Lot fees?

[Biff]

Anyone being charged a storage/detailing/fueling fee for a new GTI? In the Seattle/South King county area one dealer said they all do this and it's about $400. I was offered a very good price but this fee seems like an attempt to get part of it back.

 

[subdoc]

Wow, sounds a bit on the shady side to me!

 

[itgvw]

Lot fees? the $400 fee they charged me was called "advertising fees"

 

[ashwinaj]

Seems bogus to me. Read this site: http://www.carbuyingtips.com/

 

[Biff]

itgvw,
Yep advertising was in there too.

ash,
Lots of good info on that website.

 

[Alex.]

I went to University VW, and I did not pay any fee. They even filled up the car for free before I took it home.

 

[TwinTurboBoost]

its called dealer fees and everyone has em...its gas,advertising,car wash etc....Yes you get a full tnak of gas, yes you pay for it...

 

[Biff]

Thanks for your response ISELL, but a number of people here didn't pay any such fees. And I know first hand there are no such fees when buying a Honda. It appears some dealers give low quotes to get you in the door and then offset same by adding a bogus fee back on. If I'm quoted a price I expect it to be the price. Anything else is dishonest.

 

[TwinTurboBoost]

Thanks for your response ISELL, but a number of people here didn't pay any such fees. And I know first hand there are no such fees when buying a Honda. It appears some dealers give low quotes to get you in the door and then offset same by adding a bogus fee back on. If I'm quoted a price I expect it to be the price. Anything else is dishonest.

Yes thats what people do, they give you a price to attract you to a dealer and say " oh btw" you have to give me destination charge, etc. I am NOT a dealer to do this, and yes all dealers charge " dealer fees' it just does not show up on window sticker, etc. Thats how you can distinguish between a good and crappy dealer. Mazda, honda, vw, bmw, etc has some sort of fees that are listed on invoice...thats why when you argue with a dealer " thats not invoice" most of the time it is...You can tell automatically if the salesman or dealership are scumbags...Hey I got rated number 1 in the us 2 yrs in a row..We do things right here.

 

[TwinTurboBoost]

Every Vw on the eastern region has a dealer fee, I know this for a fact. I cant see it being much different for anywhere else in the usa, maybe pricing is slightly different.

 

[TwinTurboBoost]

I have a friend who went to go buy a gti in vegas and they had a 2k fee, I told him to just leave that stealership and go somehwere else.

 

[DawnsKayBug1]

Every Vw on the eastern region has a dealer fee, I know this for a fact. I cant see it being much different for anywhere else in the usa, maybe pricing is slightly different.

No they dont. You dont know what your talking about.

 

[TwinTurboBoost]

No they dont. You dont know what your talking about.

Uhhh actually they do. You dont know what your talking about.

 

[Mark@CarolinaVW]

dealer fee, doc fee lot fee, whatever.

Depends on the dealer. When you sell a car for invoice, its how you eat. The average total is $500. Some will charge alot of extra or jack up the destination. Just depends. Its the result of a world where everyone expects the dealer to sell the car for what they pay for it.

 

[jmblur1]

Note that in some states, doc fees are actually regulated - Maryland, I believe, limits "dealer fees" at under $100 (which means everybody has a $99 fee). You can negotiate around this if you're working with dealers in different states by negotiating the price of the car as "including everything but tax and tags". I had other dealers try to hide the destination fee separate from the MSRP then tack it on later and other shady ways to make it look like they were coming in lower below invoice.

Do your homework, don't expect to pay thousands below invoice, be firm but fair in your pricing requests, and don't let yourself get pushed around, and both you and the dealer can walk away happy.

EDIT: Also, you can get at least new GTIs below invoice even including doc/dealer fees, but realize they're popular cars and as such you're not going to have the dealer scraping pennies on the car. Also watch out for games - they may give you a killer deal on the new car, but destroy you on your trade in.

Also don't forget that they still make money on a car they sell below invoice - mostly via dealer holdback, although there are other volume promotions and the like. If they're willing to sell it, they're making money (or they're Pontiac, Saab, or Saturn and are just trying to liquidate )