Discounts (or lack thereof) on F350 DRW and F450

FS

Fsalmy

Senior Member
RV LIFE Pro
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626
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In the Blue Ridge Mtns of VA
Anyone else in the market right now and seeing discounts worth considering?

Have been working with a few Ford dealers, one in VA and two in NC, on a 2021 F350 DRW or F450. In stock inventory is extremely low for either model in an up-optioned Lariat, King Ranch or Platinum. Probably more F450s than F350s, though. Anyway, after several days of working with these dealers and nearly begging for a quote, I have only received phone quotes from the two dealer's in NC. The one in VA keeps promising, but doesn't follow up. (We bought my wife's Expedition from them last fall, but the sales manager with whom we dealt with directly has left). One of the verbal quotes I received was $250 off MSRP because "that is the incentive Ford is offering". The other quote was for $500 off MSRP - $250 factory rebate and $250 trade bonus. They know I am a serious and ready buyer. I see some larger discounts off MSRP on other dealer websites, but nearly all are 400+ miles away. Also, since we live down 3 miles of gravel roads that turn our vehicles gravel gray anytime it rains, trying to stay away from white or black units which further limits inventory options. According to VA dealer I've been working with, if I order an F350, looking at 12-week delivery time, a little longer on the F450.

I'd rather trade my current TV instead of dealing with selling it myself, so that is a consideration for trying to stay with a dealer closer to home. I know I could do better selling it outright, but have some work commitments and an upcoming surgery that will have me unavailable and out of commission for several months or more. I was hopeful we could get this done before my surgery.
 
You can scope out the Ford dot com page for current offerings, there aren't much. For most dealers the F450's aren't good in their inventory. When shopping I saw the best prices in Ford Truck dealers that would require a lot of traveling. I felt lucky when I ran across a dealer in La Grande OR that had special ordered an F450 for a local rancher who subsequently backed out of the deal. Their mind set was that the F450 would have set in their inventory a long time before it could get sold, they were happy to see me.

Check RV trader for new trucks. The high volume discount dealers advertise there. Most will give you "book" value for your trade in without seeing it. A little quibbling if there is an apparent issue, but not much.
 
Before you do the trade deal, I would suggest using Kelly Blue Book (kbb.com), and get an offer to buy your truck outright.

When purchasing my current truck, it was out of state, so I went first to the local Carmax, and got an offer. Then I went to kbb.com, entered in the details to include condition of my vehicle, and I got an offer to purchase it outright from a local dealer. They paid off the lien, and handed me a check. Granted it took about a week with them, but it was a great offer, and higher than I would have gotten on trade (I believe).

I could then negotiate for the new truck, on the merits of the truck and the deal, with no trade to worry about.

Mike
 
Fsalmy said:
Anyone else in the market right now and seeing discounts worth considering?

Have been working with a few Ford dealers, one in VA and two in NC, on a 2021 F350 DRW or F450. In stock inventory is extremely low for either model in an up-optioned Lariat, King Ranch or Platinum. Probably more F450s than F350s, though. Anyway, after several days of working with these dealers and nearly begging for a quote, I have only received phone quotes from the two dealer's in NC. The one in VA keeps promising, but doesn't follow up. (We bought my wife's Expedition from them last fall, but the sales manager with whom we dealt with directly has left). One of the verbal quotes I received was $250 off MSRP because "that is the incentive Ford is offering". The other quote was for $500 off MSRP - $250 factory rebate and $250 trade bonus. They know I am a serious and ready buyer. I see some larger discounts off MSRP on other dealer websites, but nearly all are 400+ miles away. Also, since we live down 3 miles of gravel roads that turn our vehicles gravel gray anytime it rains, trying to stay away from white or black units which further limits inventory options. According to VA dealer I've been working with, if I order an F350, looking at 12-week delivery time, a little longer on the F450.

I'd rather trade my current TV instead of dealing with selling it myself, so that is a consideration for trying to stay with a dealer closer to home. I know I could do better selling it outright, but have some work commitments and an upcoming surgery that will have me unavailable and out of commission for several months or more. I was hopeful we could get this done before my surgery.
Click to expand...

If you look thru my posts, you will see the window sticker on the truck on bought with MSRP (I think around $64Kish). I got an F350 DRW 3.55 6.7L 8 ft bed with BLIS, Ultimate Trailer Package, camper pkg, 5th wheel prep, STX for $58K on A plan. It would be not much more on X-plan or supplier discount, which is pretty common here is SE Michigan. But I also got $500 off the A plan price with those discounts. Of course the $58K is before title, tax, etc.. but so is MSRP, so I figure apples to apples.
 
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You can get a quote from Carmax and Carvana on your current truck. Carvana will come take it out of your driveway. The only hard part here is that you won’t save taxes on the new vehicle. For me their offer was so much better though, it didn’t matter.

It couldn’t hurt to make an offer on one of these trucks. If there is what you want on a lot, tell them a number and see what they do. Could do the same with the faraway dealers, and if they play ball then also get them to quote your trade before you drive out there.

Market is tough right now, good luck.
 
In addition to Mustang Club you could join EAA.ORG or if you are a disabled vet DAV.Org to qualify for X plan. X plan is about invoice price or about 6% below MSRP, plus dealer fees are capped at $100. There’s a waiting period before qualifying. I believe it is 60 days.

