I just went through the process in the past few days. I found it fun and entertaining.
I figure out exactly what car I wanted and found that only one dealer anywhere near had one. Searched online to find out the least I could probably get it for.
I went in and asked the guy what was the best deal they could give me on the car, for cash, out the door. He went to talk to the manager, then put a bunch of numbers on his pad and told me the bottom price. I was very sad. Told him that was three thousand more than I could pay for the car.
He explained that they had already offered me the best price they could, I didn't expect them to lose money on the deal, did I? And besides, much of the price is tax and licence and of course the government won't let them charge less. Sorry, I can't pay more than that, guess I'll hafta forget it.
I was halfway out when he caught me, told me to wait a minute, he'd get the manager to talk to me. The manager was there before I could get away. He explained to me that if that was all I could afford, and I had the cash. he had a plan. I would pay 10,000 down and invest the rest. Then I could make the monthly payments with the income from the investment. And I'd probably make even more income than needed to make the payments. I didn't bother to ask what sort of investments he had in mind. Just shook my head "no". Then he told me maybe I would be happy with a different car. I told him no, that's the one I want, and I went home.
They never made any counter offer, so I thought maybe I was out of luck. But later that evening the phone rang. The salesman just wanted to know how I was, and if maybe I had reconsidered. Nope.
Next day he called again. How was I doing? Fine, said I was thinking it was OK I didn't get the car, since I didn't really love it. I'd probably get another kind of car. He still didn't counter offer, so I still thought I was out of luck.
Next day he called one more time. Why don't I come in and talk about the numbers. I told him I don't want to waste my time unless they are willing to meet my price. He said they were. So I went in and got the car for exactly what I offered the first time.