TuPaK

Well, I found out that we don't qualify for the S-Plan...damn government job :D

anyways, my bro in law's employer (Motorola) qualifies.

My questions is:

Is it worth going through the fuss of having my bro in law buy the car at the good invoice price? or should I be able to get a nice price without being elgible for the s-plan.....please help.

Thanks!

meeh

Isn't S-plan for employees of Ford? How does one qualify for the s-plan? I wasn't aware of this at the time that I bought my car.

rieskame

the company i work for makes car parts for every other japanese car company except mazda. i work mostly with toyota, but if we made car parts for mazda we would be eligible for the s plan. I got my 8 for about 200-300 over invoice. It can be done.

Eric

Buger

I don't have anything to do with Mazda but I am qualified for S-plan since 2001. If you want to get a car on S-plan, you need to find a company with a relationship with Ford/Mazda and become a member.

I paid a membership fee of something like $25 for the EAA and became eligible for S-plan immediately. Unfortunately, EAA now has a year wait for new members to be qualified to use the S-plan. I assume this is because of too many people like me who just joined to get the S-plan.

Whether you should let your brother-in-law buy the car for you depends on how close you are with him and what kind of a deal you can get without the plan. Keep in mind some S-plan restrictions:

Noneligible family members may appear as cosigners or comakers of the loan or other financing agreement, but cannot appear on the Vehicle Title or Registration

Vehicles must be retained in the customer's possession and registered in the customer's name for at least six months from the date of purchase or lease.

The purchase, lease and disposal of vehicles under the New Vehicle Purchase Plan are monitored regularly for abuse through a computerized system. Customers who do not comply with the requirements noted above will be contacted and asked to explain the circumstances involved.

Brian

Slice

10/1/03
S-Plan is for people (companies) that make parts for Mazda. My company (TRW) makes the air bags. When I bought my car, they said the RX-8 did not qualify for the S-Plan since it was new and in high demand. I didn't argue, I couldn't wait to own it so I paid $200 over invoice. I was happy with that.

Current Time
A buddy at TRW just bought an 8 and he got the S-Plan. Saved him a few bucks....

Bottom line - salesmen suck!

RX8_Buckeye

I work for Ford, and it was only a few weeks ago that Ford/Mazda authorized dealers to sell the RX-8 on S-plan (this was a surprise to many). Unfortunately, I bought mine 2 weeks before the S-plan authorization was given... lost out on $3K. So, it's not the fault of the salespeople--they had no idea when S-plan would be offered.

Sin

If the right salesman wants to sell on S-plan, he or she can generate a pin for you from a list of companies. Its that simple, find a sucker just like they think you are and ask'm. Act like you want to be his best friend...

pyrospawn

EAA= Experimental Aircraft Association?

LOL i might join this just for the future S-plan purchase if it's Experimental Aircraft Association.

meeh

Is there a list that Ford has which shows which companies are entitled to an s-plan?

BillK

There's no list that I'm aware of - if you qualify, you'll know.

It's DEFINITELY worth the trouble to find out; as others have mentioned depending on how you option your vehicle it will save you $2000 or more.

You MAY be able to do better yourself, but if the dealer says "MSRP or nothing" you can walk in with your S-plan docs and STILL get $2000+ off sticker.

The only down side is that a dealer MAY force you to order a vehicle for S-Plan sale rather than sell you one off their lot...

Cyclonus

That's not correct... in fact, it's less likely that a dealer will sell you a car at S-plan price if the car is not on their lot (since it costs the dealer more to obtain a car than it does to sell a car that's already on their lot). There's actually a stipulation in the S-plan that says you must take delivery from dealer inventory. Sometimes dealers are willing to ignore this stipulation, and sometimes dealers might tell you that you have to order a car and wait 6 - 8 weeks in order to make you impatient and try to get you to buy a car sooner at a higher price, but in reality, S-plan is supposed to be for cars that are in dealer inventory.

Also, there's no way you're going to do better than S-plan if you just negotiate yourself. The S-plan price is lower than the dealer invoice price. The reason they're willing to sell it at that price is that they get a few hundred dollars back from Mazda when they submit an S-plan PIN Number. Without that S-plan PIN Number, they don't get the extra money back, so they're not going to sell the car for below dealer invoice.

MuzzleFlash

I don't buy this for a moment. A car on the lot has sunk marginal costs not applicable to a special order: interest expense, lot maintenance (wash after a storm, scrape bird poop off, etc.), and allocations for insurance, etc. Orders usually require cash deposits giving the dealer use of your money until the car arrives. Orders usually do not count against allotment on hot selling cars and usually do count towards program totals.

I don't see this in the Ford X/ Mazda S plan documentation I have in front of me. In fact, here is a quote that seems to indicate that orders are OK:

"if after ordering a vehicle under the terms of the Partner Recognition Program, the customer cannot take delivery from the designated dealership, the customer must promptly advise the proper dealership representative, and the customer must refrain from signing any dealership document indicating acceptance or delivery of the vehicle."

I'm guessing that in this context that "order" does not mean earmarking of an inventoried car.

For the Rx8, that is probably true at this point in time. The dealer is contractually obligated to honor S plan purchases. Mazda pays them a special "commission" on the sale. The dealer also gets to keep the holdbacks (which can be up to 3% of MSRP) and other program sales incentives. The dealer is not getting shafted at all unless he has a line of buyers willing to pay MSRP or higher.

After the demand settles down, it will be possible to get the car below invoice on special orders from port inventory in the US. That's because the true dealer cost (sometimes referred to as dead-net) is lower than invoice. As mentioned above, an order through the fleet department has low marginal cost to the dealer and good cash-flow terms.

Oregonbeav

I had problems with the first dealer I went to with my S-plan pricing. They would not honor the plan for the RX-8 nor would they allow me to order a car at the S-plan pricing. They said I could buy any other car under the S-plan just not the RX-8.

So I went home found a dealer 20 miles away that had more inventory and they sold me a car that was still on the truck that was loaded. Had to wait 2 hours while they detailed it, but the car (4 days old to me) has been definately worth the wait. Sticker price was $35,559 and I purchased it for $32,195. The deal was effortless.

If you get a dealer that says no to S-plan, I would just look around for another.

- Beav

tadams

Tupak,


You may qualify based on your brother's eligibility. I got Splan pricing because my brother works for budget. The place I bought it actually just matched the S-Plan price.

Print this page out and take it with you:
http://www.johnholtz.com/specials_de...Make=6&CatID=5
It states:
"Spouses, parents, spouse's parents, brother or sister (including in-laws, half and step), sons, and daughters (including in-laws and step in-laws)."

Also go to my thread about the dealership that matched the S Plan price for me:
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=15268

Good luck