MSRP is a reference point. So is invoice. You shouldn't ignore either, but one is not a better reference point than the other. Maybe 20 years ago when you had to pay a publisher to get the invoice price, but now that invoice prices are freely available on the Internet, manufacturers have raised invoice prices faster than MSRP and closed the gap between invoice and MSRP. Dealer margin on new car sales now comes from backend rebates and volume incentives that aren't public. The only way to truly discover the bottom line retail price on a car is to present yourself as a serious buyer and get quotes from multiple dealers.