[mtpope]

Hey everyone, first post over here but I've been lurking for awhile and appreciate the wisdom of the crowd you all bring to this place.

I'm starting to think about my next vehicle, looking at a new 540i, and have been reaching out to a few dealers for quotes. So far most of the back and forth on pricing has been of the "invoice minus $xxx (before incentives)" variety. So I'm wondering if folks have a reliable source for obtaining invoice pricing. It appears to be roughly 94% of base model pricing plus 92% of option pricing. Can anyone confirm or provide more detail if that's inaccurate?

Also, considering that dealers' opening offers have been significantly below invoice, I assume there is a dealer holdback or some other incentive available to them -- do we know what and how much that is? I realize most of the deals folks are posting are shown in terms of a discount to MSRP, but for purposes of negotiating, it would be helpful to know what the dealer's true margins are so that I can calibrate my approach to provide for a reasonable profit on a sale without getting taken advantage of.

last, I'm located in the bay area (northern California). from browsing the forums so far, it looks like SoCal dealers are pretty aggressively offering deals, and I'm not opposed to getting a car from one of them and driving it home. but if anyone has suggestions for high volume dealers in the bay that are willing to deal please post up.