Right now Ford is also offering another $500 below X-plan for DAV and EAA.
 
Stealth13777 said:
You can get a quote from Carmax and Carvana on your current truck. Carvana will come take it out of your driveway. The only hard part here is that you won’t save taxes on the new vehicle. For me their offer was so much better though, it didn’t matter.
Click to expand...

Virginia is one of those fine states that assesses sales tax on the purchase price and does not consider the trade allowance/net price. For personal property tax on vehicles, they also get you for $4.50 of $100 of assessed value which is 85% of purchase price. For vehicles with GVWR under 10,000 lbs, there is tax relief on the first $20K of assessed value. So, on a $80,000 purchase price, VA gets $3320 in sales tax and another $3060 in property tax in the first year. :faint2:

After re-reading what I just wrote, I'm now looking on Zillow for property in Florida.
 
Jerryr said:
In addition to Mustang Club you could join EAA.ORG or if you are a disabled vet DAV.Org to qualify for X plan. X plan is about invoice price or about 6% below MSRP, plus dealer fees are capped at $100. There’s a waiting period before qualifying. I believe it is 60 days.

Right now Ford is also offering another $500 below X-plan for DAV and EAA.
Click to expand...

I don't have an x-plan partner membership, so would have to wait the 60 days. I did price out some 350 and 450s using the EAA partner code. According to a really knowledgeable sales rep I was introduced to by a forum member (thanks Jeff!), x-plan pricing on the trim levels I'm looking at would make about a $3000 difference vs best price without x-plan.
 
Bought my Chevy just 6 weeks ago, I assume all manufacturers are facing similar supply issues with Covid and with the end of year run for tax breaks in December clearing out inventories. Price breaks below MSRP are few and far between due to supply issues, so current Ford incentives are about all you're going to get. At least in January, Chevy/GM had way better incentives - about 6k off MSRP total.

If you have a Consumer Report membership, log in and go to the car section. There is an option to fill out a form for what you want and then all the dealers in the area will come to you with what they have. It's only good for a certain metro area, but you can submit more than one request for pricing at a time. If you don't have a membership, you can sign up for online access - it's pretty inexpensive.

FWIW on your current TV, I was in the same boat with older vehicles this past year and ended up selling two by myself. Trade ins are always going to lose you money. A nice diesel TV gets good money, but they are still going to undercut you so they can resell at full price. For both cars I sold, I made about 25% more on personal sale and was still able to undercut full retail a bit so they sold quick. If you don't own TV outright, that can present more of a problem to get the title transferred, but it's doable.
 
Autotrader will help you find the truck you’re looking for. I drove 4 hours to Atlanta and got our 450 in January. Traded our 250 in on it. All of our negotiations were over the phone, text or email. I got invoiced quotes from 8 different dealers so I could comp them and get best discount as well as most for my trade. You can make more selling privately but I got more than my truck was worth as it was the only leverage I had on getting a better overall deal. Watch closely on dealer fees. It was rather amazing the range over the 8 dealers. Easily 4-5k spread.
As far the 450’s they aren’t staying on the lot long at all. Dealers are ordering them as soon as they sell one. 12 weeks has been very consistent on delivery of an ordered truck. Some dealers will order at invoice pricing less any discounts and they don’t care if you’re out of state. Some require $500-$1000 to place the order that goes towards purchase price and is refundable if you cancel.
My local dealer has a platinum 450 due to arrive in the next week or so. He had a king ranch that sold in 2 weeks on his lot. They sell way more 250 and 350 trucks but are realizing the shortage of 450’s so are keeping one or more available and they aren’t doing dealer trades so your local dealer won’t be able to see what you can find on Autotrader.
Best of luck. We love our 450.
 
I just ordered a F250 Super cab with the 7.3 gas & 4.30 rear. Join your states farm bureau, there're giving $500 incentive with a purchase of a new Super Duty. The offer ends 1/3/2022.
You must be a member of the farm bureau for 30 days. The membership cost me $100 for the year, but it gave me $500 cash incentive.
 
I ordered a modest F350 DRW in November built to my specs and got the $250 Ford Incentive and a $500 Dealer discount, nothing more.
I went with the XLT because I prefer cloth over leather interior, 14,000 payload, 6.7L PS, 3.55 rear end, Gooseneck Prep and Kit, Ultimate Trailer Package.
I tow a Solitude 375RES (about 16,000+ pounds loaded). I am very impressed with the truck and towing experience!
 
I live in Texas took me 4 months to find one. F450 were practically none existent. I was looking in the Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio markets. They were no 450 and 3 350 in all in SA. I talked to a big dealer in Houston he said he normally has over 40 duallys he had 4. A dealer in Dallas wanted a 5k premium over MSRP.

I finally found one in Austin In late November. 2020 F350 lariat 6.7 long bed dually with led lights, lane departure warning, full tow package (5th wheel prep, UTT), adaptive cruise, 4.10 rearend. Had a 78200 MSRP. I picked it up for 68292.

Ive since added a Retrax rolltop cover, airlift 7500 airbags and a 50 gal aux fuel tank with matching tool box that fits under the rolltop, B&W companion hitch.

I tow a 2021 momentum 397 with morryde rubber pinbox, 17.5 Hs, cre3000 and Ive added roadmaster shocks to all 3 axles.
 
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