Is this a good deal?

[gaupbn]

I am trying to negotiate a lease 2014 FFE with navigation and backup camera (no leather) for $300(with VA property tax included) a month for 36 months with zero down and 15k miles. Right now dealer is offering $333 (with VA property tax included) for same. Just wondering what is a good deal here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Abelgoddard]

Sounds great to me. I'm at 321, but 2k down, and 15k/yr also. 333 isn't bad, but 300 is really really good.

 

[gaupbn]

I finally leased FFE 14 with leather interior for $325/month (including VA property tax) with zero down and 15K miles. Thanks for the info.

 

[NightHawk]

I'm in Southern California and I just got my new 2014 Ford Focus Electric (Oxford White, Cloth Seats) delivered today and got a 3 year lease with zero down and monthly payments of only $274 (includes local 8% sales tax) - I only did the minimum 10.5Kmiles/year since I don't need more than that on this car, its a secondary vehicle for me.
I didn't have to pay a penny yet, all the initial taxes and fees and even the first month's payment was all covered by Ford's $11,750 lease customer cash incentive.
I don't even pay a $274 monthly payment until November...

Last week I used TruCar and found a couple local dealers that immediately offered about $900 below invoice price (about $2700 discount from MRSP) I could have gotten one with leather seats but decided to save about $1000 on the total quoted price with the regular cloth seats.

 

[hybridbear]

I only did the minimum 10.5Kmiles/year since I don't need more than that on this car, its a secondary vehicle for me.

You may soon find that you enjoy driving electric so much that it becomes your primary vehicle.

I've been driving a 2014 Camry rental car the past few days while traveling for work and driving a car with a gas engine and a transmission that shifts is super annoying and archaic feeling. I can't wait to get home to our electric cars this evening.

 

[focussed]

New to the board!

I have negotiated $1000 below invoice for 2014 FFE with Leather here in the SF Bay area.

The one sticking point I have is that the Ford includes $542 'Advertising Assessment Fees'. This doesn't show up in invoice from Edmunds and Cars.com. We know how poorly Ford runs advertising for FFEs!

Has anybody been able to slice this off the Invoice? Thanks for any responses and comments!

 

[NightHawk]

New to the board!

I have negotiated $1000 below invoice for 2014 FFE with Leather here in the SF Bay area.

The one sticking point I have is that the Ford includes $542 'Advertising Assessment Fees'. This doesn't show up in invoice from Edmunds and Cars.com. We know how poorly Ford runs advertising for FFEs!

Has anybody been able to slice this off the Invoice? Thanks for any responses and comments!

Yes $1000 below invoice is the best I could get quoted in the San Diego county area a couple weeks ago.
But down here I didn't get any "advertising assessement fees" added only normal tax and license fees.
Sounds like a way to increase their profit and then you are really only getting less than $500 under invoice which is a typical dealer quoted price from what I've seen, only one or two dealers in my area would go well below that based on TruCar website pricing.

I'd recommend try some other dealers nearby and see if they all add that "fee"? Maybe its something unique to your local area, or just one dealer doing it?
For reference on the 2014 Ford Focus Electric I made a deal on a little over a week ago, the dealer offered $2700 dealer discount off of MSRP plus the Ford $6000 incentive discount; that resulted in about $900 below invoice. A dealer much farther away quoted about $100 less, but didn't have as good a selection of the colors/options I wanted in stock.

You have to watch the numbers very closely at the end too - when I asked for detailed numbers for a lease deal (more than just monthly fee and money down) I discovered they had reduced the dealer discount by a few hundred dollars. I showed the salesman the earlier email quoted $2700 dealer discount he had sent me the day before (saved everything on my cell phone) and he immediately replied "oops my mistake" and quickly fixed it for the lease quote. I had to check all the numbers on the final printed lease agreement too, they had added an extra $500 to the buy out price at the end of the lease. I caught that later on and they told me that was for a $500 fee for purchase option but they would waive it for me if in 3 years I decided to buy the car.

They will sneak in extra fees if you aren't alert to catch them, but may quickly remove them if you ask about it. Considering I saw the profit they were making was well under $50 on my deal for the car, I kinda understood, but still triple checked all the numbers along the way.

 

[focussed]

New to the board!

I have negotiated $1000 below invoice for 2014 FFE with Leather here in the SF Bay area.

