Last year I wrote about what I like to call “The Pricing Game.” In this game, manufacturers raise sticker prices very little–and might even cut them–while raising the invoice prices paid by dealers. As a result, the prices paid by consumers go up even though the sticker prices changed very little, or not at all. It’s a hidden price increase.

Hyundai recently made a play in this game, and perhaps the largest play yet. Sticker prices went up by at most $100. Many did not change. But invoice prices went up by $400 or more in many cases.

For example:

Accent GS

MSRP: 10,415, unchanged

Invoice: 10,197, up 250

Accent SE

MSRP: 14,015, up 100

Invoice: 13,635, up 624

Elantra GLS

MSRP: 13,395, unchanged

Invoice: 13,042, up 384

Elantra Limited

MSRP: 16,895, up 50

Invoice: 16,047, up 465

Sonata GLS

MSRP: 17,345, unchanged

Invoice: 16,641, up 423

Sonata Limited

MSRP: 23,445, up 100

Invoice: 21,947, up 575

These changes were made for all models except the recently introduced Veracruz crossover. The more expensive the vehicle, the larger the increase in the invoice price. Before, dealer margins on the above models ranged from 4.5 percent to 8.5 percent. Now they range from a pencil-thin 2.1 percent to 6.4 percent.

An industry analyst I’ve been speaking with about Hyundai prices guesses they might be trying to weed out poorly performing dealers this way. Hyundai apparently provides large bonuses to dealers that meet or exceed their sales targets. For such dealers, the dealer margin is inconsequential; they rely on the bonuses. (As noted on the site, TrueDelta’s prices do not include such bonuses, so you should not assume that “invoice” is the floor.) Dealers that don’t get these bonuses, on the other hand, might have a hard time surviving.