It's hard to vote with your dollar if the company can lie to you about the price. Sure in this case you'll find out the actual cost eventually but at a point where changing your vote is much harder (maybe a deposit has already been collected, credit check run, the other car you were considering has been sold etc)

So are they lying or will you eventually find out the cost?

Buying a car is not the hardest feat by any stretch imaginable. If you’ve put down a deposit, you will have seen the all in cost. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.

> So are they lying or will you eventually find out the cost?

Yes.

This is the kind of deception that starts early on in the process to get you to narrow down your car selection by deceiving you on the actual price of the car.

> Buying a car is not the hardest feat by any stretch imaginable. If you’ve put down a deposit, you will have seen the all in cost. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.

It's not hard, but it's definitely not pleasant, and the the auto makers and dealers can do some slimy practices. The parent comment I was replying to seemed to conflate auto makers should not be allowed to advertise an inaccurate MSRP with over-regulation. Also you are not 100% correct about deposits, just ask Bronco reservation holders who put down deposits with dealers for reservations, that later got turned into orders, that when the car arrived had thousands of dollars of surprise "ADM" (Additional Dealer Markup in Ford lingo) added to the buy sheet.

"The price shown should be the price paid" is not a "minute detail" it's like the fundamental basis of advertising.

What's frightening is how many people believe in the myth of the free market of rational consumers.

Rent seeking happens precisely because voting with your dollar doesn't work well. "Vote with your dollar" is a platitude based on an oversimplified model of the economy.