Looking for Florida dealership suggestions
 

This is my month for my first truck! Very excited but hate the buying process and suck at "dealing." I do have an X-plan pin if that's a better way to go.

Anyone have suggestions on dealerships they'd recommend? I'm game for just about anything. Ease of execution is my main goal. I do prefer e-mail to start. I will have a trade-in of a Mini, so I know that's an entirely different beast. But I don't want to get hosed either.

Any help would be great. I plan on starting to ramp up the process about mid-June. I'm in the Tampa Bay Area, but willing to travel if needed.

Thanks in advance.

I'm in Jacksonville but drove to Atlanta to buy my new FX4 a few weeks ago. John Pohl at Mall of Georgia Ford was awesome to deal with. Did the deal via email and a couple calls including a trade in. By the time I drove up it was just signing papers and picking up the new ride. Extremely honest and decent people there. Can't recommend highly enough!

On the other end, avoid Metro Ford in Miami at all costs. They are the prototype for all the bad car dealership stories. Absolute scam artists.

Karl Flammer Ford in Tarpon Springs bought mine there used. Talk to Ted Chronis. I wound up buying my truck over text and email. He was also nice enough to show me xplan pricing on all the new ones which there not suppose to do. I'll be buying my new one there next year.

My dad works at the Ford Autonation dealership in St. Pete... he loves it there and says they are a great dealer to work for... i would naturally assume his opinion is biased but I figured I'd send you his way... PM me if you want and I'll get u his info.... he's been into cars for his entire life and loves these f150's and from what I understand since they are a worldwide dealer you would get top dollar for your mini since they can get rid of it quickly

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I'll start working this up in another week and will definitely be using the dealers you guys have been kind enough to call out.

Thanks!

A little off your path perhaps but Johnson Ford in Atmore Alabama will do you right, they are on the border of Florida (literally) near North West Escambia County Fla/Escambia county Al. about 50 miles north of P'cola.

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Bartow Ford in Polk County. About 35 minutes from you. They'll beat anyone's price.

I bought my '05 new and my '13 new from Brandon Ford. They have been great to deal with each time and I have had pretty good luck with their service dept. also. They sell a huge volume of vehicles so they were able to beat the competition's price both times and they have a hundred trucks to choose from. They also sell/service a lot of SVT vehicles and lifted F150s so I feel like their service techs have a lot of good experience working on the higher end vehicles.

I have also heard good things about Bartow Ford, but have not been there myself.

I have mine serviced at Elder Ford of Tampa. They are having a brand new facility built. I can recommend their service department 100%. Ask for Shaun.

Can't comment on dealers but X-plan is the way to go - no haggling and you'll get close to invoice. You also get all the promotions and rebates too. The only haggling is trade in value so be prepared for that.

X-plan may not be the absolute best deal but it's close enough and still a really good deal.

Wait... So you DO get the incentives and rebates with X-plan?? One sales guy I spoke to, said x-plan pretty much meant "you get what you get" which to me, meant no deals. But if I can get close to invoice AND rebates, that's a great sounding way to go.

Also... Thanks again for all the dealers call-outs. I'll be web surfing all night with these :thumbsup:

I shopped pretty extensively at Brandon Ford, Gator Ford and Jarrett Ford in Plant City. In the end, Jarrett beat the other guys prices by quite a bit. I sent another friend there, and he too felt like the price was too good to pass up. Check them out on the web, start with their internet prices and work from there. I'm sure you'll be happy. Good luck!

Oh, and I was way below x plan pricing. Ignore window sticker prices, they mean nothing. My window sticker was 10k over what I paid.

Stay away from Palm Bay Ford on Malabar Rd in Palm Bay. Absolutely the worst attempted buying experience. Went in and test drove a truck, negotiated a good end of model year deal and when it came time to sign the paperwork, they worked in extra grand on the price; I left. Got a call later that night, got the grand knocked off so I went back in the next day. Somehow a grand worked its way back in the overall price so I left again. Someone claiming to be the sales manager sent me a text and said no more games, they will honor the original negotiated price. Went back in against my better judgment only to be told that I didn't qualify for one of the rebate incentives because I wasn't a FL resident, and guess what, a grand worked its way back in to the price after I signed the price contract. I left again, never ever to return! They are a bunch of scheisters!

Unless it's changed since I bought my Taurus at then end of 09 it was a set price for the vehicle which was about invoice + $300. I then got the rebate they were offering at the time ($1500, IIRC) on top of that.

They also must show you Xplan pricing as well as the plan caps the BS fees so there is some savings there too. There is no dealing on the Xplan price - it is what it is, no if's ands or butts.

You can go to http://www.fordpartner.com use code MC405 to check out the pricing.

You'll have to get an actual PIN to purchase but it's a good place to at least get an idea of pricing.

I recommend Elder Ford in Tampa also. Service department is great, I also deal with Shaun Sharma when going to the service department he is great to deal with. I am on my 4th F150 that I have bought from Elder Ford, and I always deal with Maurice Rojo smooth deal every time. I have spent a whole day there before looking at and test driving trucks and Maurice will stick with you the whole time, he will not rush you so he can go and make another sale. He is very professional. Our current truck was found at a dealership in South Carolina because they did not have the exact package/color combo that we wanted on their lot. Maurice sat there with us and search on his computer and found the truck we wanted and had it on their lot in about 3 or 4 days ready to go. I will continue to give them my business in the future.:thumbsup: Good luck with who ever you choose.

Hi Badmojo,

Congrats on deciding to pull the trigger! Seems like some folks have already chimed in with some recommendations. Let us know what you decide to bring home and feel free to let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I can't wait to see some pictures of your new truck! :D

Crystal

x3. Ask for Nasser is sales. He's very strait forward and I had a great experience with them.

I also purchased my truck brand-new from Brandon Ford. I sent them an email regarding the truck I was looking for and they already had it listed at the Tru Car price. I own my own small business and have trouble proving my income. Also due to the economy my credit was ****. I sent them an email on a 2014 F1 50 super cab 4 x 4 5.0. I sent them my bank statements for the last three months and the next day he called me and said my truck was ready to be picked up. I also had a trade-in of a 2005 Jeep wrangler which I told him Kelly bluebook price was between $7000-7500. I drove 3 1/2 hours to get to the dealership. They had just about all of my paperwork ready to go they quickly assessed my jeep and gave me the kelly bluebook value that we spoke about over the phone. I was in and out of the dealership in about an hour. My salesman was great and had everything ready to go because they knew I had a long journey back home. So far the best dealership I've dealt with. And I have purchased a lot of vehicles.

I also also live in Tampa and I bought my truck 3 weeks ago. I did extensive research and it came down to Jarret Ford (they have 5 dealers in the area, try jarretford.com) and Countryside Ford (Clearwater). I ended up buying from countryside Ford because they had the exact truck I wanted. These dealers are selling their trucks at invoice price less any available rebate. I got mine for 10k less than the MSRP. I also had the chance to go with an X plan, and they did all the numbers in front on me for both options (with and without X plan). It was pretty much the same. The X plan I think it was $200 cheaper. However , by using the X plan, they were not willing to work with me about a few things I wanted added to the truck (like the drop in Bed liner ) so at the end I didn't use the X plan and they gave me the bed liner at half the price. I hope this helps.

The best ford dealer in the tampa area is Brandon ford, they will beat any price hands down, they have the biggest inventory available