Will, I'd suggest you put the vehicle into an NADA or KBB build and see what the invoice is on it. I assure you it will be within a couple hundred of the dealer's actual invoice. I've always done that and then agreed to pay 400-600 over it. Discounts then apply to that.
I used to sell vehcile for one of the largest dealers in NYS. No need to look up the NADA OR KBB invoice, a good honest dealer will show you it, no questions asked.
On a truck like that if your getting offered invoice it's cuz they want it gone! Have them show you the invoice, you'll see 4 prices on it. Dealer cost, invoice price, GMAC price & window price. You'll see the dealer price is slightly lower than the invoice this is to cover operating costs of the dealership if they sell it for invoice. Most dealers will not dip below invoice because if they did they'd never be able to pay for thier own operating costs. And yes the deal incentives (rebates etc....) apply after the agreed upon price not before because those do not come out of the dealers pocket.
Most dealerships pay a salesperson on a 1/3 scale meaning for example if you buy the vehicle for invoice of let say $53,600 and the dealer cost is showing $53,000. That's a diffrence of $600 meaning the house gets $400 and the salesperson gets $200 before tax as his/her commision.
Agreeing to pay $6-800 over invoice is a great situation for everyone. House makes thier money, you make out like a bandit (not paying anywhere near window price & take out the whole hassle of negotiating) & the sales person makes a little change for thier work, yes it is work selling a car, on average form the time that sales person first shakes your hand to the time he/she waves good bye in your new vehicle he/she has over 15 hrs involed you alone wether you see it or not. so throwing them a $300 commission ($20 per hour) goes a long way.
