There are commonly two steps in the car buying process. There is the part where the dealer uses his or her powers of persuasion to make you fall in love with the vehicle and then once you are ready to buy, you will be moved to the finance department. This is the part of the vehicle buying process where you become a little surprised by all the additional car fees. Some of these fees are appropriate and have to do with taxes, but some have to do with profit margins. Basically, some of these fees are implemented for the sake of making a little extra money. Here are some additional fees to watch out for when purchasing a car from a dealership.
Some of the most common fees you’ll see are administrative fees. Basically, they are intended to round out some of the manufacturers costs – not that they will make you privy to this information on your invoice. A manufacturer spends a lot of money delivering vehicles and on overhead, so they’ll take a percentage out of the total cost of the vehicle to cover some of those costs. To avoid these fees, you want to do some research to make sure it isn’t going to directly to the dealer.
You may also see prep fees. These fees are quite normal and go towards basic preparation of the vehicle before it leaves the lot. There are a lot of things that need to be done before you can take your new car home. In some instances, cars are equipped with anti-theft modules that must be removed. They may also clean your car and remove those little paper mats that are left on the floor to protect from footmarks and dirt. If you don’t want to pay these extra fees, you may want to talk to your dealer about forgoing some of the preparation steps.
Next, you may also encounter documentation fees. For instance, if you are applying for a payment plan, the dealership may ask to check your credit, which usually costs a small fee. There may also be taxes and other state and federal expenses. It changes state to state, but it may be smart to do some research beforehand about some of the taxes that are required when buying and selling cars in your state or county. This is important not only because you want to know how many miscellaneous expenses will come with purchasing your new car, but there may also be other concerns as well. For instance, what if you want a title loan in the state of Florida – how will some of these costs affect your loan?
Lastly, you may also encounter numerous other fees, but you can pretty much bet that a lot of them are extraneous and unnecessary. For instance, there may be a stocking fee. This basically means that the dealer can charge you for how long the car has been on the dealership floor. In the end, most of these fees are completely ridiculous, but it is important to know that you can often strike a deal to have them waived.