Grabber Blue! has finally made it home...sort of.

[TheVirtualTim]

Yup. I calculated a ~31 month "breakeven" on the 36month Options.. If you pay off the car before that month, you "save" money relative to paying all cash.

I wonder if that works in Michigan. When I tried to look up Ford Options here ... doesn't seem like we get the incentive.

I talked to a friend of mine who worked as a financial guy for Ford for 30 years (he just retired last year). He told me the incentives that Ford offers will vary GREATLY from region to region of the country. Based on that ... I'm thinking may be the incentive doesn't exist here.

It looks like there might be a $1000 incentive to do straight financing (not options, not lease). So I may just go that route.

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[macchiaz-o]

I wonder if that works in Michigan. When I tried to look up Ford Options here ... doesn't seem like we get the incentive.

I talked to a friend of mine who worked as a financial guy for Ford for 30 years (he just retired last year). He told me the incentives that Ford offers will vary GREATLY from region to region of the country. Based on that ... I'm thinking may be the incentive doesn't exist here.

It looks like there might be a $1000 incentive to do straight financing (not options, not lease). So I may just go that route.

Choose the dealer closest to your house on the Mach-E builder web put page and then use the financing calculator on that page to see your local incentive.

You should be getting $1,000 cash incentive if you go with either of the Options terms and probably $0 incentive for all other choices (such as no financing or traditional retail loan or RCL).

 

[eltonlin]

I wonder if that works in Michigan. When I tried to look up Ford Options here ... doesn't seem like we get the incentive.

I talked to a friend of mine who worked as a financial guy for Ford for 30 years (he just retired last year). He told me the incentives that Ford offers will vary GREATLY from region to region of the country. Based on that ... I'm thinking may be the incentive doesn't exist here.

It looks like there might be a $1000 incentive to do straight financing (not options, not lease). So I may just go that route.

Yeah I'm in a $2500 incentive location so it makes more sense in my scenario. If you only have $1000, definitely run the numbers; I think the regular financing may be the better path forward...

EDIT: Yeah I just plugged in $1000 into my model - definitely makes sense to go the financing route (assuming 0.9% applies to you) if you only have that option.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Choose the dealer closest to your house on the Mach-E builder web put page and then use the financing calculator on that page to see your local incentive.

You should be getting $1,000 cash incentive if you go with either of the Options terms and probably $0 incentive for all other choices (such as no financing or traditional retail loan or RCL).

When I do this (I just picked any nearby dealer and any car ... not specifically my car), I have two tabs:

The "Finance" tab shows the $1000 cash.
The "Lease" tab shows no offers (and only a 36 or 39 month lease ... no other terms)
There is no Ford Options tab.

I've tried punching in different zip codes around the country ... so far I can't find a location that shows Ford Options on the financing calculator. Possibly I'm on the wrong part of the website??

 

[JellyBelly]

When I do this (I just picked any nearby dealer and any car ... not specifically my car), I have two tabs:

The "Finance" tab shows the $1000 cash.
The "Lease" tab shows no offers (and only a 36 or 39 month lease ... no other terms)
There is no Ford Options tab.

I've tried punching in different zip codes around the country ... so far I can't find a location that shows Ford Options on the financing calculator. Possibly I'm on the wrong part of the website??

Options is not offered in every state so May be they don’t offer in yours.?

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Found the calculator... it only shows up on pages if I am configuring to buy. It's not the same as the calculator that shows up when I pick a car off the lot (I was just searching inventory and picking any car to see how the financing worked.) The finance calculator that shows up in the upper-right corner of the page when configuring & ordering *does* show the Ford Options.

Turns out for me, the Ford Options incentive is only $1000 ... same as if I do traditional financing. But traditional financing offers a 0.9% rate (Options is 2.25%).

 

[engnrng]

When I do this (I just picked any nearby dealer and any car ... not specifically my car), I have two tabs:

The "Finance" tab shows the $1000 cash.
The "Lease" tab shows no offers (and only a 36 or 39 month lease ... no other terms)
There is no Ford Options tab.

I've tried punching in different zip codes around the country ... so far I can't find a location that shows Ford Options on the financing calculator. Possibly I'm on the wrong part of the website??

I think Options is only for the MACH-E. Choose a Mach E and Options should show up.

 

[ajmartineau]

Yes @methorian is correct- a trade in can be done with Options and it counts towards the down payment.

