New Car

It still looks like a grand am... and I think you right about them hiding it!

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by SwifDi
Man I hate that idea though... Chances are I\'ll probably do the same, but my main priority will be to pay for the car myself upfront.

If you want a new car, this is what you\'ll do. It\'s a fact of life, provided you are not filthy rich.

Me, I bought my 2002 Celica GT, when it was brand new, only had five miles on it and that was from MY test drive. I pay $483 a month on it tho\'. It\'s the price you pay for a new car.

Originally posted by Living-In-Clip
If you want a new car, this is what you\'ll do. It\'s a fact of life, provided you are not filthy rich.

Me, I bought my 2002 Celica GT, when it was brand new, only had five miles on it and that was from MY test drive. I pay $483 a month on it tho\'. It\'s the price you pay for a new car.

Dealers really get you with car notes. Especially if you dont know what you are doing. I knew somebody that got a 1998 camry a year after and was paying around $400 a month more than a year later. Sad if you ask me

 How much is the Celica anyway?

Read this site before buying a car:

http://www.carbuyingtips.com

Giga:  I can\'t remember how you said you got such a good deal on your Mustang, but if it was through the Ford D-Plan, you might be interested in the following article.  Hopefully you friend at the dealer won\'t come looking for your birth certificate next year when they get audited.  

Ford Motor audits sales to relatives
Automaker wants to curtail abuse at dealerships

By Jason Stein
Automotive News / December 15, 2003

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. is getting tougher on dealers who sell discounted vehicles to employees and their relatives.

In selective audits of its D-plan purchases, Ford is requiring extensive documentation for previous sales. Dealers are required to provide marriage licenses, birth certificates or adoption records as proof of a relative\'s relationship to an employee. In some cases, proof is required for sales that go back more than a year.

Ford says it is requiring the documentation to curtail abuses it has uncovered in its D-plan programs. Under D-plan guidelines, dealership employees and their relatives are eligible to purchase or lease up to two new vehicles per calendar year at 4 percent below invoice.

The requirements were not part of Ford\'s original sales and service agreement, which stated dealers could be audited but did not outline the details for proof of eligibility.

The tougher stance outrages some dealers. They say obtaining the documentation from former employees in particular has been nearly impossible.

"Two years ago, when they started the plan, no one said anything about needing a marriage license," says Curley Lee, a dealer at Courtesy Ford-Lincoln-Mercury in Danville, Ill., who is being audited by Ford. "My credibility is now in question. I\'m supposed to go back to my technicians and say, \'Do you remember that car your sister-in-law bought in 2002? Go back and get your marriage license and her birth certificate for me.\' This is Mickey Mouse."

Guidelines not specific

Lee says he has been asked to verify 63 employee sales from July 2002 to November, of which 20 were sold by salespeople who no longer work at his dealership. If he cannot verify the eligibility of his former employees, it will cost him nearly $50,000, the sum of the discounts on the cars he has sold.

"They want me to go back on ex-employees, some who were fired, and ask for a marriage license? How am I going to do that?" Lee says.

Ford acknowledges its original guidelines for D-plan sales were not specific, but says it added the documentation requirements in July after uncovering extensive misuse of D-plan purchases during audits that started in October 2002. Ford distributed its most-detailed notice to dealers outlining the new requirements in July.

"Over a period of time, we began doing audits and found misuses in the program as we dug deeper into the process," says spokeswoman Beverly Thacker. "The broad statement used to say, \'You can be audited.\' The standard eligibility rules always applied. This is just more detailed."

Ford will not disclose the number of annual audits it conducts. Thacker said audits are not done randomly but are targeted to "high-risk" dealers or dealerships that showed a high number of D-plan transactions based on the number of employees.

Ford said as D-plan benefits have increased in popularity and usage, the number of dealer audits will increase.

A D-plan audit does not necessarily mean a dealer has misused the program, and each dealer is responsible for monitoring employee use of the program.

Thacker says Ford acknowledges that the retroactive nature of the plan could make the documentation process more difficult for some dealers. Ford will give dealers time to gather the appropriate documentation, she says,"and we will reimburse them (if) they can prove the sale is legitimate later."

Ford has been offering D-plan sales since April 2000 when it first announced it would begin giving a "Blue Oval Certified" designation to well-run dealerships.

As of Dec. 4, Ford had completed 102,000 D-plan sales this year, nearly 4 percent of all Ford Division sales, up from 91,000 in 2002. More than 90 percent of Ford Division dealerships use D-plan, Thacker says.

Dealerships with Lincoln Premier and Mercury Advantage certification also offer D-plan discounts.

Trying to build loyalty

Dealership employees may extend their D-plan eligibility to family members, including spouses, parents, spouse\'s parents, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and grandchildren.

Buddy Sokola, former general manager at Day Ford in Monroeville, Pa., says some sales at his dealership were impossible to prove. Sokol says the amount charged back to Day Ford in a March audit was "considerable." The process even affected him personally.

"Ford questioned the D-plan purchase made by my twin brother," Sokol says. "We had to pursue his birth certificate, and I had to get mine to match - and that wasn\'t easy."

Says Lee: "If they wanted this stuff up front, why didn\'t they tell me, \'In order to have D-plan, this is what you need to do.\' But you\'re going to give me rules to the game and then say the rules are changing? You can\'t come back and say this is what you should have done. I just want the playing field to be level."

[clips]

damn just give the people the discount. it\'s not like they are really losin any dough on any vehichle, as they sell the cars for thousands more than their worth anyway.tack on lic,taxes,fees etc. & voila! instant profit. not just ford tho...all of \'em.

too bad u dont get this in the states


coz teh "2003 4dr commodore/lumina SS" >> GTO

anyways, congrats on the car Gigashadow .

Originally posted by Coredweller
Giga:  I can\'t remember how you said you got such a good deal on your Mustang, but if it was through the Ford D-Plan, you might be interested in the following article.  Hopefully you friend at the dealer won\'t come looking for your birth certificate next year when they get audited.  

Good article, I am safe though, its my sister\'s husband, so my deal was legit.  Though he did give his other D plan for the year to one of the their friends :eek: I hope he has a heads up about this!

They do have problems with this though - I have seen so many people begging for D and X plan pin numbers on Mustang forums it is pathetic.

Originally posted by Tyrant
too bad u dont get this in the states


coz teh "2003 4dr commodore/lumina SS" >> GTO

anyways, congrats on the car Gigashadow .

Thanks, hey is that another non domestic Chevy?  That looks nice, now why can\'t they build that here?