My local dealer will sell for msrp -incentives. I personally won’t touch for a penny less than 2000 off of msrp and incentives. I don’t need a telluride that bad. I understand if they have a car sitting there they have the bargaining power. I however want to order one and wait for 3 months to take possession. Why on earth would they not think this is a good deal for them. This is a car they would never purchase and sell if not for me ordering it. I think they are missing the bigger picture. How many people have walked away over this kind of stupidity. I will guarantee Kia wants to sell as many as they can. Not gouge and sell less. Makes no sense to me.
I've thought about this quite a bit - and based on Kia's price point, I am ok with paying MSRP (less Kia incentives) - yes, it will be a hit to yet unknown depreciation - but I think Kia aggressively priced this vehicle. Kia's MSRP versus invoice price on Edmund's (for what it's worth) is only about $1800-$2500 higher. Cars like Audi, BMW, Mercedes - all have MSRPs that are $4,000-$8,000+ higher than invoice - there is a lot more room for consumers to negotiate. Even GM prices cars and trucks exceptionally high at MSRP to offer massive discounts - I mean a ~ $55k sticker for a Traverse High Country? Please. Now, when you factor in that you can get a 6-7k discount... looks more like Kia's original MSRP.
Let's say current MSRP for SX-P: $48,000 (~$2500 over invoice).
If Kia had priced it at $50,000 for MSRP (~$4500 over invoice) and then gave me a $2000 discount at the dealer, I'd still be at the same price today - but I'd think I had "gotten a deal". We are conditioned to receiving discounts in the US - which helps us feel better about our spending - but I'd still be spending $48k. In this current demand situation, with only about 500 SX-P currently being made per month, a dealer markup is certainly something that can be attempted - if someone's willing to pay for it, then so be it. Blame Kia though - they went out and advertised their top end model - and sent it out only to receive glowing reviews - and then can't produce it. So, they setup the problem... thinking everyone would want the LX versus the SX-P when their Audi/Mercedes lease expires.
If you really want dramatic discounts, then you'll just have to wait quite a while for the SX-P until they are sitting on dealer lots for more than a month. You can probably get a $1,500-$2k dealer discount on an LX - but only if the particular dealer really needs to move the vehicle to get additional incentives from Kia. Personally, I think KMF's discounts have been generous - Mazda was only offering $500 (now $750) for a "loyalty" discount.
To your point about ordering and getting a discount - the issue is that "orders" eat into allocations with Kia - so if they pre-sell the car via an order at MSRP, they are not able to sell the car above MSRP if they receive it and market demand warrants it. The idea that they wouldn't sell the car if you didn't order it is flawed simply because they could have placed a stock order instead for the car to be allocated to them so that they can sell it on the open market. That's why some dealers didn't want to take pre-sold "orders". In any case, if pre-sold orders didn't eat into their allocations, then your thinking would be correct - and we should demand a discount because the dealer doesn't have to floorplan the vehicle.
Based on the recent dealer letter that has been posted, Kia is prioritizing customer sold orders over stock orders - and requiring that they actually be sold to the customer who negotiated the agreement. There have been some anecdotes of dealers getting in a Telluride to fulfill a pre-sold order - not telling the person who ordered - and then selling it out from under them at a markup in the open market. Then, they tell the customer that their order is "still being fulfilled". So, Kia is trying to avoid widespread issues like this. Kia really does need to revamp its dealer network... they are pretty bad actors on average.
That being said, there are rumors of an increase to MSRP for top end trims, and I have been repeatedly reading that Hyundai's
Palisade may top out "in the mid-50s". Good luck getting a discount on that for a while.
Now, what might happen if some full or partial auto tariffs kick in?