when someone says i bought a car, it was whatever off msrp does that include the taxes/fees or is it the price of the car before that. example, i talked w/ someone about the IS250 AWD base. the price i was given was 32,900 for the car and total it was 35,318. The msrp is 35,069. does that mean i got 2,169 off msrp or got a quote having me pay 250 over. i have not bought the car yet.

 

You got $2169 discount from the MSRP, and then obviously you have to add the taxes and fees, whatever they are - based on the selling price.

 

normally what you want to aim for is a base price of between $100-$500 over the INVOICE price of the car. then add taxes and reg. to that for ur final cost. this sometimes doesnt apply to cars with particularly high demand or low supply (read: Prius after launch, BMW M6 after Launch, CGT forever.)

 

I don't know what NJ's tax rate on new cars is ( each state is different, of course ), but based on the figures you just gave us, that's around 7%.....a pretty hefty figure, but of course that includes the dealer's profit as well, so all 7% of it would not be taxes. I would double-check the figures quoted by the salesperson....but all in all it doesn't seem excessive. It is roughly in line, percentage-wise, with what I paid for my 2001 IS300.

 

that's why i always just ask them to tell me what's the OTD (out of the door) price, that makes a lot more sense to me

 

If your out the door price is the sticker price or close to it above or below (off course the more below the msrp - the better), then you generally got a good deal. (about invoice price plus taxes and fees)

this isnt necessarily true for all makes and models...just the ones in up to the 30K range, because difference in invoice to msrp is about $2500-$3000.