Question on Invoice Price definition...

[spacey]

Until few hours ago I though I understood what an invoice price is but a local dealer has me questioning myself. I know - it's their job . Well I need to have the "correct" understanding so would like to ask what is the commonly (or perhaps the only) accepted definition of the Invoice Price?

1) Is it the sum of whatever you select form the Wholesale price list - IOW, Car, Options and the "Training Service Fee" of $180?

2) Is it the sum of whatever you select form the Wholesale price list - IOW, Car, Options and the "Training Service Fee" of $180, PLUS Dest Charge of $825,-, PLUS Marketing Fee of $200 (here in Northern VA)?

Here's the reason I ask:

I just went to my local dealer (well one of them), and had all my numbers ready and backed up w/wholesale numbers, AmEx purchasing service price (for 2009 because they don't have 2010s yet in their system unfortunately) but was (not completely surprised by that of course) told by the dealer that my numbers are wrong and he proceeded to, just as logically as I have to him, justify tacking on $2400 to my numbers.

One point of contention/discrepancy was that I have calculated the complete price of the car from the wholesale numbers, including the $180 "training fee" (?!), then added $500 for profit, because that's what AmEx buying service does (for '09s anyway) and that was my proposed price for the car. Well... they said that the number is wrong becuse they define the invoice price as Wholesale+Dest Charge ($825)+Marketing Association Fee ($200) (which is supposedly regional/dependent on the market):

Also their pre-negotiated over invoice profit for 2010s is not $500,- as it was for '09s but $1800,-. He showed me a whole spreadsheet w/pre-negotiated numbers for several models (one could of course question how genuine that spreadsheet was). There were the X5 '09s but no 2010s so the $1800 over invoice he stated was for the 2010 X5 M, and said that it's the same for all X5s... (hmmm?)

I smell something fishy here but am not exactly sure where the stink lies. For one, when I add up all the numbers and compare MSRP w/his "corrected" numbers for over invoice calculations the difference between MSRP and his over invoice numbers is $400,-. IOW, wholesale + dest charge + marketing fee + over invoice profit come out $400,- under MSRP.

1) The $1800 is obviously "theoretically" negotiable since it's his profit, but on the other hand it is the number he has pre-negotiated w/AmEx, AAA etc. and at least AmEx does generally have pretty good numbers.

2) Dest Charge... well AmEx specifically takes that off their "Your Price" calculation ... so hmmm?

3) Marketing Association Fee ??? WTF?

All of the above of course is before the $349,- processing fee they are going to tack on at the end of the transaction.

I don't mention the $4500 rebate because that is not debatable.

I have not checked other dealers yet as I have a bit of an affinity for that specific dealership, but do plan to hit most local ones at least w/whatever I finally think is the "right" number if "my" dealer doesn't make me happy soon.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

spacey