So around October 2004 I started to look into the possibility of obtaining a mustang and after a full month of research and exploring all of my budget concerns I was ready to proceed. Beginning of November I started to use the ford website where you could email dealerships and put in my specifications of what I wanted and what I exepected to pay . Some of those emails were very straight forward, some were vague. I tried several different angles to see how dealers would react. During this whole process my wife and I also were able to test drive the car, which then really lit the fire for me to get things going. I only had one decent offer in November but really thought I could do a lot better. December I decided to start playing the "walk in the dealership" game. Same thing here, walked in sometimes playing stupid, other times walked in telling them everything I knew about the price and what I expected to pay. Each and every time I would pretty much get the run around, or, they would disguise the numbers in such a way that it would look like a good deal, but after re-calculating everything it would end up being a rip. Some dealerships I walked into had the car marked up 3K, others were selling them at MSRP. Not one of them would sell for less. Heh, even one guy said that if I order then it would cost me more cause the car was going to be specially built for me....that was pretty funny. Each and every time I would try different approaches but not much seemed to work.

Then the whole thing with the IUP lawsuit and shortage began picking up and that was a feature I wanted so I figured I would either have to very quickly get my order in or locate a car that would meet my specifications. I definately wanted mineral grey with dk charcoal interior, but most every mineral grey I located was the light interior, or if it had the dark it didn't have IUP, or if it had IUP it was automatic. There was one time I found one and tried to deal for it but the dealership wouldn't work the numbers right.

I told my wife that if by the end of January if we couldn't find a good dealership that would either give us a good deal either on a car on the lot that I wanted or on an order we would place then I would just wait a little bit longer till supply caught up with demand.

And then it happened. Late in January I was going through some of my old emails I had during my first phase of emailing the dealerships and I came across an email I had with one of them which stated that If I ordered the car that they would give me a good deal (less than MSRP and a little over holdback). I couldn't believe I had forgotton about this email. I figured I got so wrapped up in finding a better deal that it just slipped my mind when in fact this was the best deal. My wife and I met with dealer, played a thousand different scenarios with him on pricing and options and were extremely satisfied with the pricing and placed our order, and luckily he still honored that offer (glad I kept the email). That was January 31st.

During the whole waiting process I kept track of the car via the Evil Robot Lady and whenever there was a status change I would call the dealer to see if he would update me on any status so I could confirm, and each and every time he did confirm. Within the first week I had a VIN, second week I had a build week and couldn't believe how fast my order was going in. During the order process I had asked the dealer many questions about his allocation and what his pipeline looked like as far as mustang orders and he even showed me how may had been ordered from his dealership and how many were in front of me, and there wern't many. Also from how fast my order got in it makes me believe he had more allocation than he was letting onto, but I'll never know that for certain.

Anyways, during the waiting period I reminded the dealer every time I talked to him that I didn't want anyone touching the car once it was delivered, that I wanted to be informed when the truck would be there so I could see them pull the car off the truck...that I didn't want anyone to unwrap the seats or do anything till I got to see and approve the car.....well sure enough thats what the guy did for me (except he couldn't predict when the truck would arrive but he called when it did.)

I thought for sure that when my wife and I went it to finalize the paperwork that we would have to come up with the price difference since there was a price increase during that time, or that there would be some hidden cost that we would have to pay. I can't tell you how much I prepared during the whole process...I have excel cheat sheets and financing formulas and tables out the whazoo so that when i walked into dealerships and asked them what they would give me for my car and how much they would sell the mustang for me I could tell them down to the cent what the walkout price of the car should be. I had it down to an art, so when time came to finalize the paperwork I knew what we should pay based on our down payment and based on the payoff price of my trade in, and sure enough, I was only 60 cents off. I couldn't believe it...everything worked out exactly like it was suppose to.

Of course, during the whole process I learned a lot from this site and wanted to say thanks. Below is a short timeline.

