good, the service department, not so much.

 

http://jarrettford.com/Central-Florida/For-Sale/New/Ford/C-MAX/2014-Hybrid-SEL-Blue-Car/27318199/

 

Exterior Color is Ice Storm Metallic, with Light Stone leather, and the VIN is 1FADP5BU5EL504503

Monroney Window Sticker: http://www.inventory.ford.com/services/inventory/WindowSticker.pdf?vin=1FADP5BU5EL504503

 

One more search hint: If you use Ford.com to locate vehicles, copy the VIN number from the Ford listing, then enter it into a search engine (I used Yahoo.com in this case), and it will find the car by VIN number as well as the dealer listing the vehicle with one click.

Edited August 21, 2014 by kostby

[AMA904]

My local dealer is selling MSRP $30.5K SELs for 22.5k, inclusive of $3k in rebates. Seems like a screaming deal to me.

 

What's the name of your local dealer? I'd like to take a look at the website.

[AMA904]

Here's a 2014 C-MAX Hybrid SEL with no options in "central Florida" (Dade City) from a dealer who is apparently "dealing", listing the car online for $22,980, for a total discount of $6,300 off the sticker price of $27,995, including all incentives.

 

The dealership is apparently no longer using dealerrater.com, but the existing ratings for the sales side are good, the service department, not so much.

 

http://jarrettford.com/Central-Florida/For-Sale/New/Ford/C-MAX/2014-Hybrid-SEL-Blue-Car/27318199/

 

Exterior Color is Ice Storm Metallic, with Light Stone leather, and the VIN is 1FADP5BU5EL504503

Monroney Window Sticker: http://www.inventory.ford.com/services/inventory/WindowSticker.pdf?vin=1FADP5BU5EL504503

 

One more search hint: If you use Ford.com to locate vehicles, copy the VIN number from the Ford listing, then enter it into a search engine (I used Yahoo.com in this case), and it will find the car by VIN number as well as the dealer listing the vehicle with one click.

 

That's a great price and more in line with what I'm HOPING I can get. I haven't had to negotiate a car in a while though so I'm not sure how realistic that number is, but I don't mind driving to save that much $. I know Toyota in my area is currently running close to 20% off of MSRP on some of the Prius models and I've been quoted as such.

 

We went back to the dealership last night so my wife could take a test drive and the salesperson flat out told us that these aren't selling very well. That doesn't seem like a good leverage play from their standpoint. I guess we shall see what happens.

 

I don't see the that vehicle on the website. It must have sold or the price was changed.

Edited August 21, 2014 by AMA904

[hybridbear]

A good place to start for negotiations is invoice price. You can search to find dealers who have a car in stock with the features you want. E-mail them and say that you want to buy a C-Max for invoice price before incentives and see how many will sell it to you. If a dealer knows that you're serious and won't waste their time then they're usually willing to deal more on the car since time is money for them. The more time a salesman has to spend with you, the less revenue/hour the dealer makes. They want to sell cars as quickly as possible, that's how they make the most profit.

 

Regarding dealer document fees: some states put a limit to them, in MN the fee is capped at $75. X-Plan pricing caps the fee at $100. Normally X-Plan is not as good as negotiating invoice price yourself. However, if you live in a state which doesn't cap document fees and thus dealers charge ridiculous prices like $500 for this then X-Plan can be better than negotiating invoice price yourself because X-Plan limits the doc fee to $100.

 

When negotiating you don't usually want to talk about the out the door price because this allows the dealer to hide things. Make sure they give you the detailed breakdown of the price of the car before incentives, a list of available incentives (confirming that you really qualify for all of them since some dealers list incentives that you don't qualify for and then they raise your price at the last minute), a detailed breakdown of taxes & registration fees, a detailed breakdown of any other charges and an explanation for why you're being charged each line.

[scottwood2]

A good place to start for negotiations is invoice price. You can search to find dealers who have a car in stock with the features you want. E-mail them and say that you want to buy a C-Max for invoice price before incentives and see how many will sell it to you. If a dealer knows that you're serious and won't waste their time then they're usually willing to deal more on the car since time is money for them. The more time a salesman has to spend with you, the less revenue/hour the dealer makes. They want to sell cars as quickly as possible, that's how they make the most profit.

 

Regarding dealer document fees: some states put a limit to them, in MN the fee is capped at $75. X-Plan pricing caps the fee at $100. Normally X-Plan is not as good as negotiating invoice price yourself. However, if you live in a state which doesn't cap document fees and thus dealers charge ridiculous prices like $500 for this then X-Plan can be better than negotiating invoice price yourself because X-Plan limits the doc fee to $100.

 

When negotiating you don't usually want to talk about the out the door price because this allows the dealer to hide things. Make sure they give you the detailed breakdown of the price of the car before incentives, a list of available incentives (confirming that you really qualify for all of them since some dealers list incentives that you don't qualify for and then they raise your price at the last minute), a detailed breakdown of taxes & registration fees, a detailed breakdown of any other charges and an explanation for why you're being charged each line.

