Best online new car deals can take some digging

You really need to know where to look online to find a bargain. 

During our research for this week's cover story on the best deals for the end of the Japanese financial year, it was amazing to find how much confusing information remains on manufacturer websites.

For example, if you click on the Nissan "special offers" tab you can get a drive-away price on some cars but on most you are encouraged to "come in" and negotiate. Without a published drive-away price, some buyers will get a better deal than others. Elsewhere on the same website if you "build and price" a car from the ground up, you can get a wildly different outcome on the same vehicle.

The most basic Nissan Navara crew cab 4WD ute is available for $29,990 drive-away (plus $495 for metallic paint). But the same vehicle on the 'build your own" section of the website calculates out to more than $46,000 - a vast $16,000 difference.

If it's designed to demonstrate what a deal you're getting, it doesn't wash with the target audience, if our straw poll among tradie mates is a guide

No one has ever paid $46,000 for a bare bones pick-up (this is the price for the more luxurious models) so to have this as a full price is a stretch.

If it's designed to demonstrate what a deal you're getting, it doesn't wash with the target audience, if our straw poll among tradie mates is a guide.

On most car company websites it's also hard to find (sometimes near impossible) the price for metallic paint, which typically adds $400 to $550 to most cars.

Given that most cars sold have metallic paint, why are car companies still allowed to hide "premium paint" in the fine print, sometimes not even including the price, simply saying it will cost "more"?