Couple Purchase questions

[Cjburn]

I was wondering why everyone seems to negotiate MSRP as the starting point. The last car I bought I started at dealer invoice, then subtract whatever rebates/incentives are available. With new cars the holdback is basically theirs, everything else comes off of the dealer "invoice" pricing.

 

[Cjburn]

Also was the extra 3K off in dealer cash expiring on 9/3?

 

[Sabs]

One good reason is that both MSRP and invoice prices vary. Certain paint colors and extras like remote start add to those numbers, since they're factory options. The MSRP is known but the adjusted invoice price with options is not.

As long as you're negotiating off of the MSRP with factory options and not any dealer add-ons (paint protection, nitrogen, etc) it's all the same.

There's a lot of mystery surrounding the dealer cash, and I haven't heard of one person who was able to both 1) confirm their dealer knows of this cash and 2) get a better deal because of it.

 

[Jay B.]

@Cjburn We keep referring to the discount off of MSRP because many people do not know the invoice price of the car they are looking at. Also many dealers are selling well below invoice price before any incentives so invoice price has become a bit irrelevant here.