Pricing Basics for New-Car Buying

Edmunds.com

Pricing Basics for New-Car Buying

To get a great deal on a new car, you need to understand pricing terms.

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zabeery

Outstanding article and very informative one…
A must read for new car buyers

thrstonlovi1

This article is useless. Dealers know that you are going to try these tricks during negotiations. This is why most dealers have instituted a policy of "no haggle" pricing. It is going to be their sticker price and their number for your trade-in or you will not be buying.

tederikson

Is there any way to determine the "invoice price" of a car? The Edmunds search of the site for it led to a long list of irrelevant references, such as a comparison of 11 year old sedans.

TheRealistMaga2020

thrstonlovi1 is correct, in 2019 it hasn't changed. A slew of dealers and NONE will budge on multiple vehicles. It's a damn joke.

NoLiVid

Everyone in these comments suck at negotiating, I got a brand new Honda Accord sport for less than invoice, just tell them they gotta go lower or go to another dealer, it’s that simple, they would rather sell you the car than for you to go to Toyota or any other competitor.

Norman6661

Very Helpful. I learned about invoice prices 30 years ago. The holdback price was created because of people like us. I fully disagree that we need to go as high as true market value. I intend to pay no more than $500 over invoice but again intend to pay as close to invoice as possible.

Falmouth540

If you look at multiple websites you can get an idea what people are paying. KBB is what I used to value my trade-in. I ended up with a below invoice price and good value for my car. I bought a CRV a few weeks ago and the dealer seemed very willing to negotiate a fair price.

Pugsy

This is basic information and easy to understand. Some of the websites make it very difficult to understand car buying.

karhill1

There is nothing complex about these values. If things were simple the price would be the MSRP which would be the Price. Of course nothing is simple.

As noted the MSRP is merely suggested. Astute buyers usually pay less than car buyers who visit a dealer without knowledge.

Invoice is not the price the dealer paid. As a result of a number of incentives (which vary from time to time) and hold back (percentage of MSRP returned to the dealer after the sale by the manufacturer) dealers pay much less than invoice. In normal times, these are not normal times, most car dealers are pleased when a car buyer agrees to pay a bit over invoice.

And, as astute car buyers know, the real danger in any car buying process lies in the Box which is the F&I office. That smarmy F&I manager is not a banker and he or she is no friend of the car buyer. The goal of the F&I manager is simple. It is to increase profit through bumping the interest rate and selling as many overpriced products of dubious (at best) value as they can convince the car buyer to buy.