Car buyers are often told that price differences come down to negotiation skills or market timing. A new investigation suggests something far more troubling.
Online Automobile consumer company CarEdge, deployed AI shopping agents and contacted 100 Ford dealerships nationwide requesting the out-the-door price on the same truck with essentially the same MSRP. The result was a staggering $17,008 price gap, driven not by the vehicle, but by opaque fees, inconsistent practices, and deliberate barriers to transparency.
Each dealer received the same request for the out-the-door price on the same truck. The vehicle was identical. The MSRP varied only within a few hundred dollars. The buyer profile was the same in every inquiry. The only variable was the dealership itself.
The out the door prices for the same truck ranged from $53,402 to $70,410. That is a $17,008 difference for a nearly identical MSRP vehicle. For consumers, this is not a minor discrepancy. It represents thousands of dollars in additional cost that has nothing to do with the vehicle itself.
“The biggest takeaway from the exercise is clear. The problem is not the car. It is not the manufacturer. The problem is the lack of price transparency at the dealer level. If this is what happens when 100 dealers are contacted with identical requests, the experience of the average buyer who contacts only three to five dealerships is likely far worse,” said CarEdge CEO Zach Shefska.
Fees and add ons were another story entirely. Dealers routinely layered on charges that varied widely and were not standardized in any meaningful way. These add ons created confusion, obscured true pricing, and inflated the final cost for buyers who believed they were comparing similar offers.
During the outreach, CarEdge identified several recurring dealer tactics. Many dealerships refused to provide pricing over email. Others advertised discounts that were offset by massive hidden fees. Mandatory add on packages were presented as non-negotiable. Some dealers applied rebates that buyers did not qualify for. Others stopped responding altogether after initial contact.
