Today, I sent an e-mail to a number of Acura dealers regarding the best deal they could offer on a TL-S w/ nav. Without mentioning the dealership, I got a response from one of them with this at the bottom:

"All prices mentioned in this message are plus tax, license, document preparation charges, CA tire fees, finance charges, and smog fees where applicable. Any offer mentioned in this letter does not include or qualify for discounted or promotional APR financing or leasing programs through AHFC. All prices expire seven days from the date of this email."

What the h*#@ is "documentation charges"? What are tire fees? What are finance charges if they are not doing the financing? For those who live in California, what are smog fees since we don't smog vehicles 4 years old or newer that are LEV?

Thanks.

 

Documentation charges are basically a way for the dealership to make more money.

Tire fees are taxes charged by the state on your tires, I think. They're supposedly used to dispose of old tires properly.

Finance charges should only apply if you're financing with them.

 

Can you refuse to pay the documentation fee? Or is this some kind of dealer perogative? I haven't had this before (bought 4 cars in my life) so I have no idea how much they will charge.

 

Ask the dealer up front to tell you all the additional charges and get them to write this list down. Negotiate the price with this list in front of you. Refuse to pay any other fees they tack on after you have struck a deal.

 

Basically the doc. fee is the dealerships fee for preparing your contract. My doc fee was 45 dollars, but I've heard of some dealers charging a higher amount to help recover some lost profit. My tire fee was 5 dollars....so that shouldn't be much of an issue.

Hope the info helped.....Frank

 

My doc fee was $195 (CT dealer), which includes them running around to the Registry of Motor Vehicles and getting insurance and plates for the car, etc. But I knew that up front so I made sure I took that into account when negotiating my price.

 

My doc fee in NC was about $150. I built all of it into an OTD price that I wanted and went about it that way. New what I could afford for what I wanted. There were no surprises or confusing fees to worry about. This way, the dealer can work the numbers whatever way works/looks best to him.

This is especially easy if you are preapproved with outside financing.

 

Price quotes do NOT expire! The dealer was just trying to get your money quick. Don't be pressured by the dealer to make your decision. The sales mgr at Clair Acura told me that crap and I just slashed back and told him to shut up. His salesman was doing very good and I was about to go with them. The mgr just killed the deal.

 

Doc. fee $45. My Infiniti also had a $45 doc. fee

 

these were my extra charges.

Documentation 45
Tax (Oakland, CA) 2,642.52
DMV 472
Smog Fee 5
Tire Fee (new CA law) 5

 

I paid about $50 in DMV fees, and that was it. That was the only additional charge on top of tax and the car itself.....

 

It is sheer greed, goes straight into the dealer's pocket.

I always negotiate to remove it, by counter-chargingfor my consulting per diem fee of $200/hour. I pont out that this is the cost of doing business, and if they want mine, they must be prepared to compensate me for the time I devote to haggling BS fees with them.

It always works - whether it just is part of the discount I would have gotten really doesn't matter to me all that much - it is just I do not like the feel of someone's hand in my pants unless I want it there!

 

Doc fee. 45 bucks.