I definitely believe this.
I have a family member who owns a [American car mentioned in the article] dealership. Until very recently he also owned a [Korean car not mentioned in the article] dealership as well, which he sold. I recently saw him and he explained how the Korean car buyers always knew invoice price, they negotiated on the total price of the car, and then the cars never broke down, so the dealership never made any money off them (though they did carry them through the recession with those car sales). On the other hand, the buyers of the American cars were payment buyers and didn't negotiate on the price of the cars, plus they break down a lot so the repairs center makes a lot of money off of them.
I told him sorry not sorry, I'm buying Korean.