Jan31: Order Placed with Dealer
Feb1: Order entered into System

Week1: Feb6 - Feb12 From C/U to Serialized & VIN
Week2: Feb13 - Feb19 No Status Change
Week3: Feb20 - Feb26 Given Build Week of 2/28
Week4: Feb27 - Mar5 On Mar1 Status changed to car produced
Week5: Mar6 - Mar12 On 19th status changed to shipped via rail
Week6: Mar13 - 19 Car delivered to destination rail on 15, delivered to dealer on 16.

Rail Tracking:

Equipment ID L/E Billed Event Road Location Date/Time Destination

ETTX***** Load Yes Interchange Received NS Armourdal, KS 03/12/05 08:42 Mesquite, TX
Load Yes ETA Industry Mesquite, TX 03/14/05 18:00 Mesquite, TX

ETTX***** Load Yes Departed Paola, KS 03/13/05 21:39 Mesquite, TX
Load Yes ETA Industry Mesquite, TX 03/15/05 18:00 Mesquite, TX

ETTX***** Load Yes Departed Mcalester, OK 03/14/05 14:12 Mesquite, TX
Load Yes ETA Industry Mesquite, TX 03/15/05 18:00 Mesquite, TX

ETTX***** Load Yes Arrived Ray, TX 03/14/05 18:54 Mesquite, TX
Load Yes ETA Industry Mesquite, TX 03/15/05 18:00 Mesquite, TX

ETTX***** Load Yes Departed Roanoke, TX 03/14/05 22:41 Mesquite, TX
Load Yes ETA Industry Mesquite, TX 03/15/05 18:00 Mesquite, TX

ETTX***** Load Yes Arrived Ftworth, TX 03/15/05 01:00 Mesquite, TX
Load Yes ETA Industry Mesquite, TX 03/15/05 18:00 Mesquite, TX

ETTX***** Load Yes Arrived Mesquite, TX 03/15/05 06:24 Mesquite, TX
Load Yes ETA Industry Mesquite, TX 03/15/05 18:00 Mesquite, TX

ETTX***** Load Yes Placed at Industry Mesquite, TX 03/15/05 11:31 Mesquite, TX

 

good story......ur wait was practically nothing. u waited 6 weeks about. i just hit week 9 today

 

Congratulations! Really sounds like you did your homework. Enjoy your sweet ride!

Almost forgot......

 

Very true, I was lucky with only a 6 week wait, but it did feel like I'd been waiting since November especially since I started all the "nogotiations" phase so to speak. My wife wouldn't let me....rather, wouldn't have been happy with me if I were to have ordered and/or bought the car with paying MSRP or more so it took a while to find a dealer that wouldn't play silly games.

 

Consider yourself lucky. Texans seem to be getting faster delivery (more allotments?) and better deals then the rest of the country. Around here $50 below MSRP is the best you are going to do unless you have A, Z or X-Plan and then you have to order and wait for months.

 

Congratulations on your new wheels! Lucky you didn't have to wait as long as many others. You sound very detail-oriented; you were probably better prepared to deal with the games dealers play. Well done!

Enjoy your ride

 

Yes, very detail-oriented...jokingly to the point of OCD some times. I think the most helpfull thing that I did was after I figured out what I could put down, what the trade-in/fair market value was on my car, and what other associated sales tax fees and other fees that would have to be paid I made myself an excel sheet that would calculate all those numbers for me for different scenarios. For example, across the top from left to right was the price of the Mustang with the options I wanted rounded to the nearest thousand and every column after that increased in increments of $500...so I think I had a range from 25000 to 28000. From the top left and then going down I had what I thought I would get for the trade-in value of my car starting real low and incrementing in $500 for every row. Then I put in some formulas to take the corresponding matching row/column and calculate what the walk-out price would be.

It was very usefull and actually very interesting...some people would offer me a lot for my trade in but markup the mustang and using my cheat sheet i could easily identify whether it was a good deal or not based on what I thought my walkout should be.

I also made an additional sheet that worked the same for car-loans which would figure out monthly payments at different percent rates and differnent terms so I would know what my options were.

