The "Invoice"

So I hear a lot of guys say they paid $500 over invoice. So how do you get the invoice? The dealers I go to wont even let you leave with the numbers there writing down while your trying to negotiate. So do I just walk in a say let me see the invoice on that 1 over there and I'll add $5OO? Any tips from you pros out there would be appreciated. TIA

 

Invoice is number that is fabricated by the auto manufactures to make you feel like you got a good deal. The idea is that you are supposed to believe that the invoice number is the price the dealers themselves paid for the car but the reality is that there is a lot more that goes on with the dealerships than you know. They get volume based incentives, co-op dollars they can apply towards new or sometimes even old stock as well as other operational costs like advertising... there are sales based incentives the manufacturers give and dozens of other ways the dealers maximize profits. In truth it's more or less impossible to really know what a dealer paid for a given vehicle. You can find out invoice pricing from TrueCar, but to be honest the dealers will usually be more than happy to tell you what it is because it's a sales tool for their benefit. For the most part it should be fairly easy to purchase a vehicle for $500 over invoice. If the vehicle happens to be on the lot already, you should try to haggle for buying precisely at invoice and be happy if you end up within $200 over invoice. Don't for one second believe them when they tell you that at invoice they are making zero dollars. That's just not true.

 

Research what holdback means. Carbuyingtips.com is a really good resource of terminology. I read it about 15 years ago and the info still seems good ..
But they certainly populated the site with ads Just be mindful that a lot of their links are possibly sponsored.

 

When I got my Subaru the dealer physically showed me the copy of the invoice, then said he could take $700 off of it, then stated that he would make his profit on a factory-to-dealer incentive. I didn't argue since it was by far the best price we'd come across after a month of looking.