Car buyers are often told that price differences are determined by negotiation skills and market timing. New research suggests something far more troubling.
CarEdge, an online auto consumer company, deployed an AI shopping agent to contact 100 Ford dealers across the country and request in-store prices for the same trucks at essentially the same MSRP. The result was a staggering price difference of $17,008. This was not caused by vehicles, but by opaque fees, inconsistent practices, and intentional barriers to transparency.
Each dealer received the same request for an in-store price for the same truck. The vehicles were the same. Manufacturer’s suggested retail prices varied within just a few hundred dollars. The buyer profile was the same for each inquiry. The only variable was the dealer itself.
Street prices for the same trucks ranged from $53,402 to $70,410. That’s a difference of $17,008 for vehicles with similar MSRPs. For consumers, this is no small difference. There are thousands of dollars in additional costs that are not related to the vehicle itself.
“The biggest takeaway from this exercise is clear: The problem isn’t the car. It’s not the manufacturer. The problem is the lack of price transparency at the dealer level. If this happens when you contact 100 dealers with the same request, the experience of the average buyer who only contacts 3 to 5 dealers is likely to be much worse,” said CarEdge CEO Zach Szewska.
Pricing and add-ons were a completely different story. Dealers routinely piled on different fees and they weren’t standardized in any meaningful way. These additional features created confusion, obscured true pricing, and drove up the final cost for buyers who believed they were comparing similar offers.
During our outreach, CarEdge identified several recurring dealer tactics. Many dealers refused to provide prices via email. Some advertised discounts offset by large hidden fees. Mandatory add-on packages were presented as non-negotiable. Some dealers applied rebates that were not available to buyers. Some people stop responding completely after the first contact.
