Reflecting back on the price negotiations, the least transparent part of it all (to me anyway) was the negotiations on the extended warranty.
Just as it was when I was in the business twenty years ago for a short time, one manager appraises your trade for the new car sales manager working the deal, then you work out a ânumberâ with the new car sales manager, only to then be sent to the F&I manager to work out any financing, extended warranties, service plans, etc..
You have to run the gauntlet twice basically. Since Iâve never bought extended warranties, the visit with the F&I manager has always been pretty painless in the past, because he basically does the title work, and the financing at a rate that has usually already been advertised by the manufacturer.
Thanks to the warranty links
@Jeppo posted, I had an OTD number in mind, including a warranty of specific features, duration and mileage. I told them âhereâs where I want to be OTD, with this warranty, with this financing (which I knew I qualified for)."
Because we all knew each other (except the F&I guy from Brooklyn), we all sat around a table, Sales Manager, sales guy, F&I guy, and me.
After some discussion about how I arrived at my numbers, the F&I guy said there was no way he could get to that warranty number, that his Ford warranty was 2-3x of what I wanted (and quoted), 8 year, 100K miles, $200 deductible, Premium Care warranty. All three dealers that Jeppo sent me the links to all quoted the exact same numbers for whatever variation of the Ford warranty anyone wanted.
And I hadnât even test driven the new truck. So the detail shop had just finished prepping it since it was delivered from the factory only the day before, and I drove it. Didnât like the âhunting and fishingâ the ten speed trans was doing looking for the right gear in a parking lot. Didnât like some other things as much as mine, even though itâs six years newer, most of this I knew except how it would drive. I thought when I ordered it, âHow different could a 2023 F150 XLT 4x4 5.0 SuperCrew drive from the same truck just six years older. I guess I thought it would be better. It just wasnât (to me anyway).
So, I went back in and told them I was getting cold feet at this point. And wasnât planning on buying anything else either, just happier with âthe devil I know, than the devil I don'tâ. At that point the price of the warranty came down about $1500, but was still $600 more than the on-line dealer quotes, but they cobbled together the whole package to get within $300-400 of where I wanted to be OTD. And I was not trying to beat them out of every nickel and dime. I really thought what I had proposed OTD would be pretty easy for them to achieve.
I should mention that even though they pretty much got to my price, they could only do that because they found an additional $1000 in factory incentives, and 0% financing. Which wasnât on the Ford site that very morning, and had not been before. I guess the extra $1000 was what used to be referred to as "dealer cash" versus âcustomer cashâ so the dealers have it to use at their discretion. But thatâs just a WAG.
The F&I guy was of the opinion after talking to his GM (with one of the warranty quotes I had given him in hand) that these on-line dealer quotes must be gutting out certain features of the warranty, but after a cursory review later I donât think they are. I could be wrong.