I really think people are making this more complicated than it is. Your rebates are static, they only change based on trim and whatever Chrysler is currently doing. It’s not realistic to use them in your price for comparison with others. For example, everyone with the military discount can buy the same vehicle you can for 500 bucks less if you don’t qualify. It doesn’t mean they got a better deal.
You have to look at dealer discounts, not just the overall 18% off. That doesn’t really mean much. And it doesn’t really transfer from trim to trim, limiteds and longhorns usually have 1-3k less on rebates than Laramies and so forth.
MSRP
- dealer discount (your negotiation)
- rebates (uncontrollable)
I get what you're saying, but I disagree a little bit. The purpose of working a deal is trying to get the biggest discount you can, regardless of how you get there, what incentives there are or are not, how much you feel like haggling, how much of a discount they give you right off the top.
At the end of the day, even the dealers have ways to make extra money, such as lowballing a trade in. or increasing APR a point or 3, or simply NOT giving you a bigger dealer discount off of MSRP, dealer options and so on.
Not everyone wants to haggle, not every dealer will haggle. The goal here is to achieve that magic 18% under MSRP regardless of how to get there. Rebates simply help you get there with as little effort as possible. And, dealers even try to say "You don't qualify" for certain rebates.... even if you do.
Everyone can put the extra work in and get even lower, or search for more rebates and such, but the results the same. Across the board, regardless of rebates, most users are trying to get to 18% under MSRP. Some are only 12%, some are 24%
Those with 24%, yes probably had more rebates and played hardball more or with dealers that really needed to get that vehicle sold.
Also, I think rebates are about the same across trims, but the dealer discounts are different. The rebates that I would qualify for and most others are standard such as conquest lease, conquest truck, military, car buying service, and others all carry over to different trims if I'm not mistaken. The difference in dealer discounts is anywhere from 6K on big horns to over 10K on limited though.
Just my 0.02c Again, I get what you're saying, but it's still an apple to apples in my eyes because if you can't qualify for rebates and the dealer isn't willing to move more to get that 18%, then you may want to look at a different dealer that gives bigger dealer discounts off the top. Or, just haggle a lot more, and reach 18%
