Information is an edge, especially when you’re buying a new car. As you negotiate with car dealerships, it’ll help you set a baseline if you do some research in advance, like knowing the dealer invoice price. But some buyers also shared that it’s not so easy to find the invoice price of a specific vehicle1. So in this post, we will share with you how to find the invoice price by VIN.
Invoice price vs. MSRP, what’s the difference?
An invoice price is the amount of money a dealership pays the manufacturer to buy the vehicle, which is also called the dealer cost. In comparison, an MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price) is the price at which the dealership is suggested to sell. Generally, the invoice price is 10-20% lower than the MSRP.
Sometimes dealerships can pay less than the invoice price to purchase cars. Because manufacturers offer sales incentives (“holdback”) that allow dealerships to make money even if they sell the vehicle at the invoice price, according to some car buyers’ experience2.
It’s probably not the case with every car, but the invoice price is an important baseline as you negotiate with a dealership. That can help you pick a price that both guarantees a reasonable profit for the dealership and meets your expectations.
1. Run a VIN lookup on BeenVerified
BeenVerified is a solid vehicle search tool. With access to a wide range of public data sources, it can retrieve all the available information that is associated with the vehicle. For example, its invoice price, MSRP, ownership cost, and other basic specs. If you’re buying a used car, it can help you find details like its title, theft records, and accident history – all in one platform.
- Go to BeenVerified.
- Enter the VIN and click SEARCH.
- Wait for BeenVerified to search through its data sources and generate a report.
- On the report page, you’ll see a navigation bar on the left that helps you easily access the section that you’re interested in. For example, the Sale Listings section. To view the invoice price, you can go to the Vehicle Specs section.
- Note that BeenVerified is a subscription-based service and you’ll need to purchase a membership plan to view the report.
What do we like about BeenVerified?
BeenVerified is an all-around search service. With one subscription, you can access its other search services like phone number, email address, and address lookups.
2. Check the invoice price with Bumper
Bumper is an excellent alternative to BeenVerified. It is an NMVTIS-approved data provider that gathers vehicle records from government agencies, insurance providers, and car industry sources. Simply provide the VIN of the vehicle, and it can find you the invoice price, MSRP, theft record, title history, and more.
- Go to Bumper.
- Enter the VIN and click SEARCH.
- Wait for Bumper to scour its data sources and provide you with all the available records associated with the VIN number. Note that Bumper is also a paid service.
3. Ask the dealers directly
As you shop around, you can ask the dealers directly for the invoice price. It makes no sense to hide it, since information like the invoice price and MSRP, as part of the basic specifications of a vehicle, is easy to find. Besides, an honest answer shows their confidence to offer you a good price.
Some buyers shared online that if the model one’s looking for is widely sought-after, then there’s limited room for price reductions3. So if you’re budget-sensitive, you may consider less sought-after models because dealerships tend to sell them at a lower price to keep their inventory moving.
4. Google the year and make
If you know exactly the year, make, and model of your dream car, you can do a Google search. Simply type in the make of the car and ‘invoice price’ into the search box. For example, 2013 LEXUS LS 460 invoice price. The search engine will find you numerous price-comparing and car sales websites that might contain related information.
Check through them and see if there’s anything helpful. Note that some specific models may be hard to find, but you can take the chances anyway. If you’d prefer a fast and accurate search, you can try a professional VIN search tool like BeenVerified.
You may also want to know…
1. Are there any free platforms to search for the invoice price?
After testing several free VIN lookup platforms using the same VIN, we found that decodethis.com and vincheck.info can provide price-related specs like invoice prices and MSRPs. Note that the actual content of the report can differ from one vehicle to another.
2. Does the dealer invoice price include additional fees or charges?
The dealer invoice price typically includes the base price of the vehicle and the manufacturer’s standard equipment. However, it may not include certain additional fees or charges. For example, destination fees, local taxes, and options fees.
This is what we’d like to share about how to find the invoice price by VIN and some tips on how to save money. We hope you find them helpful!
- Buying/Selling [markg2]. (2017, December 9). No longer able to get new car invoice? [Online forum post]. CarTalk. https://community.cartalk.com/t/no-longer-able-to-get-new-car-invoice/109235 ↩︎
- r/Ioniq5 [asdfdasf98890_9897]. (2022, January 24). Those prices are meaningless, because car dealers get rebates (“holdback”) beyond the invoice that you don’t see every time… [Comment on the online forum post USA dealer markups: anyone know the dealer invoice price?]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Ioniq5/comments/sbdiri/usa_dealer_markups_anyone_know_the_dealer_invoice/ ↩︎
- Ask CarEdge [Igor K]. (2023 November 3) As long as you’re not being charged with dealer markups or DEALER INSTALLED EQUIPMENT or OPTIONS you’re going good… [Comment on the online forum post Toyota dealership does not negotiate, is this a good deal?]. CarEdge. https://community.caredge.com/c/general/toyota-dealership-does-not-negotiate-is-this-a-good-deal ↩︎