MSRP

MSRP stands for manufacturer's suggested retail price. It's the price a manufacturer recommends that a retailer sell its product for, and it goes by other names elsewhere: list price, suggested retail price, or recommended retail price, which is what Britain calls it. Since it's a suggestion, sellers can charge less, and a suggested price is sometimes set unrealistically high so the seller can look like it's offering a discount. Actually fixing resale prices goes further than suggesting them and is illegal in many countries.

On new cars in the US, the MSRP is printed on the Monroney sticker, the window label named after Mike Monroney, a senator from Oklahoma. In 1955 he chaired a Senate subcommittee that looked into deceptive dealer practices. With no price posted on each car, dealers could inflate the suggested price to make a discount or trade-in allowance look bigger, and add hidden fees. Monroney sponsored the Automobile Information Disclosure Act of 1958, which requires a label showing the car's equipment and pricing on every new car sold in the US, except vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating over 8,500 pounds.

The sticker has grown since. The EPA has added fuel economy figures since the mid-1970s, a 2007 law added greenhouse gas and pollution ratings starting with 2008 models, and a more detailed fuel economy and environment label became mandatory for the 2013 model year, with versions for electric, plug-in hybrid, flex-fuel, and hydrogen vehicles.