True Car says I can get a new 2015 Toyota Corolla WITH accessories for $13889. Assuming about a thousand for dealer fees and ignoring taxes brings final drive away cost to $15000 - is that remotely possible?
Link to True Car readout:
Only one way to really find out. Carefully read the info on the True Car site, follow the steps, see if on f the associated dealers will honor that price.
What dealer fees are you talking about?
I think they just take $600 to $1000, however that would still put it at 15000, well below average,.
Just take 600 to 1000 for what?
The 2015 Corolla list price is $16,950 - $22,955 so that probably means a stripped down Corolla in my mind. Read the fine print carefully.
That would be a base model Corolla with zero options (there are no options for the “L” model) and maybe floormats. Generally speaking stripped down models only appeal to limited number of people. So a dealership might be inclined to make a deal on it. But $13.9k for a car that supposedly invoices for a little over $18k is a bit of stretch.
Probably including min trade in value, 17,600 min price by me, as @misselman says read the fine print!
“That would be a base model Corolla with zero options (there are no options for the “L” model) and maybe floormats. Generally speaking stripped down models only appeal to limited number of people”
…and as a result, these models exist in theory, but not very much in reality.
Because the profit margin on these stripper models is so meager, many dealers don’t even want to stock one.
It’s late in the model year and the dealers may just want to move them off the lot. The OP should read the fine print to see what is involved. Because it is TrueCar and not a dealer ad, it is more likely to be real and with no strings attached.
I just read an online review and all you have is a "certificate from Truecar " it is not the price you will actually pay but more of a suggestion of what you could pay. Frankly looking at the dealer web site and seeing what the internet price is will be more accurate. I did find some positive reviews but they almost read like plants.
I went to that TrueCar website and chose the same car and my price is $16,414. That’s still a very good price. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and prices here are higher than most places.
You can ask to get quotes from the dealers on the model/trim that you have the truecar quote on. This worked for me 2-3 years ago but not the dealers have gotten savvy. They drag you in and then they don’t have the base trim and they want to charge you extra. They essentially start from the MSRP and work it down based on the discounts. It ended up being a total waste of time for me and I ended buying a CPO used car at the end.
The too good to be true prices advertised by a dealer usually have a disclaimer. That cheap price applies to Stock Number Yada Yada Yada only and once on the lot you discover that Stock Number has been sold; assuming it ever existed in the first place.
However, they have a similar model for only X grand more…
It’s all about generating foot traffic on the lot so the thumbscrews can be applied. 
“It’s all about generating foot traffic on the lot so the thumbscrews can be applied. :-)”
That’s true. Recently…I found a stack of circulars for a local dealer at the post office. I tried to turn them in to the postmaster but she said they had no addresses so she just left them on the counter outside. They all had small plastic keyless fobs attached as well as a “scratch off” spot. I peeled the tops back on a few of the of the fobs and they were blank underneath. I also scratched off the spots and $100 prizes were listed under all of them. Since the dealer only had one $100 prize offered…the “guaranteed” prize was bogus.
I called a friend at the dealership and he said the barcode on the circular was what indicated a win. Talk about deception. I’m sure that a lot of gullible people stood in line thinking that they had won $100 instantly. Since the postmaster said I could take as many circulars as I wanted…I took them all and threw them away. I called last night and the dealership said all prizes were awarded. I asked for the winners names and the line suddenly went dead.
I used internet pricing in 2012 to find a dealer for my daughter’s Chevy Cruze. The price in the showroom was the same as the price on line. We were quite pleased with the whole process.
@missleman, we’ve gotten those kind of guaranteed prize circulars with scratch off key fobs also. Total bunk.
About a year ago I got a letter that looked like something from the government. The return address stated something like being from the “Department of Taxation” and the letter was stamped “Critical! Time sensitive”.
Knowing it was garbage I opened it just for laughs and it was a car dealer ad wanting me to apply for a car loan while using any tax return as a down payment.
Playing dumb and to string them along, I fired off a couple of emails stating I was interested but had concerns about getting in trouble with the “Department of Taxation” due to some delinquent tax problems. They chose to ignore me; go figure.
I received a circular a while back from a dealer that guaranteed me $2 cash for stopping by. So I stopped by (I was in the area anyway). I went in, walked through the balloons, and asked for my $2. The salesman poured on the bull, telling me what a wonderful deal he could give me. I asked for my $2. After about five minutes, seeing he was getting nowhere, he called in “the boss”. "The boss then began to pour on the BS, loudly (so everyone in the room could hear) telling me “I can save you $X,000 if you’ll just buy now”. I replied (loudly, so everyone in the room could hear) “I can save myself thousands more… by not buying at all”. He gave me my $2 and scooted me out of the salesroom.
I had fun. I’m easily entertained.
Nothing wrong with being a cheap date. And they paid you for your entertainment.
I think its theoretically possible at least to purchase a base model Corolla in the $15 K range, before taxes and licensing fees. A little more if you want an automatic transmission maybe. But it might be very difficult to find such a model available, since the dealerships don’t make much profit on a minimally configured car. But if one can be found, it would likely be a very good value.