I'm in the process of buying a 2001 V40 and am baffled abut pricing. Maybe someone here can help.

I've been to a couple of different dealers and have used the Edmund's list of invoice prices as a basis in my negotiations. The invoice pricing on some of the option packages varies between the two dealers. At one, the options are priced according to the invoice price in Edmund's, including the manufacturer's discounts mentioned there. (For example, the Leather/CD package is discounted from $1615 to $1161.) At the second dealer, the options are listed according to the invoice price in Edmund's but without the discount. When I asked that dealer about passing along the manufacturer's discount, he and the manager swore that they hadn't gotten such discounts on the car, that they weren't aware of them, and that they would pass on any discount received. They suggested that I contact Edmund's and Volvo of North America.

I have e-mailed Edmund's but have yet to receive a reply. Volvo of North America was not particularly helpful. The woman said that she couldn't tell me any details of discounts, but maybe some of them went only to some dealers, and maybe they were for specific times. It was, she said, like going to a sale a Macy's and wondering whether the store had received a discount: nobody would tell me such a thing.

Can anyone shed some light on this? Are the discounts only given to some dealers? Were they given only for cars purchased by the dealer during a specific period, and if so, what were the dates? Other explanations?

Thanks for any help!