[fengb]

Funnily enough, the listed MSRP usually much higher than actual dealership price.

[mjevans]

That's just so they can give you the illusion of some kind of savings.

It'd be like if I got to go in to a hiring offer and was able to demand a million dollars a year so that any lower salary seemed like a value.

[bduerst]

Anchoring. It's a negotiation tactic since most purchases are through negotiation.

Also the same with the advertised monthly leasing prices that you see on commercials - all subject to credit and other circumstances.

[saalweachter]

My experience has been that when you actually go in to buy a car, you get a swath of arbitrary discounts to the MSRP, then you get a few other fees and especially taxes that bring it back up to the MSRP.

So I'd guess that there's also a component of the high MSRP + large standard discounts which is also making sure that you don't come in expecting to pay an advertised price, get aaaallllmost all the way through the process, get the final price with tax that is ~10%/several k$ higher, and then crap out there both because it is a real kick in the pants and you may not have the extra money.

[driverdan]

Invoice minus promotions is what you should pay which is typically a few thousand USD less than MSRP.