The Price on the Dealer's Website Can Be a Floor the Automaker Set. From Thursday, Maryland Dealers Can Say So.

If you shop for a car online, the price on the dealer’s website may not be the lowest price that dealer will take. Sometimes it isn’t allowed to be. The automaker set the floor.

Starting Thursday, Maryland dealers can finally tell you that on their own sites. Everywhere else, you have to ask.

The rule you never saw

Many automakers run a program called MAAP, short for minimum allowable advertised price. It caps how low a dealer may advertise a car, websites included. It doesn’t cap how low the dealer can sell.

On the lot, a dealer can put any price on the windshield. Online, where you actually shop, it can’t. And in Maryland, dealers could get punished just for explaining why. Fitzgerald Auto Malls, the dealer group behind the bill, told lawmakers the penalty is lost marketing help and cooperative ad money.

Maryland’s fix is narrow. House Bill 306, the Jack Fitzgerald Price Transparency Act, takes effect October 1. It doesn’t ban MAAP. It doesn’t force anyone to cut a price. It only bars automakers from taking “adverse action” against a dealer that says on its website that the listed price is the manufacturer’s minimum advertised price and that it may sell for less.

The best line came from the other side. The automakers’ trade group, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, opposed the bill and wrote: “Minimum advertised prices are not necessarily final prices.”

Translation: the number on the screen is where the haggling starts. The people who set it said so in writing.

Be clear about who’s cheering. A dealer group pushed this for years because it wants to undercut rivals online. Fine. Its self-interest and yours point the same way here.

What it costs you

How big is the gap? In 2022 testimony on an earlier version of the bill, Maryland’s Consumer Auto group said online prices can run “$1,000, $1500 or more higher” than what’s available in the showroom. That figure is four years old, so treat it as a ballpark.

Now finance it. Roll an extra $1,500 into a 72-month loan at a hypothetical 7% and you pay about $25.57 a month for it, roughly $1,841 all in. For a number the automaker admits isn’t final.

Dumb money to leave on the table.

Do this, in any state

• Treat every online price as an opening bid. MAAP is a manufacturer program, not a Maryland one.
• Email three dealers the same trim and ask for a written out-the-door price: vehicle, taxes, fees and add-ons on one line.
• Ask it straight: “Is this a minimum advertised price? What will you actually sell it for?” From Thursday, a Maryland dealer can answer on its website without penalty.
• Shop the loan separately. Get a rate before you walk in, and ask for the buy rate. Our auto loan guide and loan calculator show what each dollar costs over the term.

In California, a separate law that also starts October 1 goes after the other end of the price, the add-ons stacked on top of it.

The detail

HB 306 became Chapter 770 of 2026, signed May 26. The House passed it 123 to 7. Earlier versions appeared in 2022 and 2025. The protection doesn’t apply to a dealer that runs false or misleading ads or advertises a car it doesn’t intend to sell as advertised. Both are already crimes in Maryland, punishable by up to two months in jail, a $500 fine, or both.

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