Most ads will stack up all available discounts. For Mitsubishi, this means everything shown on the Mits web site plus there is a $500 discount available.

The extra $500 is what my dealer called a "corporate discount" which is something like the discount employees of the manufacturer get when they buy a car. The dealer has to "qualify" someone for this program. From what I understand, someone from an "approved" employer can personally get the discount and sponsor up to 2 additional people. The dealer can make you one of these 2 people, if they have signed forms from the employee of the approved company. Basically, they can use it at their option, if they need to make a price to get a sale.

Many company Credit Unions will advertise this as a "company discount" to their company employees. Employees generally just have to show some proof that they work for the company to get the discount. They sign a discount for that gives the dealer the right to use it for up to 2 additional people - in the small print.

People getting the discount don't care, as it doesn't cost them anything for others to get the discount and dealers often use this as a way to get friends and family members to buy a car by offering them the discount if they mention the qualifying individual's name.

As people who buy cars regularly know, the bottom line price is never the bottom line price and the dealer never loses money on whatever deal is reached.