I would have to disagree with this. It's all based on the dealer. A good dealer will negotiate just as deep on an order than one on the lot, at least that was my experience.
I did say some dealers will use it against you...If they know it is what you want, they have more of the bargaining power. Great dealers will give you the same deal regardless because they know the amount they want to make on the sale and value potential repeat customers.
One pro for an ordered car is that I don't pay for options I don't want, but were added to an inventory car.
Get a confirmed X plan offer from a convenient local dealer. Then use that number as your starting point when you talk to the rest of the guys.
I have exact same car on order (different color) and i got 4500 off of the msrp before rebates/incentives.Does this look like a good deal to you guys? Rebates would be added later.
Nice! Good to know there's more to go. How did you approach the dealer? Online or in person? I'm willing to go out of state and do long road trip back. What color you going with?
I went with velocity blue and show stopper red interior. The one difficulty you will run into now is you don't technically have walk away power anymore as you can no longer place a new factory order. That said, you just have to convince them that they have not earned your buisness, again difficult to do when the order has been placed. I called my ordering dealer from another dealerships lot, said i was not getting the deal i wanted and wanted to see if invoice was in fact the best deal out there and they quickly made the better deal all over the phone. I would call in and say something like " i think i need to cancel my order..i was talking with another dealer who seems like they are prepared to get me into the same car at a better deal. Bottom line is they can get me 4k off before incentives, so i would like to see 4.5k off before the incentives to earn my buisness" its a bluff but if you can sell it, might be you best bet.
X-plan, depending on the MSRP of the vehicle, will usually be about $100 over invoice. A good deal will be in the $500 - $1,000 below invoice. If you are a Costco member, Costco's auto buying program is usually around $400 - $500 below invoice. It's at least a good starting point for negotiation. There will typically be one or maybe two Costco participating dealers in a metropolitan area. This is all before any rebates or private cash offers which further reduce the price. The only thing you need to be cautious of are dealer admin fees. Under X-plan, these are limited to $100.
I took this in the other direction. If I'm willing to wait a few months for a special order, another week to find the best price won't make a difference. First dealer went a little under x plan, the next found a zip code based incentive and Ford cash, I saved almost $1500. During that week, ordering closed for 2018 so I got a 2019 for that price.