I am just about to buy a Lexus. I was told by a dealer that the price is not negotiable and he gave me list of additional fees :
* tire/ battery / MVWEA $10
* tag agency fee $170
* tag/registration fee $ 600
* dealer service fee $ 850
Which of the fees can be negotiable/ dropped?

 

What are they for?

Items that the dealer has to pay to other parties may be non-negotiable.

Tag agency fee--how is this different than tag/registration fee? If the dealer is paying to register your car with the state so you can drive it off the lot, it's a legit fee...as long as they aren't marking it up?

The tire/battery fee sounds legit ... I'm assuming "MV" in MVWEA stands for "Motor Vehicle", so I'm guessing its something they pay to the DMV.

The dealer service fee sounds like total BS. Make them give you a detailed explanation of what it is. Sounds to me like a fee for the privilege of paying to buy the car. I'd definitely balk at that one.

Good luck.

 

They all sound bogus to me. In my state, all of those extra dealership fees are bogus. The owner of our Lexus dealership said all of those “doc” fees are made up.

As far as tag fees go it could be a Florida thing. It seems to vary from state to state.

 

Some states put a cap on the "Documentation Fee" but other fees that dealers charge under different names (tag fee, emissions fee, service fee, prep fee, etc.) are not typically capped: https://www.carvana.com/research/202...aler-doc-fees/

Its interesting because you might see a great price at one dealer but with all their fees on top, that great deal starts looking like a "gotcha, read the fine print" moment. Its always good to cross shop competing Lexus dealerships and find out all fees up front once you've narrowed down your search.

Don't be afraid to walk away - i told my dealership (when i was shopping for my previous CPO 2011 Lexus IS350) I needed to be all-in at $30k which I why I made an offer that was below ask. I calculated with my offer and their doc fee, taxes, other charges, i'd be in at my budget but they couldn't do it...so neither could I and I got up and started walking away. Pre-owned sales manager stepped in, dropped their price a little more and threw in a remote start and some mats to sweeten and close the deal.

If they don't negotiate on price, then they likely won't negotiate on their fees either. The only way around is to find another Lexus dealership that will give you an all-in price that is better to compare...or see what this dealership can throw in for you to help offset some of their fees that add value for you (remote start, service coupons, warranty extension, all weather mats, spoiler, other accessories, etc.)

 

Florida doc fees are among the highest, if not the highest, in the U.S.

If a dealer says that the price of the vehicle is not negotiable, it's time to find a different dealer.

 

Widen your search radius and don’t be afraid to go out of state for the right deal. And yes - Florida - the home of the $1k Doc fee...

 

This was like 12-13 years ago, found a super clean, 5 speed 2001ish Mazda Protege 5 wagon on ebay. Bright yellow, like 25,000 miles on a 7-8 year old car. Dealer was wanting $9,900 on this car, which I thought was reasonable considering miles/condition. Read the fine print, $995 doc fee, that's total bull**** I thought, you are asking like 10% of the value of this car for a ****ing bull**** fee just to pad your profit. Dealer was in Florida.

Called them up, said I wanted to buy the car at the advertised price, told them I had my bank account and routing number right in front of me. Told them straight up, I will give you $9,900 on that car, but I am not paying the doc fee, as its like 10% the price of the car. Well that conversation ended in about 2 minutes, told them to eat a **** and just advertise the car honestly at $10,900 with no doc fee.

 

A Chevrolet dealer I visited last year wanted thousands in fees and a mandatory $200+ set of wheel locks for a $16,000 Trax. Needless to say, we passed. No need to reward that behavior with business.

 

When I purchased my RCF the dealership tried to hit me with a $900 "doc fee" which I refused. I'm not paying $900 for data entry so we settled for $200.

Walk away and they will come back to you if they want to sell the car.

 

Trick I did when I got my CT200h was that I had a group of friends come in when I negotiated the car and it was precisely that high dealer fee. All of a sudden when I said $900 dealer fee for what?, my friends walked by and said $900 for what and they started pestering the salesperson and telling them they would not buy a car with that extra fee, suddenly the salesperson's manager came over and said what was all the fuss, after about a minute and hearing the complaints of my friends (Sometimes loud complaints), we settled on $100 fee.

 

Don't know what the first one is. The next two are state fees and not negotiable. The dealership will tell you the dealer service fee is not which might be true but it just means they will have to negotiate down the price of the car. This is pure profit. I once offered them no dealer fee and I will go down to DMV and do the paper work. They take loads of these down there at one time by a low level employee and produce one nice profit. The first time a dealer charged a dealer processing fee many years ago it was $100.

 

check this out:

 

I don't necessarily agree that one should find a different dealer if they don't like the price. One could wind up with a slightly cheaper purchase-price and a LOT crappier service or parts-department, for example (trust me....one thing you DON'T want is a crappy service...your life or health could potentially be riding on it). And sometimes it pays to be a repeat customer.....even if they don't offer you the lowest price, sometimes dealerships like repeat-customers, and the will give you other perks to make up for it.

Of course, I'm NOT saying DON'T go to another dealership...by all means, do so if you don't like the one you are at, or if it seems to be run by arrogant people. I'm just saying that there is sometimes another side of the issue.

 

Depends on how competitive the dealer is on price and exactly what you are looking at new vs used. If you like the car/options/color combo/condition(on a used car) sometimes its worth it to just pay the extra $500-2,000 that dealer is asking vs the guy on the other side of town. I'm kind of picky about color and condition on the used cars I've bought, so going across town to save a few bucks on something that is a bit more ragged out in a color I don't like doesn't make much sense.

 

If you don't like the price at dealer X, and you purchase at dealer Y, you are not obligated to use the parts and service department at dealer Y. Just go back to dealer X...they will gladly take your $$ for parts and service. I bought my Mazda a few years ago at a dealer 45 mins away in Allentown ... it was $800 cheaper than my next best price. When I have needed to use a local dealer for parts, service, warranty and recalls, they are happy to have me. NEVER decide where to buy a car based on where you want to have it serviced...NEVER.