Tips on Buying Cars: Simple Question About MSRP, invoice price, mitsubishi lancer

Question
The national base price for a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer DE (CVT/Automatic) + A/C & Power Package is $17,285. I went online and looked at the inventory of 6 of the closest dealers and filtered for the category of 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer DE Automatic/CVT and prices such as $22,000 (lowest price) popped up. I'm aware that dealers are doing this to obtain as much profit as possible, but since the MSRP is $17,285, can the price of the car be brought down from $22,000 to the invoice of $16,304? It's a large gap, but it's ridiculous for the official manufacturer's invoice to be increased like that. I'm sure many people looked at a car manufacturer's website to see the price of a car and have their hopes up only to be disappointed when they go to a local dealer, finding the car's price to be upped by about $6,000. Thanks for your help.

Answer
Derrick,

Thanks for your question.  The national base price of a vehicle on the MSRP, means that if the car is equipped that way.  Most dealers only order their cars with the options that most buyers want.  This means what they are selling the best.  It is usually very difficult to find one that base since that generally isn't what the consumer buys.  The ones that the dealers order will have more equipment, therefore the invoice amount will also go up.  There is not $4000 worth of profit in any new vehicle in that price range.  The manufacture not only sets the invoice price, but also sets the MSRP.  The dealer does not have any say in the MSRP, except for adding equipment when they order the car.  When you add the equipment, you also ad the cost of it to the invoice and the retail amount to the MSRP.  

Hope this helps explain it.

Thanks - JB