Price is king, but what kind of price? Americans have proven that labyrinthine financing and mortgage-length car loans are less of an obstacle, to the point that car MSRPs are essentially never advertised (outside of Tesla). Will the winner be the cheapest car, or the most profitable car with a 15 year mortgage?
Advertised, as in TV/web/radio. Always cost per month, by dealers. The MSRPs are published in easy to find places, but that's not how the average buyer approaches the transaction
I don't watch ads so I don't know if they show MSRP or not, but it is 2023, approximately everyone uses the internet as their first (possibly only) source of information.
Sure, but when 99% of buyers walk into a dealer to actually buy a vehicle, they're told, and they're negotiating, and their budget is all entirely based on monthly payments.
To a degree it doesn't even matter what the MSRP actually is... because of interest and financing and all the rest virtually nobody winds up paying that amount. (excluding cash buyers of course, which I'm assuming is a very, very low percentage of buyers).
The car could be $40k or $80k, it simply doesn't matter and the buyer doesn't even care. If they can't afford the monthlies, they won't buy. If they can, they will.
