windhamjk

I stopped by the dealer near me and started a convo about the 2005. I asked him what he knew, when he expected them in, ...etc.

When we came to price he said he had no idea. I asked him if he would like the prices and the ordering guide. He gave me a weird look and I told them I had them from Ford (thanks Mustangsource) and I could give him pricing on a Mustang at invoice, invoice with dealer holdback, MSRP..... etc. He asked me to email them to him, so I did.

I have tried to get some response from the guy since then but all I've recieved is a thanks for the email.

2Slack

Kellarina

I would go pay a visit to him again or choose someone who will actually treat you well with the ordering process and followup.

wantan05

I agree with Kellarina, although I think he's probably scared of all your info !

Indystang

Find another dealer, or salesman, this guy is a jerk or a dope.

Donna

or he was planning to sell above MSRP and he knew he was not going to get away with it with you. Your average consumer don't know much about the prices. Just my .02.

smallpurpleants

I spoke with a dealer yesterday and he is working on a price for me now.. I spoke with several others today and they knew nothing and told me to wait 1-2 months.
I received a fax today from the1st dealer at my house tonight about 615pm- EVERYTHING is at invoice

bryman

Over a week ago, I emailed about 6 different area dealers with my exact options, with retail and invoice prices and asked how close they would get to invoice for me. Only one responded, and said they would only sell for MSRP or above. The others, if they even received it, didn't even take the time to respond back to me. This is very discouraging!!!

StangNut

And people wonder why we hate salesmen.

Jason

kevinb120

Hes probably busy selling vehicles that are on the lot. We are all fed up with Ford on the new stuff, the enthusiasim was much higher 2 months ago. When we finally have some to sell to "walk-ins" around thanksgiving, we well get more revved up about them again.

windhamjk

Well I sold for Ford for a year and was good enough to stay constantly busy. I made good money but 70 + hour weeks takes a toll on a marriage. I chose the wife and kids over the big dollars.

Anyway I have considered that he may just be extremely busy with other customers who are buying now so I'm not ready to write the guy off yet.


On a side note - I went to another Ford dealer today to see if they had any info. I was told Ford has not released any pricing or ordering guides and the car would demand a "premium" due to demand. So I said, "so you guys are gonna pull a dealer mark up huh?"

He just looked at me with a dumb look, I was like Cartman from southpark, "Screw you guys, I'm going home."

Okay I didn't give them the Southpark line, but I'm not going to be chumped by a delaer on a car that will be mass produced. I love the Mustang but facing reality, it won't be a low number super car like an Italian exotic. They can pull that dealer markup scam on someone else.

Steve

My guess? You embarrassed him and he's too small of a man to say "Thank you for showing me what I should have already known."

:bang: :bang: :bang: People who do NOT know their product, their prices, or their competition have NO business selling, regardless if it is Mustangs or Widgets.

I've always believed that manufacturers would learn a WHOLE lot more if they would survey people as to why they DIDN'T buy their product versus their phony 'Satisfaction Surveys' they send out after you buy. I would want to know what it was that made you buy from someone else or why you chose a competing product.

I mean, come ON! When you buy a new vehicle these days the DEALER tells you to please put all positives down, inferring that he will lose his job or his cat will be assasinated if you put a negative down. Sheesh!

No, your 'salesman' was no sales man at all. He's just another poor slob who can't get a job flipping burgers or is too lazy to be good at what he should be doing now - selling cars the old fashioned way: by proving to you that he has a superior product at a fair price with a dealership to keep you happy after the sale. If he was THAT kind of salesperson, HE would have told YOU what the prices are.

Good luck.

kevinb120

Markup or not on mustangs, try to buy a Scion right now at a discount. Its a mass car that will be mass bought, especially at the begining. If you owned one mustang at YOUR car dealer and one person offers invoice and another offers $5000 over-i-dont-care-I-want-it-now, which one do you sell the car to? If you had 15 people in your que that 5 are willing to pay whatever it takes to get one, who do you call first when you see a Mustang on a truck that 20 other salespeople are going to make 20 calls each about when you find out its not an ordered car? I have more people in my sales tracking then the entire dealer has vehicles total coming in for the next 3 months(over 50 that I would call 'serious' and many others I email updates to since I am resident 'mustang guy'). Other salespeople give me half of the mustang customers now, what do they want with a car on order? Anyone who brings it up, the salesman simply brings them to me. The other orders are mostly done over the phone, no muss no fuss, just do it. I have 3 hybrids on order that I am sure the last one wont show untill new years. I can sell one conversion van that makes me more then 3 full-pop mustangs. I spend all the time here because I simply love the car in private, not on the showroom floor. There I work to pay for this cable modem bill. Just like you all do.

Most dealerships sales staff do not have acess to FMC dealer or only have one terminal per 5 salespeople. I am the only one at the dealer that knew(or even cared) that the price list came out. One ordered car to come in in 6 weeks that even at sticker pales in comparison to the average F-series or Expy sale does not make most salespeple jump in thier shoes and get excited. I have a mustang order at retail now, whooooooooptie do. I will keep up on it but its just one car out of 20, 60 cars in the future sold from now. Selling 5 in-stock vehicles on one Saturday seems to motivate us more. I know everyone is excited about this car, but how excited do you really think that someone who sells cars for a living are? If I have a customer now that wants to look at "mustangs", do you think I go to the computer screen and show them the new one, or walk them down the row of them on the lot? I've lost 5 sales now by doing that(people that ended up buying 04's at other dealers because I tried to talk them out of it). I learned my lesson.

