This is what I'm seeing in Northern New England. I'm in my 60's and I've purchased more vehicles than I can remember. I'm a tough negotiator and I can usually get a great deal. Not so with RAM dealers here. The tactic that they all use around my area is to offer one single quote, which is usually invoice or close to it. All bargaining ends there. If you bring up Koons or Criswell's prices, or other great prices being reported here, they all cry fake news, it can't be done, we all pay the same invoice price. If you then show them the proof, they get angry, or pretend to get angry, and then cut off all further communication so you can't negotiate or even talk to them anymore. To protect their high profits, they would all rather lose a sale rather than have someone report that they can get better a price in this area.
Sure, I can buy from Koons or Criswell but I prefer to buy locally to help support jobs in my community. And then you have to deal with getting the vehicle serviced. The one time I didn't buy locally, I had a dealer refuse to help when I had an issue because I didn't buy from them. I had to complain to the mfgr which did no good and then had to travel 90 miles to a different dealer each time I had something go wrong. And then I couldn't get a loaner vehicle if the problem took longer than a day to fix because that was reserved primarily for people who purchased from the servicing dealer.
Buying a RAM is the biggest hassle I've had with purchasing any vehicle. If you can get a great deal locally, count yourself very lucky, and support the dealer that gave you a great price because a lot of us have no such opportunity.
