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What is the "discount" practice for Orders vs off the lot


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Just curious as to the normal practices for getting dealer discounts vs purchasing off the lot.  I'm assuming the dealers won't have an 'order' cut into their vehicle allotments and they won't have to have a hit to their floor plan interest etc. so it would make sense to incent specific orders for Aviators for example.

 

I know the local BMW dealer will discount the X5 for a special order (personal experience) but I have no experience with Lincoln.

 

Thanks for the help!

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Normally there isn’t much difference.  Retail orders count against the dealer’s allocation sales same as a stock order.  The only real difference is if you’re willing to take something that’s been on the lot for a few months or if what you want is high demand short supply they may give you a slightly better discount to order.  But I wouldn’t count on it.

 

The exception would be the current retail order rebate.

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Jamesasr,

    Something else to keep in mind is mid-year price increases. As an example, I've been watching Explorer XLT's, and units built more recently have a $825 MSRP base price increase compared to older units.  Also, before the markets got crazy, Ford would sometimes have additional rebates for units that had been sitting in dealer stock longer.

  While I enjoy the special-order, get exactly what you want process, finding a vehicle that's been sitting a while might be the better choice, financially.

 

HRG

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sorry  to pop bubbles, but ANYTHING on a dealers lot right now is most likely at or above MSRP due to significant shortages...and the light isn't even visible at the end of the tunnel right now.....we usually carry 450 - 500 cars, we are down to less than 40 and vehicles are being presold PRIOR to them even being produced at the Factory...absolutely NUTS right now. Never seen this in 36 years in the business....

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I usually try to order our new vehicles to get exactly what we want; but the wife had an X-Plan PIN and received a PCO near the end of 2020, so we walked a Lincoln dealer's lot on a day they were closed  That did it--she wanted one and didn't want to wait eight weeks or more.  She had to have a Reserve in Pristine White with the Roast interior and there were none available.  We ended up locking in a deal on a 2021 I spotted in the search dealer inventory section of the X-Plan site the day it appeared as an ordered vehicle. That was in January.  Now, there are even fewer vehicles from which to choose, and I'm not sure that X-Plan would be honored on scarce units either. Crazy times!

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On 6/17/2021 at 6:08 PM, Deanh said:

sorry  to pop bubbles, but ANYTHING on a dealers lot right now is most likely at or above MSRP due to significant shortages...and the light isn't even visible at the end of the tunnel right now.....we usually carry 450 - 500 cars, we are down to less than 40 and vehicles are being presold PRIOR to them even being produced at the Factory...absolutely NUTS right now. Never seen this in 36 years in the business....

Lincoln is reacquiring my 2020 Black Label Nav. I usually factory order but may grab a dealer stock this time just because of all this mess. 

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On 6/17/2021 at 7:08 PM, Deanh said:

sorry  to pop bubbles, but ANYTHING on a dealers lot right now is most likely at or above MSRP due to significant shortages...and the light isn't even visible at the end of the tunnel right now.....we usually carry 450 - 500 cars, we are down to less than 40 and vehicles are being presold PRIOR to them even being produced at the Factory...absolutely NUTS right now. Never seen this in 36 years in the business....

Keep in mind, there are dealers that will sell vehicles below MSRP (regardless of the current market).   In fact, there are 2 Ford dealers in my region that sell vehicles at invoice.  Low overhead, no negation required.  In addition to invoice price, one dealer offers ZERO “doc fee” and the other requires $86 for the “doc fee”.   So, while your statement regarding MSRP or above above might be true for many dealers, there are other options.  If you are in the market to buy now, do some research.  

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50 minutes ago, 02MustangGT said:

Keep in mind, there are dealers that will sell vehicles below MSRP (regardless of the current market).   In fact, there are 2 Ford dealers in my region that sell vehicles at invoice.  Low overhead, no negation required.  In addition to invoice price, one dealer offers ZERO “doc fee” and the other requires $86 for the “doc fee”.   So, while your statement regarding MSRP or above above might be true for many dealers, there are other options.  If you are in the market to buy now, do some research.  


And these dealers are selling their current and future vehicles at invoice today?

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Talking to 4 Lincoln dealers looking for an Aviator for my wife and all 4 said the same thing - X-Plans were not being accepted currently due to supply constraints.  But we COULD order one an get X-Plan pricing.  So thats what we ended up doing!  Watching Autotrader and Cars.com, the number of Aviators keeps dropping so makes sense with supply being so constrained.

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20 minutes ago, akirby said:


And these dealers are selling their current and future vehicles at invoice today?

Correct.  My Bronco (on order) will be acquired at invoice with zero doc fee.  In addition,  I can walk in today and buy any vehicle on the lot at invoice with zero doc fee. 

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