Something I've noticed browsing car websites

Yes.

 

They do alter the price based on the time of month, how long the vehicle has sat, how nice you look when you walk in the dealership, and the phase of the moon to name a few.

On top of that, a lot of used car dealers have no idea what package a Prius is. So you get them mislabelled either higher or lower and the price is all over the place.

Then there are addons like the Blizzard Pearl colour could add a good chunk of change which could make a lower end pearl model more expensive than a higher end non-pearl model. Or some will have all the dealer add-ons already installed, others wont.

It is all a big game of try to screw the consumer. Tesla is the only one that does it right.

 

Since I don't know, how does Tesla do it right?

 

Tesla sets a price. And that's it. No sales, no negotiations, no add-ons, no fees, nothing like that. They advertise a single price and that's the price you pay no matter where you live, no matter how many are sold that month, nothing like that. They say it will cost $X, you can take it or leave it.

 

I thought that's what you meant. I don't think it worked too well for Saturn, but then that was GM...............I've long advocated straight pricing like everything else we buy and was hoping the Saturn thing would have worked out better. I know people still get deals on other stuff, but nothing like the madness of buying a car. I actually think people would trade more often it weren't such an ordeal.

 

Sometimes a dealer might sell a car cheaply because it's damaged. I was recently helping a friend shop for a new car and we found one on a dealer website that was about $2k cheaper than any other dealer for a car with those same features. He test drove the car and everything seemed good. After completing the paperwork and being ready to drive off the lot we noticed that the front end of the car was damaged. It looked like the car had run into a wall at a low speed. Since we caught it before he drove off the lot the dealer was forced to fix it. They had to replace the grille and the entire front bumper. If he had taken the car off the lot I'm sure the dealer would have refused to cover the damage. I'm pretty sure that this damage is why the car was listed so cheaply.