For those that ordered through MD or Koons...Were any other discounts or dealer/financing incentives applied to your purchase? Priced out a Limited ($85,500 sticker) today with Koons and came back at $73500. Once you add in tax, tags and their doc fee I'm right back at where I was with another dealer.
Also, are you able to finance the vehicle once ordered? Don't really want to lay out the full nut if I can get a halfway decent rate.
There are two basic methods you can use to compare the total deal, provided that you can get ALL relevant info from the dealers you are comparing.
This also assumes you are working with dealers that are 100% transparent and that there will be no intentional surprises
FIRST - OUT THE DOOR - SLIGHTLY FLAWED
This is most common in a lot of other forums where you need to compare the TOTAL cost out the door from each dealer on an IDENTICAL vehicle. A LOT of people post on facebook "I paid XX out the door" but if they're not in your state, they may have lower taxes, or they didn't mention a trade in equity, etc - so to really do it right you'll need to know:
1. Sale price of vehicle after all discounts from dealer, AND all rebates/incentives from manufacturer.
2. Dealer specific fees (doc fee, prep fees, etc), dealer add-ons or required participations (vin etching, locking lugnuts, invisible forcefields)
3. State required registration fees, sales tax, titling
4. Cost of transport of you TO the dealer and back, or, shipping the vehicle to you
5. Net value of your trade in (trade allowance minus amount owed on trade)
Add these all up, and you're OUT THE DOOR meaning "I gave them my trade vehicle, plus X cash, and got all the way home"
The problem with this method, is that on a factory order you have two variables that cannot be 100% guaranteed
a. The rebates can be used from the group that is available at the time of order (if lockable) OR the group available at the time of delivery. It can only get better, not worse
b. Your trade value, if you have one, is likely an estimate at time of order, which can fluctuate
c. For out of state dealers, the taxes will be most likely an estimate, if at all, at time of order, but dialed in at time of delivery
SECOND - DEALER SPECIFIC FACTORS - PREFERRED
Since you know that the rebates/incentives, sales tax, registration, and MSRP are congruent between all dealers, instead focus on just the items that are specific factors to that dealer
1. How much is the DEALER DISCOUNT from same MSRP, not counting any rebates/incentives from RAM
2. Dealer specific fees (doc fee) or add-ons
3. Cost of getting the vehicle to you (fly & drive, or transport)
Everything else should be the same at competing dealers, you've in this case separated the financial components that make one better than the other.
You can figure out if it is better to trade your vehicle in (tax savings in some states), sell it outright on your own, or to an online used retailer like carvana/carmax.
TIME & EFFORT
Don't forget to value your own time in this equation. Consider the effort required for certain parts such as
1. Will you have to do all of your own tax/registration back home, how much do you love your DMV
2. Will you have to coordinate your own shipping of the vehicle, or your airport pickup if fly/drive
3. Will you have to deal with facebook marketplace or craigslist tirekickers to sell your trade
FINANCING
All financing is done at the time of delivery. While you may be able estimate certain promotional rates at time of order, the reality is that these are usually IN LIEU of the cash rebates.
Still, you have the option at time of delivery to decide which would you rather have. For example, you can have the 6.9% 72mo APR that is available right now OR the $4500 in cash rebates. You can't determine, and don't have to, which is a better deal until you see what your regular rate will be from various banks at time of delivery. If you can get 8% from another bank, you ought to take that and retain your $4500 cash. You're not running a full credit report until the vehicle arrives anyway. Think of it this way - the subvented rate getting you down to a 3.9% - that money is coming from the SAME bucket as the cash rebates on the manufacturer side, it's all a method to increase sales but also give buyers an option for what works best for them.