Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ

Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

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Today's guest is a little out of the ordinary, but first some background. About a month

ago, my wife and I decided to buy a new car. My Honda Odyssey had 95,000 miles on it.

It was nine years old, it needed a lot of work, and rather than put more money in the car,

we decided to replace it. My wife and I looked at the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey.

It came very close to buying the Toyota, but ultimately, we liked the Honda's eight-seat

option a little better than the Toyota's. I did some research on pricing. I visited

a nearby dealer. He came down a little off the list price, but not much. Then I called a

couple of dealers a little farther away and asked for their best price. They're internet

price. They're no-haggle price. Based on those prices, which were dramatically lower

than what the dealer had come back to me with as the V price of the car, my wife and I drove

about 35 minutes from her house to get the Odyssey we wanted at Oursman Honda of Laurel.

In Maryland, I won't give you all the details, but it turned out the no-haggle price we'd

been told over the phone didn't really include everything. The real price was higher. There

were a bunch of extras, pinstriping, wheel locks, mud flaps. Raised the price by over $800.

There was a destination charge of over $600. The salesperson hadn't mentioned over the

phone when I said, what's the full price? I was pretty upset. I'd asked the salesperson

whether his no-haggle price included everything. He said, yes. Were there any other charges

...