Does your dealer add these stupid fees?

I didn't have any of those on my 17 OR. They offered a few services at the end that were extra thought. Tire protection, lojack, extended warranty

 

That $8.00 gets charged to the dealership by the manufacturer for the small amount of fuel that's in it when they purchase it originally. The invoice is pretty much irrelevant when purchasing a vehicle today. Used to be how a consumer could judge the strength of their deal but today the only thing that matters is what that same car could be purchased elsewhere for. Every manufacturer is different but there's a lot of money below invoice, sometimes up to 5 and 6% of the the MSRP. Allows dealers to sell for below invoice and still be able to pay the bills.

 

Yes. Dealer holdback, other corporate kickbacks and incentives based on a variety of factors. You're right, invoice really doesn't mean a whole lot.

 

When I was stationed in Alaska-the dealers there charged a $2,000 "Alaska Surcharge." When I asked what that was for, the dealer said, "Well we have to pay cleaners and pay to keep the lights on..." I told them bullshit-that was what every dealer everywhere did and I wasn't paying it. Stood up, told them I would fly to the lower 48, buy the car in Seattle, bring it back on the Ferry and STILL be ahead. Put my checkbook back in my pocket, walked out and... they called me an hour later saying they could drop the price of the car to cover the surcharge but couldn't waive it. Worked out for me in the end.

When I bought my Tacoma last fall I contacted dealers all over CA online. Some dealers in CA were charging a "market adjustment" of several thousand dollars over MSRP. That's because the trucks are so popular, it's "What the market will bear." A dealer near Sacramento charged $5,000 over MSRP.

I quickly found the dealers who didn't charge that fee and drove 3 hours to Las Vegas to buy the car from one them. After a few short phone calls, I actually got a good deal from that dealer and was pretty happy with the experience.

In the age of the internet and easy travel to other dealerships-it's inconceivable that car dealers think they can get away with this.

 

The reason they do, is because they do. For every Andrew that works a dealer over, and is willing to put in the time effort and research to beating a dealer up for the best price, there's 5 or 6 Joe Jabronies and of course your Pam, Deb and Mary who just waltz in, believe pretty much everything the sales guy tells them and pays 2 or 3, 4 or 5 grand more than they probably should have for the same vehicle.

Shit my dad owned a Ford Dealership and was a GM before that and a sales guy way before that....countless times I've offered my own friends assistance on helping them get the best deal, hand holding them as far as to the salesroom floor. They still act disinterested. You can lead a horse to water.....

 

Try going through the internet sales guy via online quoting system. You will get another dealer at minimum with a cheaper price. If they are close then they should match or beat it. I almost signed my tacoma and then they had a 2500 fee. When I asked he straight up said that the mark up. I walked. Then another dealer didnt have my color but would beat it by $3k or so and ended up trading the previous dealer for a truck. ha.

 

What is Engines for life warranty? Sounds enticing.

 

I agree. I guess the real question I should ask is "why are people still so lazy that they'll just pay these fees?"

I always go in with the attitude that they have to make a living, and will make a profit off of the sale of this vehicle, but that they shouldn't make a ridiculous profit off this vehicle. Information access is so easy today, negotiating with dealers should be easier too. That said, I've found the last few car purchases I've made to be very easy and straightforward actually.

 

Wow that is horrible. Would walk in a heartbeat

 

Closest thing I can think of is that USAA has a pretty good car-buyers program. Basically, your interest is sent out to a series of regional dealers, then 4 or 5 call you and/or email you...and you can negotiate down from the base price offered through their program. You should of course expand your query out to dealers not in that program, but you can play multiple dealers against each other until you get to a price you are happy on for the vehicle you are happy with.

 

What's amazing is plenty of people are paying it from the stealership in OP's post. Go elsewhere to buy. If you don't want to go more than 50 miles you will likely pay more.

 

This is hilarious. My dealership offers all of this as a courtesy. I got a killer deal and have everything that this $2k package does minus the bs nitrogen filled tires hahaha

 

I'll tell ya why he laughed. You go buy that Ford and the dealer/service dept. will make that money back in under a year's time......

Do yourself a favor, squirrel away about $600-$800 bucks for 'No Warranty' repairs every 4 months for your disposable Ford vehicle.

 

$2,000 worth of add ons that add no real value to the vehicle?!

I am so glad the dealerships in the Central Atlantic region doesn't play these games.

OP, you are in South Carolina so all the southeast dealerships do this. I have a cousin that lives in the Atlanta area and the Toyota dealerships do the same exact thing. My TRD off road 4x4 MSRP for $36,742 with towing package, all weather mats, tonneau cover, and exhaust tip as options.

My cousin looked up the inventory for my same exact truck with identical options and it stickered for $38,041. He took a pic of the window sticker and it shown $299 for window tinting (I tinted my windows at an independent shop for only $50 and got them at 20% darkness which is darker than what the dealer tints the front windows) $399 Toyota guard protection, $299 Fabric protection, and $299 nitrogen tires. All these things cost the dealership nothing in price.

So nearly $1300 worth of overpriced junk added to the normal MSRP. Granted though he says the Toyota dealerships in Atlanta easily removed those items off the price before actual negotiation. His friend just bought a 2017 4x2 TRD sport for $29,990 pre-tax and the sticker shown a price of $34,754.

He said they offer very good deals on 2WD tacomas but not so much on 4WD models which is odd since I thought 4x4 models in Georgia aren't in high demand because the south rarely gets snow.

My cousin even said that 4WD trucks on the used market in Georgia sell very close or above book value while 2WD trucks sell $2-4K below book value all the time.

OP, I would negotiate with a dealership outside of the southeast region online and tell them to give you an out the door price.

 

Try truecar.com. It send a request to the internet fleet manager. If you get the good ones they deal in volume and are not trying to upsell you generally. I have always got just over invoice using that method. Various sites do it but recently truecar.com was the one I was using. You can even print a cert and bring it in and they are supposed to honor it. If you have a few dealers you can see what they all offer over email then even do all your budding via email. Never was so easy!

 

Do you know which dealer in Atlanta he went to? That's close enough to me to be worth doing some research.lol

 

Atlanta Toyota in Duluth, Ga

 

Thank you, sir!

 

I like that you called them stupid fees because that's what they are. They are fees stupid people pay.

 

They should just put one line that says "Enema $1987" on there and save the ink used to print all that.