He lost according to Toyota's figures
I explained the game briefly above. Here's a longer explanation.
The dealer doesn't control the mix of cars they get. So they deliberately take a loss on some lines to move them and justify getting more profitable lines in stock.
Looked at another way, since the dealer doesn't control what is in a shipment, they juggle their internal notion of the prices to be able to sell the whole shipment faster. According to what Toyota says the price to the dealer was, the dealer lost money. According to the internal shell game, the dealer made money. As long as their internal prices add up to the cost of the shipment, and they clear the whole shipment at about the same time, they can afford to play by these internal figures. If they have lines where they can charge absurd prices and sell them as fast as they come in, the internal figures are going to be much more profitable than Toyota's figures.
It sucks to look for a Prius at that dealer. It is great to look for a Corolla or Camry.
Even with complete access to the dealer's books, you'll never know where you can begin bargaining. (From the dealer's point of view, yet another reason to use their figures rather than Toyota's.)
Cheers,
Ben
