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For the car I'm looking at buying, the dealer charges a destination fee (around $900). When I checked the online inventory, there is also a line item for doc fee of $400. Question is whether the doc fee is firm or negotiable - that seems kind of high to handle registration, license and such.
When you are negotiating to buy a car, always ask for the bottom line number that includes everything except tax and license.
The name attached to the "fee" doesn't matter. Dealers are very creative in adding fees. What you need to avoid is expecting a certain price and then ending up being manipulated into paying more. Dealers are experts at doing that to unsophisticated buyers.
I bought my most recent new car through Costco. They linked to one dealer in the area who gave me an attractively low bottom line price and stood by it. If you are buying a new car, I'd suggest you do the same. That $55 membership fee is well worth it. They saved me several hundred dollars and the whole negotiation took about 5 minutes. I was able to avoid all the BS that car buyers normally encounter in a dealership.
Only the final price matters, I've always called it the "Out the door" price.
What line items they associate that money to doesn't matter one bit. Heck, they could charge a $20,000 "doc fee" on a $21,000 purchase and I wouldn't care and neither should you.
I actually am looking at selling a few of our old cars and getting something new. I plan on driving a few different models and finding what we want. And then sending a email to different dealers telling them the model I'm looking for. And for them to return the email with a out the door price. Then I'll do the same one more time telling all the other dealers that dealer x is willing to sell me model X for $ X and they need to come back with their best and lowest offer. Whoever has the lowest price gets the business. Ultimately I don't care where I buy it nor do I care if they gotta order it. I don't NEED to get a car that day.
The warranty is honored at any dealer for that brand and I dont give a crap about their "free" oil change coupon book marketing gimmick.
You can go in and fight it out with the sales guys but that takes too long.
Word of advice. If you don't have a deal hammered out in 30 minutes after sitting down with the sales guy for a price both parties agree on you're going to get hammered. It's going to become a sales assault on you. Get up and walk out. Do your homework on the rebates that are available and what you qualify for. And most of all DINT fall in love with the car. It's a car. There are plenty like it at other dealers. To most buyers it's a emotional purchase. To a dealer it's just business. Don't bring a trade in and roll it in the deal it's going to muddle the deal.
Don't let them run your credit until you have a price hammered out. Better yet bring your own bank financing. Dealers don't have to tell you the lowest loan rate you qualify for, they can pick and choose what they tell you. They can qualify you at 2% but sell you at 3%. They get a kickback of 1% from the finance co.
Last edited by Electrician4you; 03-12-2017 at 07:44 AM..
Do your research! Set your limit, and negotiate from there. If the agrees upon price includes those fees, and your happy with it, do the deal. Ive never paid those dealer fees. Last time I bought a car, last July, they tried to throw those in at the last second, even had it printed on the contract. I got up to walk out, and they stopped me and redid the paperwork without ANY dealer fees.
Word of advice. If you don't have a deal hammered out in 30 minutes after sitting down with the sales guy for a price both parties agree on you're going to get hammered. It's going to become a sales assault on you.
Not necessarily.
I've had deals take up to three hours, but I had a price that I was gonna pay and that was it.
As long as progress was made toward that price, we stayed.
There was indeed a sales assault, but all they did was waste their time.
I, OTOH, had all day. Eventually the manager came out and sold us the car.
That said, shop around. Go into a few dealerships with the firm intention of not buying that day. They might try to tempt you with an offer as you leave--good, you have price to start from next time. But plan on just test driving several cars at first, and over several days.
Not going to become a sales assault, then proceeds to describe how his experience included a sales assault.
Some people have a lot of fun with negotiation, spending 3 hours of your life in some crappy car sales office is a Good Time (TM) to those folks. Others just want to get a price, pay it and be done... like buying something from Amazon (or maybe eBay is more accurate). My dad had the right idea for my mentality, he'd fax his criteria to every dealer in the area letting them all know he had contacted each of the others and asked for their absolute best pricing and he'd take the best offer. Then simply drive up, sign the paperwork and drive off. Of the 4 vehicle he bought that I can remember, each was less than 30 minutes spent at the dealership.
Now days you have the internet department for the same type of setup and my dealings with them have always been very good.
Best to be informed and prepared. Depends on how you negotiate.
If you negotiate base price, then that price should include destination, doc prep, misc fees. Tax & license are extra. However, if you are not careful, they try to sneak in destination, doc prep fees, etc, on top of base price. So you should review the sales document carefully.
Or you can try to negotiate out the door price. Then it doesn't matter what they charge of doc prep fee, since it is all include.
I'd also do some online shopping. Some places are going to a no-haggle pricing model. I doubt they are the cheapest, but they certainly are the quickest to find a starting point for price. If anything, those places may be the best to do test drives at. Supposedly the sales people aren't on commission, thus "its not wasting their time" to test drive and talk numbers--and to then walk out on them with no sale. In case that is weighing in on your mind.
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