How to Find the Dealer Invoice Prices

Car dealerships purchase vehicles from auto manufacturers at reduced prices and then mark those automobiles up before selling them to consumers. The result is a list price, or "sticker price," of a new vehicle that is higher than the dealer paid. If you want to negotiate a lower selling price than the sticker price, you can up your chances of success by walking into the negotiations knowing the dealer invoice price of the car you are interested in purchasing.

Instructions

1

Go online to edmunds.com, a free service that provides both the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) as well as dealer invoice price for new vehicles.

2

Enter your ZIP code as well as the vehicle model, year, make and trim. Edmunds provides drop-down menus for all of these fields (except ZIP code which you must enter yourself). This makes your search easy. After you have selected all criteria, press the "Continue" button below the fields.

3

Select the "Pricing" tab on the far left beneath the photo of the car. After you select your criteria and press "Continue," a new page will appear with all the information Edmunds has about the vehicle you are interested in purchasing. When you select the "Pricing" tab, a field will appear below it that shows the national base price for the car you selected. Within that field are two columns - one listing the MSRP and one listing the invoice price. The invoice price is lower than the MSRP and represents the dealer invoice price for that vehicle. You can use this information in your online or in-person negotiations with a dealer to purchase the vehicle.