I think its reality check time. You place an order, he will let you know when it comes in, it is not his 'baby'. If you call every couple weeks to check and he calls back within 3 days with the actuall status, then you should be fine. Just remember hob-nobbing with a salesman that is respondant and you do not buy anthing is work he/she is doing for FREE of charge. No sale=no paycheck. Its not like being on salary and talking to a buddy on the phone.

We always have to give the benefit of a doubt to EVERY single person we talk to. Anyone we do not sell a car to you can probably equate in your own careers as getting told to clean up a coworkers office space for one hour after you just punched out from work. If you afterwards think you just 'wasted your time' with a customer(even a 3 hour one that couldn't buy themselves out of a paper bag) and dwell on it for one minute, you will never survive the business. Next...........

windhamjk

Thanks for the assesment but I know the routine I sold for Ford for all of 2002 and into 2003. I stopped because the toll of 70+ hour weeks started to strain the marriage.

Also if I can get the info I expect them to have it. To me a salesman should know his product whats on the lot and whats coming. Product knowledge when I was in sales I know that it helped get me more than just a couple of sales.

As far as hob nobbing goes, that is not what I was doing. I was seeking info from both dealers. If I am not buying I go on off days at off times, like today I went in around 1 PM on a Thursday. I know how business flows around here. 1 PM on a weekday and nearly every dealer in the city will be twiddling their thumbs.

Also if I am dropping over 20 grand I do not accept a salesman taking 3 days to get back to me. Unless the dealer ship was closed for 2 days straight after I called. There is way tooo many Ford dealers in my area to put up with that.

Plus if the dealer can get someone to pay 5 grand over then fine let them have it. I have patience. The Mustang, with exceptions of Special Editions, is just made in too many numbers. The supply will eventually outpace demand and I will eventually see Ford offering rebates and incentives on the new body Mustang.

Enfynet

^First line last paragraph.

If you can't wait long enough to buy a Mustang and feel you paid what you wanted to pay, don't buy one. If I can't get my price on the car, I'll just wait til spring when I have more money and there's more out there making price negotiations a little easier.

I used to be in the video store business and watched as many movies as I could and read as many reviews as I could. How much help would I be to my customers if I didn't know my product, even if it was only a $4 one? (I've also "cut deals" with good customers to buy movies or games at "below MSRP"...)

adrenalin

Oh my god, there is a smiley for "kick him in the ding-ding"

kevinb120

Good luck. Fords total commitment to employee training right now on the 05 Mustang is the little folding card teaser that was posted a couple months ago on this site. Each dealer a dozen of them to stick in the 04 source books, since they haven't sent the complete 05 ones yet. We have not recieved any other information from Ford to date. I of course can spit out gear ratios, how much torsionally stronger the subframe is and exactly to the inch what parts were brought over from the dew platform, how many splines on the gt's rear axles vs the V6's, what the model numbers on each and every transmission offered, and who manufactures the stereos for the car. I can probably guess performance based on available numbers down to .10 in the quarter mile what the car will do. There is a saleslady here that does not know how to open the hood of her Taurus demo(nor even drives manuals) that has quite a few stangs ordered. She crushes everyone here in sales every month and hits every sales leader promo in the region every single time. I just take her list of 'goodies' and convert them to order codes for her when she needs help.

PK is one of the smaller selling skills needed to do well. Just keeping up on the body codes for F-series and trying to find a vehicle that fits a customers needs (which completely destroys total auto sales numbers alone for a salesperson per month) here is hard enough. After being out for a year, its still confusing to most sales people. Granted I know what wheelbase with which cab=what bed and what a 507A F17 is. Even our 'green peas' will read off a stock card to me and ask 'what is a U73 with package 235A?' that a customer gave THEM the stock number to me while I'm sipping my coffee I will tell them its a 4x4 XLT Sport package 4 door Explorer with a V8, we should have 5 04's or so left in stock. An hour later I will see one on the deck washed and ready. They arent even trained yet. With the Internet, many modern customers will almost always know more then the sales staff, they have all the time in the world to focus on one product exactly tailored for their own needs. The other half buy what's pretty or one 'like their neighbor has'. I'm getting beat by an untrained salesperson this month, its just the way it goes. When there are 20 Mustangs lined up on the row it will be much easier for someone in sales to well, sell them. I am not bothering to order one myself because I still am not sure what the right options group will be for me. I still have yet to sell myself one, I have to see them and drive them. Sure I have Mustang "experts" come in and talk to me all the time; they dont seem to know the body codes on Rangers or Sport Tracs too well though, go figure.

kevinb120

You all need to lighten up on salespeople. By all means if they lie or are rude, then of course: You cant expect them to know much more then the basics, Ford hasnt bothered to deem it nesessary. You don't think that I couldn't walk into anyones place of business, look around for a couple seconds and ask you a question to something I see there that you do not know the answer to? B)

Shea

Personally, I don't care if my salesperson knows about the car.

Caveat Emptor.

My plan is to walk in there (I'm actually going to do this next week), tell them exactly what options I want, tells them when I want the car (next March/April), tell them that I am Z plan, and ask them when I should order.

I don't expect any haggling on the price because of the Z plan, but just in case I will also tell them that I have the pricing guide, so I know pretty closely how much it ought to cost.

Then when I actually order, I'm going to tell them that when the car comes in I don't want anyone driving it, and I don't want dealer stickers, front plate, in fact, nothing done except pull off the protective plastic and wash it.

Kev, I want full tint, is it going to be cheaper for me to have it done at the dealership and roll it into the purchase price, or just get it done somewhere else?

Maverick128

I've been wanting to visit the local dealers just to see what they know (for fun ) but unfortunately there is a machinists strike going on right now, and for the past month or so, and I'm not about to cross the line to find out whether or not the salesmen are idiots.