[Dangerous Doug]

Think "Sales Guy" for a moment:

The $199 is the "anchor price". Studies have shown that people will get a value lodged in their heads and it will influence their willingness to pay. It may sound strange, but one study would spin a roulette type wheel with numbers on it, then ask the participant in the study how many countries their are on the continent of Africa. Inevitably, the response would be near or related to the number that just came up on the roulette wheel. I'm not making this stuff up. See Kanneman & Traversky, Stanford Univeristy (I think I spelled their names correctly.). The seller probably doesn't expect $199, (but would take it if you walked up and gave it to him, of course) but wants to provide an air of exclusivity to the car with a high anchor price. This also could evolve into an ego thing: "Aw, shucks, I'm not going to snivel over a mere $50k..."

There has also been a study recently that showed no correlation between having gobs of money and having a high IQ...

The other "psychological' factor in this price is that it's $199, not $200. Of course, everyone is familar with this tactic.