How to get a premium AWD Ext via Ford Search Inventory tool! - A guide

[yeomanse]

Confirmed this method of searching works. I just put a deposit on the hard to find premium AWD extended battery thanks to this method!

https://shop.ford.com/inventory/mach-e/

My process was use the search inventory tool, filter by premium only, up the radius to 100 miles, then sort by price high to low. Since the premium E4X are all ~55k - 56k they were at the top. Then just start calling.... I made a spread sheet to track ones that I reached out for and names/numbers of sales people who were helpful in case in a couple of days another one popped up for them.

This is a hack because the ford website shows all cars even ones in transit. The specific dealer's website doesn't show in transit cars most of the time.

You need to ask them about the exact VIN from the ford search. If you just call them asking about premium E4Xs they will just laugh and even if you ask about any incoming they still cant see most of them for some reason and will say there are none on the way. If you have an exact VIN however, they will take it to the sales manager and he will look it up and if it is free you can put a deposit!

Since dealers cant hide any of their inventory from the ford site, If a car is on this tool it could be one of 4 categories:
1. A custom order of some lucky bastard that is either in transit or waiting to be picked up by the new owner.
2. A demo car that the dealer owner is currently using. Of course whether you should buy one of these or not is a different discussion but usually the ones I came across weren't even close to being on sale yet.
3. A dealer ordered car that is either in transit or on the lot that some lucky bastard already has a deposit on. Either he was using this method and found it early or is buddy buddy with a sales manager.
4. VERY RARE and obviously what we are looking for. A dealer ordered car that is probably only in transit and is free for the taking. I say in transit only because all the dealers I chatted with say that no premium E4X arrives to the lot with out a deposit already.

Act fast! You can put in a deposit over the phone at most dealers. Get ready to haggle to bring them down as close to sticker price as possible. Even the fair ones that are doing msrp, x-plan, options, etc for orders will be charging a mark up on these dealer ordered premium E4X. For some reason the dealers only get allowed 1 premium E4X per 2 to 3 months. After we signed, the sales manager was visibly heart broken that we were taking away his only premium E4X this quarter and he said their next one wont be until September. So in reality, you don't have any leverage when comes to the negotiation. They started at 3k over and after some intense back and forth they only budged to 2.5k over... Im moving in a couple of weeks to the suburbs and want this to be our first car so I didn't really have an option.

So I just wanted to let all of you non-orderers know that it is possible! Even if you want one now and are picky on the trim. It was kind of my full time job for a couple of days but I have a deposit on the hardest to find model that'll arrive in a couple of days!

Good luck to others! Its worth a try!

Edit: Added the paragraph about asking for about an exact VIN (the key to this whole thing)

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[mtxpert]

I used cars.com to search for a 21 Mach E within 500 miles then when the list pops up of what you want (choose the options) click on Check availability button and fill everything out, once you do once then every other one is auto filled when you click on the check availability button. I reached out to like 30 dealers this way and then found the Mach E we purchased in CO which they delivered to us in Phoenix. Worked out awesome.

 

[node]

For those wanting to search beyond the 100 mile radius Ford's site limits you to, you can manually change the URL ("&Radius=100") and increase it to 500 miles max.

I can also vouch for this method of finding a Mach E in the wild as this is how I landed my Carbonized Gray Premium ER AWD this month. My car happened to be a dealer ordered car that was in production when I found it listed on Ford.com. The dealer also accepted Plan pricing and had no ADM which was a very nice bonus.

 

[dano]

For those wanting to search beyond the 100 mile radius Ford's site limits you to, you can manually change the URL ("&Radius=100") and increase it to 500 miles max.

I can also vouch for this method of finding a Mach E in the wild as this is how I landed my Carbonized Gray Premium ER AWD this month. My car happened to be a dealer ordered car that was in production when I found it listed on Ford.com. The dealer also accepted Plan pricing and had no ADM which was a very nice bonus.

I did this same thing, but found one flaw... There seemed to be a limit of the number of dealers within that radius that it would actually check. I set it to 500 miles and had a specific search for a NYC zip code and the same search with a Philly zip and ended up with a different set of cars matching search. The effect is different when you center the search on less population density.

 

[yeomanse]

I used cars.com to search for a 21 Mach E within 500 miles then when the list pops up of what you want (choose the options) click on Check availability button and fill everything out, once you do once then every other one is auto filled when you click on the check availability button. I reached out to like 30 dealers this way and then found the Mach E we purchased in CO which they delivered to us in Phoenix. Worked out awesome.

I'm glad it worked out for you! But I think cars.com might be a step behind the ford website since cars.com is getting the info from the actual dealer's website which most of the time requires the car to be on the lot. Every time I called about a listing on the dealers site the sales person would be like yah that car got a deposit way before it ended up on our site... The ford site is how people are being able to get ahead. For example the one I have my deposit on was and still is not on cars.com.

However, I do have to say the easy availability check is nice on cars.com, so for somebody who doesn't have a lot of time to put towards their search could definitely start there but if the model they want keeps being not available they will have to switch to the ford website method to get ahead of others.

 

[yeomanse]

The dealer also accepted Plan pricing and had no ADM which was a very nice bonus.

Nice!! And good tip about the 500 miles, I'm surprised I didn't think of that!

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