I had like 5 or 6 other sheets that had all sorts of pricing options and other figures and calculations so I always was prepared when I went into a dealership. It was funny sometimes to show that information to the sales people and see their reactions.

 

Good story... near the end I was waiting for a '... and then I woke up...' line.

It's nice to hear a good news story now and then. My story starts out the same as yours but changes about two weeks in, and I'm still at that point today (C/U). It still nice to know that the for some of us the system works, and I know others have been waiting longer than I have.

My waiting story reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where he goes to pick up a rental car. 'You can take the reservation(order), but you didn't keep the reservation, and that's really the most important part! ' (getting your car ! ).

Enjoy.

 

Awesome - a story with a HAPPY ending!

Cool!

Enjoy your new ride! (bet I don't have to tell you that though right? )

 

Good Job!!!!!!!!!!!!

My dealer has no idea where my car is missed my eta. Fembot still says car was shipped by convoy on march 3rd. All I can say is wow what customer service we get? I dont understand why they cant track a car when it hasnt shown up?

 

Yes, very detail-oriented...jokingly to the point of OCD some times. I think the most helpfull thing that I did was after I figured out what I could put down, what the trade-in/fair market value was on my car, and what other associated sales tax fees and other fees that would have to be paid I made myself an excel sheet that would calculate all those numbers for me for different scenarios. For example, across the top from left to right was the price of the Mustang with the options I wanted rounded to the nearest thousand and every column after that increased in increments of $500...so I think I had a range from 25000 to 28000. From the top left and then going down I had what I thought I would get for the trade-in value of my car starting real low and incrementing in $500 for every row. Then I put in some formulas to take the corresponding matching row/column and calculate what the walk-out price would be.

It was very usefull and actually very interesting...some people would offer me a lot for my trade in but markup the mustang and using my cheat sheet i could easily identify whether it was a good deal or not based on what I thought my walkout should be.

I also made an additional sheet that worked the same for car-loans which would figure out monthly payments at different percent rates and differnent terms so I would know what my options were.

I had like 5 or 6 other sheets that had all sorts of pricing options and other figures and calculations so I always was prepared when I went into a dealership. It was funny sometimes to show that information to the sales people and see their reactions.
[/b][/quote]


OMG That was me too! I told my husband I wanted to do this "all on my own" and I did. You should have seen the look on his face the day he went with me to see if I could find my car on a lot somewhere. We find one (but they wouldn't budge on price so we left) and I pull out this folder with all my calculations and figures and he just couldn't believe it. What dealership did you buy from?

 

Your right about this forum getting you ready. Thanks for the timeline it will help me try and keep our order on track, nice benckmark.

 

I am in TX and ordered in December...I have to wait until at least June when quoted May. My order paperwork was "lost" for 2 months...I got a whopping $750 rebate for my wait in addition to the other rebates for misc things gone wrong. We are getting a GREAT deal on it, but I hate getting the run around and still waiting!

 

OMG That was me too! I told my husband I wanted to do this "all on my own" and I did. You should have seen the look on his face the day he went with me to see if I could find my car on a lot somewhere. We find one (but they wouldn't budge on price so we left) and I pull out this folder with all my calculations and figures and he just couldn't believe it. What dealership did you buy from?
[/quote]

Park Cities Ford

 

congrats

 

When I walked into my dealership I played dumb. Even the Sales Manager came out to strongly encourage me to order that night. When I showed up to order it the very next day I had all my files, paper work and details galore. My dealer even asked what final price I had come up with (I told him $1). Once he realized I had done my homework the whole process of ordering was done in 10 minutes.

Getting it built and delivered... well, that's a horse (or pony) of a different color.

 

I loved it when she asked if he wanted the insurance on it, and Jerry says "yes, because I am going to beat the h*ll of of it!"

 

Park Cities Ford
[/quote]


I never made it over there even though my dad and brother highly recommended them. You've got a beautiful car; Mineral Gray was my first choice, but I couldn't find one without the medium parchment interior.

 

It definitly sounded too good to be true I thought there had to be a problem at the end.

anyway congrats!