For those looking for good pricing, check with your employers about partnerships with Ford. If they are a fleet partner, you can get X-Plan pricing on all of Ford's vehicles. I work for Lockheed Martin, and I found it on their internal website. In order to find out, you will need the fleet ID number and visit www.fordpartner.com to get a PIN. I just bought a 2001 SCrew King Ranch and paid 4% over what the Ford employees pay for cars, which ended up being ~$4,000 less than MSRP. I can't find my invoice comparison, but it was considerably less than that as well.

The Fleet partner status is usually not highly advertised, but you will see on an invoice two boxes down at the bottom that say 'X-Plan' and 'A-Plan'. A-Plan is the Ford employee plan and X-Plan is 4% above that for the fleet partners. You will be able to notice the difference, so it behooves you to check into it at your place of work.

It took me awhile to find the procedure to get this pricing, so I thought I would pass along the benefits to you.

 

I bought a 01 King Ranch Screw for $4315.00 below MSRP. No A,X,Y, or Z plan. Don't see the big deal.

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01 Kingranch, 4x4, 5.4, Estate Green w/Arizona Beige two tone, Limited slip,Skidplates,Moonroof,Trailer tow, Cargo cage, All the Goodies! Add ons; Bedrug, 9005 Fog lamps.

 

The big deal is that I paid $800 below invoice, as the employee incentive plans do. You paid invoice, so I think $800 below invoice is a big deal, and I think others on this site would like to know about it as well.

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2001 F150 SuperCrew King Ranch Edition
Charcoal Blue/Arizona Beige
5.4L V8
3.55 LS
Power Moonroof
Class III Towing Group
King Ranch Package
-Lighted Cab Steps
-Sliding Rear Window
-Premium Sound w/ 6-disc changer
-Fog Lamps
-King Ranch Wheels 17x7.5
-King Ranch Leather Quad Captain's Chairs w/ front heated seats
2001 Lightning Taillights
Clear Corner Lenses
Leer 100R Cap
Visteon Mach MP3 w/ factory 6-disc changer
Soundstream Reference Class A 10.0 1000W amp
(4) Cerwin Vega "Vega" 124's

 

You said "I just bought a 2001 SCrew King Ranch and paid 4% over what the Ford employees pay for cars, which ended up being ~$4,000 less than MSRP." I said "I bought a 01 King Ranch Screw for $4315.00 below MSRP."
Maybe I can't read English but it seems we both did well.

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01 Kingranch, 4x4, 5.4, Estate Green w/Arizona Beige two tone, Limited slip,Skidplates,Moonroof,Trailer tow, Cargo cage, All the Goodies! Add ons; Bedrug, 9005 Fog lamps.

 

Here is the story as I understand the plans.

A plan = invoice(with dealer holdback) minus 5.43%.
X plan = A plan's -5.43% (94.57%) + 4% which is .9457 X 1.04 = .98353 or 1.647% below invoice.

You need a fleet number and a PIN number to get the plan. Supposedly, you can join the Experimental Aircraft Association for $40 and take advantage of the X-plan. There are other posts about this on this site and at www.ford-diesel.com. At the ford-diesel site, you can find links to dealers who show official Ford pricing sheets which list MSRP, dealer cost (with holdback, the "invoice" price) and actual dealer cost.

 

ScrewKing: I don't know if you walked into the dealer and the dealer offered that great price (and it is a great price ) right off the bat, or if you had to haggle a bit to get the price down. I don't know if you had a relationship with the dealer that spanned many years and a few vehicles, or if you saved the owner from choking on a bit of steak the night before. I think what dufunnel is getting at is, with the plans, none of that matters. It's literally as simple as just walking in, furnishing the PIN code, and walking away with a sweet deal. My time is fairly important to me, so yeah, for me, it's a big deal. dufunnel was inexact in the first post, but it seems he got a even better deal than you with no hassle, too. But hey, if the dealer cut you that great deal to someone he's never seen before without any haggling whatsoever, then more power to you. I wish all dealers were like that.

Plan prices aren't all peaches and creams either. You gotta first find a dealer that will accept the plan price. Participation in the plans is optional. For me, I just mass e-mailed several dealers, and one said yes. Sure enough, I was in and out in an hour and a half, and most of that time was spent on haggling for trade-in price.

 

CHAEAN, I'm with you. I've bought my fair share of new vehicles over the years (I'm 49)and I can't remember any buying experiences that I'd truely call "pleasureable". I eventually got to where I wanted to be price whise, but had to waste lots of time dealing with lots of dealer bull****. This time I did the $40. EAA "X" Plan deal and drove away in about an hour with a better price than I feel I could have negotiated. Truely no hassle buying. Recommend it to anyone.
My 2 cents.