I fell in love with a car that the dealership had ...

I fell in love with a car that the dealership had on sale for $12k. After what I thought was fair negotiation, they took the price down a bit for me. Later, I see that the exact same car is announced, for $9k. I was understandably upset about the lack of transparency. I honestly wonder if the dealers are personally incentivized to sell a car for as expensive as possible, by any means necessary.