Buying a 2014 Forester 2.5i Premium in Florida. Best price??

Depending on the local market *, it'll be hard to do lower than invoice (not impossible). Most dealers should give you the invoice to look over (At least in my experience).

Once you have that information, put in your specs and location on TrueCar to guage how many are bought below / at / over invoice and arrive at a figure you are comfortable with.

Other ways discounts are had are -

1. Employee Discount
2. VIP pricing (by being a member of certain clubs)

My method was to request quotes from all dealers within a distance I was willing to drive from / to. Start going back and forth with them - Give each other the other dealer's quotes (if possible without mentioning dealership names) and eliminating dealers that won't come down.

If you want an easier route, try costco or a credit union that will find a deal for you. These however will not get you the best deal out there. Only better than MSRP.

Stringer said:

Hi, i've been doing alot of research for a new vehicle and im pretty much settled on the 2014 Forester 2.5i Premium, as long as I can get it at a good price. I see that mine builds out at $25,820 + ttt (only an automatic transmission added) on the Subaru wesite. Is it realistic to say, pay around $22,500 + ttt for one of these? How much off this sticker might I be able save through negotiation? I really want to get one of these but I'm afraid the full sticker price of $25,820 + ttt is too much for me to spend. Thanks!

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Stringer said:

Ok thanks for the help. It's just that if the true "invoice" is 24372, they wouldnt be selling it for 24000. Just simple math there.

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Not necessarily. This is IMHO only, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Here is how the math works -

While what the dealer shows you may say 'Invoice Price' (A), it gets deeper than that. Every dealership gets what's called a 'holdback' from car companies. This is different for different companies. For Subaru, it is 2%.

So subtract 2% from the 'Invoice Price'.

Additionally, dealers get 'Incentives' from Car companies. This is a nebulous amount which differs and is hard to pin down. It may also depend on the market and the individual dealers performance (speculating here).

Subtract this from the 'Invoice Price'.

You now get the actual cost to the dealer (excluding what they pay to the bank for financing their floor inventory).

In theory, you could bring them down to their final and actual 'Invoice Price', but it is safe to say this almost never happens.

Therefore, you can consider it a good deal when you get the dealer to give you the 'Invoice Price' (A) which should include [the invoice price of the car + cost of all options]. (of course ttl is additional).

To get beyond this deal the following would have to happen -

1. You have mad negotiating skills
2. You get some kind of insider discount (employee discount and such)
3. You get VIP pricing
4. You are in a crazy competitive market where Subaru Dealerships are struggling to compete

The above have been my findings in my research when I bought my FXTTwES.

Additionally, you will do better if you deal with all dealers via email first. Do not enter the dealership till you have a figure in agreement with your finalist dealer. Then you walk in and do the rest.
Also, Dealers don't like to talk about Holdbacks. They are entitled to them and they don't like you demanding a piece of it. Best to deal with the merits and the 'various other offers' you are getting inundated with
That is how I did it and I got invoice no problem.

Again, this is just my buying experience and the info I gleaned from various sources. I may be wrong by a little here and there on the figures above, but believe overall, I'm pretty close.