Quote:
Originally Posted by SoCali E36
Why anyone would be in favor of pay MSRP and not being able to get a better deal is beyond me.
|
Because MSRP is, essentially, a meaningless number. It's a marketing tactic to give dealers a number to start with, so when they knock money off of it you feel like you're getting a deal. There's no reason to believe that today's MSRPs are actually what BMW would be willing to sell the car for. It's just a number that's high enough to provide dealers with room for profit when they inevitably* undercut it.
I said this before, but it's like when a store raises the price of an item 20% this week so that they can sell it for 20% off next week. When you buy if for 20% "off", you feel like you've gotten a bargain. But all you've really done is pay the price they wanted in the first place. Same thing with MSRP: they really want MSRP - $x, so MSRP gives them room to reduce the price while still getting what they want and you feeling like you're some great negotiator.
The difference between dealerships and direct sales is that if you want to go in and just pay the dealer MSRP, they're more than happy to take the extra money, whereas the price is the price is the price with direct sales; you're not going to pay more than the number they really want for the car.
Now add it the slimy BS the dealer adds in – that most people get at least partially stuck with – and are you
really doing better than you'd do just buying the car from BMW?
Why does buying a car have to be different than buying almost anything else? What makes it so special, other than "that's the way it is"?
*Yes, there are some circumstances where they won't budge off the MSRP, and in fact add to it. But this is even worse for the arguments in favor of dealers.