The one sticking point I have is that the Ford includes $542 'Advertising Assessment Fees'. This doesn't show up in invoice from Edmunds and Cars.com. We know how poorly Ford runs advertising for FFEs!

Has anybody been able to slice this off the Invoice? Thanks for any responses and comments!

Yes $1000 below invoice is the best I could get quoted in the San Diego county area a couple weeks ago.
But down here I didn't get any "advertising assessement fees" added only normal tax and license fees.
Sounds like a way to increase their profit and then you are really only getting less than $500 under invoice which is a typical dealer quoted price from what I've seen, only one or two dealers in my area would go well below that based on TruCar website pricing.

I'd recommend try some other dealers nearby and see if they all add that "fee"? Maybe its something unique to your local area, or just one dealer doing it?
For reference on the 2014 Ford Focus Electric I made a deal on a little over a week ago, the dealer offered $2700 dealer discount off of MSRP plus the Ford $6000 incentive discount; that resulted in about $900 below invoice. A dealer much farther away quoted about $100 less, but didn't have as good a selection of the colors/options I wanted in stock.

You have to watch the numbers very closely at the end too - when I asked for detailed numbers for a lease deal (more than just monthly fee and money down) I discovered they had reduced the dealer discount by a few hundred dollars. I showed the salesman the earlier email quoted $2700 dealer discount he had sent me the day before (saved everything on my cell phone) and he immediately replied "oops my mistake" and quickly fixed it for the lease quote. I had to check all the numbers on the final printed lease agreement too, they had added an extra $500 to the buy out price at the end of the lease. I caught that later on and they told me that was for a $500 fee for purchase option but they would waive it for me if in 3 years I decided to buy the car.

They will sneak in extra fees if you aren't alert to catch them, but may quickly remove them if you ask about it. Considering I saw the profit they were making was well under $50 on my deal for the car, I kinda understood, but still triple checked all the numbers along the way.

Nighthawk, Your San Diego deal motivated me to negotiate $1000 below invoice, Thanks!

I see another dealer here in the bay area also has invoice with the same 'Advertising fee' tacked on. This fee is from Ford company and not from the dealer. So what I am getting is:
37,235 : MSRP (Leather + protection Pkg)
35,275 : Dealer Invoice. While Edmunds, cars.com invoice: $34,728 - So a difference of $547.
34,275 : Dealer Offer Price. $1000 under invoice.
28,275 : After $6000 Ford discount
+ Tax, Doc, Lic.

 

[NightHawk]

Try http://www.truecar.com as well for their invoice price, thats what I based mine on and that site also got me clued into which local dealers would offer the lowest price deals, $800-$1000 below invoice. You may wish to try several different local zipcodes to be sure to cover the whole region of dealers you wish to consider, I found trucar seems to limit to dealers within 25miles from the zipcode you enter. There were are a few dealers slightly beyond that for me like 30-35 miles and one turned out to be better than the others.

Ah, I see in TruCar's detailed invoice price breakdown they include "Regional Fees $594" so that seems to be part of that total invoice price in my area as well for all dealers. It appears to be added along with the usual "Destination Fees $825"
So in the lowest dealer estimated price that it shows in my area, its $1000 below the total invoice price including both those fees. So that all looks OK.

For a FFE outfitted with leather seats and the exterior protection package and no extra-cost paint TruCar gives for my area a total invoice price of $35,322 (including the regional and destination fees)

 

[focussed]

Have been reading this forum to get to know the car before making my decision on buying and the target price.
Finally a proud and happy FFE owner! I purchased the said FFE Ice Storm, Leather, Protection package for $1000 below invoice. I had put out my deal numbers to several Ford dealers in SF bay area and one came through. Everyone else didn't budge much below Invoice much. The inventory is thin and no new vehicles seem to be coming through to the dealers. Slim pickings on the colors.

Getting the hang of the FFE interface, MFM and ways to drive it efficiently.

 

[EVA]

Congratulations. Enjoy the car.

 

[WattsUp]

Getting the hang of the FFE interface, MFM and ways to drive it efficiently.

#1 thing to check... make sure the tires are properly inflated. The dealership may have simply inflated them to the standard PSI for the ICE Focus, which is 32 PSI. But, that is not correct for the FFE.

