About fifteen years ago in a business class the professor said that no matter what the window sicker price is, and what the add on’s are, the dealer pays 10-15% less than the base price listed, depending on their inventory turnover.
Assuming he was correct, I do not know if that still holds.
I have purchased two new cars in my life and both times I offered 5%less than the base price, and received it. Also I went on the last day of the month, and one month before the new cars hit the lot.
Last new car I bought was ten years ago, so who knows now.
My last new car was a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo for $29k, with all kinds of end-of-year, US Military discounts (my Parents are Vets), ‘94 V8 Grand Cherokee LTD trade-in and paid cash. Net cost was $23k, off the lot. I’m afraid to even go looking now, as the new ones I’ve “culled the small herd” down to are in the $55-80k range, now. Yikes; they’re way, way beyond my pay grade. It’s cheaper to repair the ‘02, since it’s in such pristine condition, with only 165,205 mile on it.
Typically that's not true. Cheaper model cars have very thin margins and Dealers have to sell alot of them to make any money. Using the poster's example, if his daughter is looking at a Hyundai Elantra the "hold-back" or built in profit the Dealer gets from the factory is going to be smaller than say for a fully loaded Hyunday Genesis which has a higher hold-back and a higher profit margin.
That means the dealer would negotiate harder for a higher price on the Elantra than they would for the Genesis, absent supply and demand issues.