premiums paid at dealership for "market adjust"?

[lhoboy]

Originally Posted by spdickey

There are other auto brands that are "no haggle." Saturn anyone?

Yes,
But I don't see folks standing in line for a Saturn.

[spdickey]

Originally Posted by spdickey

Won't happen. Roger Penske promised we'll be delivered at MSRP plus "destination" and taxes. Said so on the San Jose video, check it out.

There are other auto brands that are "no haggle." Saturn anyone?

Just pointing out that there are car lines out there who dictate their dealers sell at MSRP

[idahosmart]

Dealerships may still try to hide some ADM in their destination fees, doc fees, etc.

Tom

[spdickey]

The destination fees whould be shown on the original factory sticker. So not a part of dealer markup. Doc/title fees don't usually appear until you see the purchase order and those are usually pass throughs to the DMV.

Extra dealer installed equipment is one place to watch out for. Also there is dealer profit in the extra factory service plans.

Try to ask for the "actual factory invoice." Its as close as you can get to the price the dealer pays for the car, less dealer holdback.

[DTB73]

Interesting you mention Saturn because believe it or not people are waiting in line for Saturns and Saturn dealers ARE marking up their cars. The basic response from dealers is that you can't haggle to get a better price, they will not sell for less than MSRP, but nothing says they can't sell for more than MSRP. Don't expect GM to help, their response is to remember what the "S" in MSRP stands for. Basically dealers are independent and they can set their own prices.
And some dealers brag that they don't add mark-ups but they require you to spend $3,000 to buy overpriced rims and other accessories.

The smart situation is a little different because you actually have both the manufacturer and the dealer network saying they will sell for MSRP and there isn't any real competition between dealers since they are all PAG.

[MicroNut]

Originally Posted by DTB73

...The smart situation is a little different because you actually have both the manufacturer and the dealer network saying they will sell for MSRP and there isn't any real competition between dealers since they are all PAG.

In the case of smart, PAG's primary role is that of distributor. Although PAG does own a large number of dealerships, most of the (proposed) smart dealers are not in fact part of the PAG empire.

Nonetheless, PAG appears to have a very tight rein on the new smart dealers. Right now they all seem to be singing from the same "there shall be no mark-up" hymn book. Don't know how that works from a legal standpoint. It'll be interesting to see if anyone breaks ranks, and if so what happens to them.

[Old smart]

Have PAG or smartUSA themselves ever used the term "MSRP?" I know they use the descriptors "starting at..." and "Total Price:," but I haven't seen MSRP anywhere that I can recall.

What can they do to a dealer not playing ball? Perhaps shut them off for a while or terminate their dealership.

[Carnut]

Fish, if you listen to Roger in the San Jose tape he says that he and Dave have reserved one at full "MSRP".

Heh heh heh

[Old smart]

Yeah, I know, but I've never seen it committed to their own print. Was he responding to a question from someone who used that term?

[MicroNut]

I had not paid attention to this before, but the official press release from smart USA on pricing does use the term MSRP:

http://www.smartusa.com/smart-media-...ouncement.aspx