The recommended pressure for the FFE is actually 38 PSI. Lower PSI will mean more rolling resistance and lower range. Inflating the tires to the proper PSI will make it easier to achieve the advertised range. (Unfortunately, 32 PSI is not low enough to trigger the FFE's tire pressure warning, so you have to keep an eye on it yourself.)

Personally, I have been experimenting with even higher pressures, around 42 PSI. I've been seeing a noticeable increase in range. So have others on the forum who have tried the same thing.

Lesson: Tire pressure can make a lot of difference. Even if you don't want to experiment, check to make sure you're at the recommended 38 PSI.

 

[jmueller065]

Congratulations focussed.

Personally, I have been experimenting with even higher pressures, around 42 PSI. I've been seeing a noticeable increase in range.

I've been running around 44 PSI for the past few weeks (from the recommended 38) and so far I have not noticed any increase in range--if it is there it is no larger than the daily noise in the signal. I have noticed a bit harsher ride but that could be just a perception since I know the tires are harder and would expect that...

 

[WattsUp]

Personally, I have been experimenting with even higher pressures, around 42 PSI. I've been seeing a noticeable increase in range.

I've been running around 44 PSI for the past few weeks (from the recommended 38) and so far I have not noticed any increase in range--if it is there it is no larger than the daily noise in the signal. I have noticed a bit harsher ride but that could be just a perception since I know the tires are harder and would expect that...

Yeah, the ride is probably a tiny bit harsher, but not much.

Hmm, wonder why you don't see any difference? My normal around town driving usually leaves me with full-change ranges in the 80s, maybe a low 90 every now and then. I've noticed more range since upping the tire pressure.

My FFE just charged to 107 miles last night, something that hasn't happened in a long time. My average Wh/mi (obviously the direct variable controlling the range estimate) is running lower than usual. It also seems a little easier to regain status as I drive, possibly because, with less rolling resistance, more energy is left to collect as a I roll up to stops.

I've only been doing this a little while (before that, was running 38 PSI), so I'll keep the experiment going. It could all be in my mind, but I'm encouraged.

 

[jmueller065]

Hmm, wonder why you don't see any difference? My normal around town driving usually leaves me with full-change ranges in the 80s, maybe a low 90 every now and then.

It could be in the noise for me but then also in my commute: If I stay off the freeway for both directions of my commute I'll frequently wake up to 100+ range estimates on a full charge. If use the freeway for just one leg it will drop to the mid-90s (all of this in mild weather). Now it is possible that I'm not noticing it because our temps started to fall into the 50s/60s right about the same time I upped the pressure and I'm still seeing the 80s (temp) range figures--not sure how much of a contributing factor this is.

 

[NightHawk]

This tire inflation pressure possible effect on the FFE's range is very interesting.
I'm at 39psi right now, didn't know how much higher I could go up safely.
Perhaps you guys could start a new thread specifically on this topic and post frequent updates on your own results?
Then I could try whatever you found is the best overall tire pressure for range, etc.
I haven't gotten a total range after a full charge beyond 80miles yet.
Thanks.

 

[hybridbear]

I agree about making this a new thread. And really what should be done is coast down testing with each PSI on an empty road to compare rolling resistance results. This would allow you to factually state the impact of a tire pressure change.

 

[epaminondas]

Yay! - Yeah just loving mine. Its funny the whole second car thing. Someone commented earlier - no the FFE is the first car - you will use it most of the time. The second car is the ICE you might need to rent or have for the occasional longer trip - its a change in thinking. The whole drive electric thing is a process of us retraining ourselves to years of driving un-sustainable gas guzzling, poluting, behavior.

 

[WattsUp]

The whole drive electric thing is a process of us retraining ourselves to years of driving un-sustainable gas guzzling, poluting, behavior.

Yes, if there was any machine that was over-engineered, over-capacitied, and routinely under-utilitized for its daily tasks, it is the gasoline automobile.

And it goes double for those "patriots" who drive themselves around everyday (alone!) in their Ford F-150 dual-axle, quad-cab, stretch-bed (carrying nothing!) editions. Usually with a big American flag somewhere. The irony.

 

[blownb310]

And it goes double for those "patriots" who drive themselves around everyday (alone!) in their Ford F-150 dual-wheel, quad-cab, stretch-bed (carrying nothing!) editions.

We call them "Air Haulers."