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New Car Invoice Pricing - What to expect

Dealer Invoice - It's the Holy Grail of new car buying. Most car dealers don't like to mention the word. Others throw it around freely. Everyone wants to buy their new car "at invoice", but few consumers seem to fully understand what that means.

Of course, in the strictest sense, we know that invoice is the wholesale price of an item - the price a dealer would pay when buying direct from the manufacturer. But if that were all there was to it, car dealers couldn't sell at invoice - they just wouldn't be making any profit. The truth is that invoice does not in any way reflect the actual price a dealer paid for a vehicle, much in the same way that MSRP does not reflect the actual price a consumer paid. There are many other factors involved that affect price, including dealer holdback and factory-to-dealer incentives. These factors often allow a dealer to sell "at invoice" (a valid claim since invoice is a fixed number) and still turn a small profit. Note that even though it doesn't represent the dealer's true cost, it still represents a very good deal to the consumer under normal market conditions.

In spite of all of this, factory invoice price remains a useful starting point for comparing several dealers' markups. Invoice Dealers attempts to use this price point to allow customers to compare one dealer's offer price to another's. Some state laws prevent invoice-based advertising because it can be misleading, so please read our Disclaimers and Terms of Use for more detailed information.