See this:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/my-mach-e-day-1-impressions.2993/post-95192

My trade is worth more than the 30% max for options. I think they may try to low-ball me. Where I live a trade saves you the 10% sales tax for the value of the trade. I'm glad you guys are going first to run all the numbers on the breakeven scenarios.

Is there a minimum number o months I would have to keep the options plan or financing so that the dealer doesn't get charged back?

 

[TheVirtualTim]

I think Options is only for the MACH-E. Choose a Mach E and Options should show up.

I did choose a Mach-E. When I picked a car from dealer inventory there's a link to show monthly payment and that gives a calculator that shows traditional financing vs. leasing ... but not Ford Options. Only traditional financing had the $1000 incentive.

To get "options" to show up, I had to act like I was ordering a Mach-E ... then a Financing Calculator link shows up in the upper-right corner and *that* calculator shows traditional financing vs. Ford Options. For my zip-code they are only offering $1000 incentive.

For me, there is:

1. $7500 federal tax credit for buying the car
2. $1000 federal tax credit for installing the charger (30% of purchase & install to a max of $1000 but my install was expensive so I'll be getting the $1000 cap)
3. $500 utility rebate (DTE Energy) for buying a qualifying charger
4. $1000 incentive cash for the traditional lease.

It works out to a combined $10k ($8500 off the car and $1500 off the charger install project)

There are no state or local incentive programs. Actually my state sort of does the opposite ... they ding us for a higher annual license tag fee because they figure they aren't collecting gasoline tax.

 

[Maquis]

Is there a minimum number o months I would have to keep the options plan or financing so that the dealer doesn't get charged back?

The last time I gamed the system (2017) the dealer asked me not to pay off the loan before 120 days to avoid them being penalized. But I did pay like 90% of the principle on my first payment!

 

[eltonlin]

My trade is worth more than the 30% max for options. I think they may try to low-ball me. Where I live a trade saves you the 10% sales tax for the value of the trade. I'm glad you guys are going first to run all the numbers on the breakeven scenarios.

Is there a minimum number o months I would have to keep the options plan or financing so that the dealer doesn't get charged back?

Yeah this was posted before that it was something like 3-4 months. I think it's a reasonable period of time to endure so as to not penalize the dealer.

 

[DBC]

Not to argue, but in my particular situation it works out better: I get $2500 in incentives and don't pay sales tax on a BEV. I fully expect solid state batteries (or some other significant advancement) to be available in 4 years, and so plan to roll whatever equity my 2021 Mach E has in on a Ford with that better battery. Hopefully it's a BEV mustang convertible coupe, but who knows. With that in mind, I'll actually save just about $1k thanks to the $2500 cash incentive:

The reason you get this result is because your down was so large. Go back and run the numbers with 10% down. Options will be marginally more expensive even at 36 months.

However, my point has been that you're not looking at a big difference since it's not a lot of money no matter how you calculate it. Best to make a decision based on things other than a few dollars one way or another.

Now it's also true that serial leasing is more expensive than buying and holding. This simply follows from the fact that vehicles depreciate less per year. You might be able to use Options twice and pay the same amount as financing for six years, but you'd have residual value in the MME.

Not sure you know this, but under Options you are guaranteed the same rate in the contract if you refinance when the balloon is due. Makes it a bit of a no-brainer since the financing APR over 72 months is higher.

I personally doubt there will be a vehicle with solid state batteries in four years but there may be other vehicles you want.

 

[DBC]

Turns out for me, the Ford Options incentive is only $1000 ... same as if I do traditional financing. But traditional financing offers a 0.9% rate (Options is 2.25%).

The 2.25% Options rate is over 72 months whereas the .9% Financing rate is over 36 or 48 months. The 60 month Financing rate is 1.9% and the 72 Financing rate is 3.9%.

 

[generaltso]

The 2.25% Options rate is over 72 months

It could actually be stretched to 84 months at that rate if you did 48 month Options and then refinanced for another 36 months.

 

[timbop]

When I do this (I just picked any nearby dealer and any car ... not specifically my car), I have two tabs:

The "Finance" tab shows the $1000 cash.
The "Lease" tab shows no offers (and only a 36 or 39 month lease ... no other terms)
There is no Ford Options tab.

I've tried punching in different zip codes around the country ... so far I can't find a location that shows Ford Options on the financing calculator. Possibly I'm on the wrong part of the website??

You CANNOT pick any old Ford car; the mach-e incentives and rates are different. You have to pick the mach-e. To see the calculator, go to the mache E subpage on ford.com, click "configure your mach-e", select the model and battery, and then click the little calculator in the upper right