I'm shopping the 2012 XF, and having trouble finding the spec (color and options) that I want in existing inventory locally. I was told by one dealer in my area that they can no longer order new 2012s, and are waiting for 2013s to become available. Is this true, or just a line to get me to buy from his current stock? Thanks in advance to anyone in the know!

 

It is highly possible that you can no longer order 2012s.

 

I'd be surprised if they could still order one, but they could certainly trade with another dealership for one more suitable for you (you would of course have to pay the upcharge for bringing it in from another dealer).

 

I had my dealer search for a 2011 when I bought mine as he did not have the color combo I wanted. It cost about $500 to have the car transported from another state.
The difficulty is that your negotiating power is diminished as you are dealing through one dealer to another, and you are looking for a particular car. I suspect it is getting late to order 2012's, but I don't know for sure. It depends on there factory schedule, but it wouldn't suprise me. I set a price I was willing to pay and he called about 8 dealers before he found one that was close to what I wanted. There should be enough 2012's around where this should be less of an issue now then when I was shopping for a 2011 about 1-1/2 months ago.

You can buy from another dealer not close to you, but in my case the closest dealer is over an hour away and they provide pick up of my car if it needs service at no charge, provide a loaner, and return the car when it's done. If I had access to a closer dealer for service I may have handled a direct transaction with another dealer and just had the car serviced close to me. In this case, I really needed to have a dealer that could turnkey the service. If it was a BMW or an Audi, I could have purchased it anywhere and had it serviced locally, although dealers tend to give preference to people who purchase from them An assoiciate of mine is having some 2nd tier service because he did not buy his vehcile from the local BMW dealer. He tried but they wouldn't work with him. It all depends on your viewpoint, desire to save extra bucks, and amount of hassle you want to out up with. Hope you can work it out to your satisfaction.

 

Thanks for the input thus far. Any truth to the rumor that the supercharged V6 base model will drop to a lower MSRP vs 2012, and that with the supercharged V8 as the standard V8 option going forward (no more NA V8), it will start at around the current Portfolio pricing? I overhead what I assumed was a speculative, not definitive, conversation at the dealership; my understanding from the PR is that 2013 MSRPs won't actually be released until August.

Again, thanks to anyone in the know that can confirm or correct- I'm finding it very difficult to get any concrete information from the dealers during this model year change-over, and may just hold off on any purchasing decisions until information is more cut and dry.