Good tips here,  thx.  Totally agree with getting the full breakdown of the price and make sure you get a full list of options too.  I did have a breakdown on price via emails but when I when in to the dealer the price was higher.  He said they must have looked up the wrong car. 

 

One question, you stated that a good place to start is invoice price.  Say you get 3 dealerships that say they will do invoice.  What would you suggest you do then? 

 

Thx again

[hybridbear]

Good tips here,  thx.  Totally agree with getting the full breakdown of the price and make sure you get a full list of options too.  I did have a breakdown on price via emails but when I when in to the dealer the price was higher.  He said they must have looked up the wrong car. 

 

One question, you stated that a good place to start is invoice price.  Say you get 3 dealerships that say they will do invoice.  What would you suggest you do then? 

 

Thx again

Pick the dealer you like best?

 

When they said they "looked up the wrong car" did you have the VIN in any of the e-mails or a stock # so that they could prove that. If the stock # or VIN in your e-mail was really the same car then I wouldn't stand for them playing games like that.

[bro1999]

What's the name of your local dealer? I'd like to take a look at the website.

 

http://appleford.com/Baltimore-Washington-DC/For-Sale/New/Ford/C-MAX/

[AMA904]

http://appleford.com/Baltimore-Washington-DC/For-Sale/New/Ford/C-MAX/

 

Thanks. They are including all incentives, but still a good amount off of MSRP with the incentives most people would qualify for. Right about 20% off.

Edited August 21, 2014 by AMA904

[bro1999]

Thanks. They are including all incentives, but still a good amount off of MSRP with the incentives most people would qualify for. Right about 20% off.

 

Plus if you are a college student/military vet, you get another $500 rebate. And if you're military, you probably have USAA, so that's worth another $100. Deals are definitely out there to be had. If you can find a 2013 model, that's at least an additional $1500 off.

[scottwood2]

Pick the dealer you like best?

 

When they said they "looked up the wrong car" did you have the VIN in any of the e-mails or a stock # so that they could prove that. If the stock # or VIN in your e-mail was really the same car then I wouldn't stand for them playing games like that.

No VIN, only asked for a price based on options and color.  He said they found the exact car.  I guess I should have got the VIN too.  I also did not push the issue since I was not ready to buy just yet anyway.  They had one sales guy for online sales and they hand you off to someone else when you come into the showroom.  Not sure if this is standard or not? 

[kostby]

If you follow the Clear Price disclaimer and un-click all incentives, Apple Ford is offering about 10% off MSRP, less any applicable incentives, and there are residency restrictions by region. They list no Base SEL's without any options. http://appleford.com/Baltimore-Washington-DC/For-Sale/New/Ford/C-MAX/

 

The least expensive 2014 SEL shown on the website has Equipment Group 301A and Blue Candy paint, adding $1835 in options, so now you're negotiating down from the list price of a $29,830 car, instead of a $27,995 car without options: http://www.inventory.ford.com/services/inventory/WindowSticker.pdf?vin=1FADP5BU1EL502098

Edited August 21, 2014 by kostby

[AMA904]

If you follow the Clear Price disclaimer and un-click all incentives, Apple Ford is offering about 10% off MSRP, less any applicable incentives, and there are residency restrictions by region. They list no Base SEL's without any options. http://appleford.com/Baltimore-Washington-DC/For-Sale/New/Ford/C-MAX/

 

The least expensive 2014 SEL shown on the website has Equipment Group 301A and Blue Candy paint, adding $1835 in options, so now you're negotiating down from the list price of a $29,830 car, instead of a $27,995 car without options: http://www.inventory.ford.com/services/inventory/WindowSticker.pdf?vin=1FADP5BU1EL502098

 

It's running in the 18-20% range off MSRP with the dealer discount and the incentives that a majority of people would qualify for. Assuming we decide this is what we want and assuming they can find what we want, that will be my ballpark for my offer.

[scottwood2]

If you follow the Clear Price disclaimer and un-click all incentives, Apple Ford is offering about 10% off MSRP, less any applicable incentives, and there are residency restrictions by region. They list no Base SEL's without any options. http://appleford.com/Baltimore-Washington-DC/For-Sale/New/Ford/C-MAX/

 

The least expensive 2014 SEL shown on the website has Equipment Group 301A and Blue Candy paint, adding $1835 in options, so now you're negotiating down from the list price of a $29,830 car, instead of a $27,995 car without options: http://www.inventory.ford.com/services/inventory/WindowSticker.pdf?vin=1FADP5BU1EL502098

10% off MSRP is much better than I see in my area.  About double and way below invoice.  Is this standard for Apple or is this something special for dealer stock?   I did find out as you said that the rebates are tied to where you live and title the car.  Rebates are better there as well.  

[kostby]

I know nothing about Apple Ford.  I live in Indiana.

