It is also true of Ford for the time being. Manufacturing continues to lose money. But at least the plants are closing, and people are staying employed.
The 0% and rebate offers aren’t a result of a the dealer screwing you; as said above, it’s typically one or the other, and sometimes (rarely) both.
Dealers get a lot of incentives from the manufacturers, so the invoice price isn’t really all that meaningful. There’s floorspace assistance, gas, buy-back, all kinds of goodies.
The best strategy? Go work for Ford and get a fixed price on everything, including NO dealer prep and NO documents fees and NO stupid crap unless you fall for the $200 “paint protector” and so on.
Barring your ability or willingness to do that, take advantage of the dealer and pick out what you want. Then deal with the internet rep or fleet rep at ALL of the local dealers and get fixed price quotes, i.e., ask for bids.
I work for a big manufacturer, and I think if we could kick out every dealer and run the dealerships ourselves, we’d have a lot more customer satisfaction (which of course equals more profit). The dealerships DON’T represent the company interest EVER; only their own, short term interest. On the other hand, it could take the incentive aspect away from the salesmen, so you’re back to the communism/capitalism argument.