 

I just followed the link someone else posted here today, and then explored all the fine print. Apple seems to be a high-volume dealership from the number of cars listed in-stock. I'd guess that they're discounting slow-moving inventory before the free floor-planning expires, because then they would have to purchase the cars. Sometimes it's a cash-flow issue. I'm guessing that if you ordered a specific car, you wouldn't see anything close to 10% off before incentives. I also wouldn't be surprised to see huge dealer doc fees, 'market pricing adjustments', and other tricks of the trade applied to their best-selling models.

 

We purchased our 'leftover' 2013 C-MAX SE, built in April 2013, in late March 2014. I'd been looking since early January, and I purposely picked old inventory, the end of the quarter after horrible winter sales, as quarterly sales incentives were expiring, and as end-of-month sales quotas needed to be met at the dealership..

 

We got a discount of about 9% off sticker ($2,600 off $28,850), and another $2,500 in Ford incentives for using Ford Credit financing, without a trade-in. I negotiated off all the outrageous add-ons that Finance & Insurance guys like to use to boost the bottom line profitability. And they counter-offered a price $250 under the lowball price I asked for. They wanted to sell us that car that day.

Edited August 22, 2014 by kostby

[bro1999]

I know nothing about Apple Ford.  I live in Indiana.

 

I just followed the link someone else posted here today, and then explored all the fine print. Apple seems to be a high-volume dealership from the number of cars listed in-stock. I'd guess that they're discounting slow-moving inventory before the free floor-planning expires, because then they would have to purchase the cars. Sometimes it's a cash-flow issue. I'm guessing that if you ordered a specific car, you wouldn't see anything close to 10% off before incentives. I also wouldn't be surprised to see huge dealer doc fees, 'market pricing adjustments', and other tricks of the trade applied to their best-selling models.

 

We purchased our 'leftover' 2013 C-MAX SE, built in April 2013, in late March 2014. I'd been looking since early January, and I purposely picked old inventory, the end of the quarter after horrible winter sales, as quarterly sales incentives were expiring, and as end-of-month sales quotas needed to be met at the dealership..

 

We got a discount of about 9% off sticker ($2,600 off $28,850), and another $2,500 in Ford incentives for using Ford Credit financing, without a trade-in. I negotiated off all the outrageous add-ons that Finance & Insurance guys like to use to boost the bottom line profitability. And they counter-offered a price $250 under the lowball price I asked for. They wanted to sell us that car that day.

 

That helps explain the deal I was able to get with my C-Max Energi. I leased a leftover, fully loaded '13 ($38.5k MSRP, premium paint, pano roof, all taxes/fees included) this past March for less than what the Ford website was listing a base model lease for. And the Ford website pricing didn't even include fees or taxes. MD also charges tax on the full purchase price upfront, while most other states only tax the monthly payment. At the time, Ford was offering a $9,000 leasing incentive. :drool: That particular C-Max had been sitting on the dealer's lot since June of 2013, and it only had 13 miles on the odometer when I signed the lease, meaning it was probably only test driven 2-3 times.

That dealership seriously wanted to unload that C-Max!

Edited August 22, 2014 by bro1999

[Digital Penguin]

Took delivery of my 2014 C-Max Energi SEL on 1/30/2015 - Bought it used from CarMax (Yes I know everyone says you can't get a good deal through them!) But I Paid $20,550.00 out the door for a car with 1371 miles on it. I have gone a little over 750 miles and still have 1/4 of the tank full that the dealership gave me. 

Couldn't be happier with the purchase. Had done extensive reviews, and test drove the Hybrid and the Energi. I went into this purchase very aware of all of the pros and cons of the vehicle, it just made sense to me for my situation!

To be perfectly honest, I absolutely love, love, love this car! The ride and comfort are so superior to the Prius' that I test drove. Can't wait until my electrician does the install of my 240V charging outlet next Wednesday, then I will be able to get a complete battery recharge in 2.5 hours and I can get my daily driving routine to be all EV (WooHoo!)

[C-MaxSea]

:congrats: DP !  WOW, great price, welcome, Enjoy!

[markd]

Sounds like a great deal, enjoy!

[Red]

I know this was last posted to a year ago, but figure I'd post a recent experience:

 

Requested a bunch of e-prices from NJ dealerships. Liccardi Ford (in NJ) came in lowest with the $2,500 Ford incentives plus an additional $2,500+ off from the dealership (for a 2015 SE).  I had been looking at a red 2014 SE at a different dealership, but the other dealership wasn't as flexible with the price... and the red one didn't have the reverse sensors. 

 

So, we got the 2015 Magnetic (with reverse sensors) for less than another dealership's 2014 red SE.  I really wanted a red one, but didn't think it was worth a couple thousand more for an older MY with fewer options. The salesman said that the Ford incentives didn't apply to the 2014's anymore... so it seems their 2014's would end up being more expensive than the 2015's.