New car dealer question

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chainblu

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To make a long story short:

Yesterday I was kicking some tires at the Mitsubishi dealer and looking at a Mirage for my wife to run around town in.

I ended up leaving without buying anything, but later on I was looking at the print-out for the car I test drove.

Here is part of it
Sale price: $15,125
Documentary fee: $799.00
State and local taxes: $961.50
License and fees: $253.40

My question is: What is a Documentary fee??
 
It's an arbitrary fee that the dealer charges you to increase their profit. My local dealer charges $99. They claim it's supposed to offset the cost of processing the paperwork. It probably costs them $20 in labor to get it done.

$799 is ridiculous, although negotiable. Ask them what it's for and how they can justify the cost. Offer less, or zero.
 
Its a $799 feee that the state of FL allows to be levied onto suckers for doing next to nothing.

I saw a more obnoxious one at a number of dealers in MD once.

Those sorts of fees can be negotiated, and essentially taken to nothing if you are ready to walk.
 
It's one of the many silly fees that suckers pay when they buy cars.

Suggest people negotiate based on drive out price only - that means use the phone or the internet to get a written quote for selling price plus local tax, tag, and title fee only. All the rest of the line items on the invoice are [censored] that the dealer adds to confuse and rip off suckers.

Then compare the various written total drive out price offers that you obtained from multiple dealers to make a buying decision. Local tax, tag, and title fee are well known and documented so very easy to compare. Going to the dealer in person and haggling with them insures paying the highest price since you basically label yourself as a sucker for doing so - sorry to sound harsh but that's the cold hard fact.

Once you get the offers a savvy car buyer will typically give a dealer a chance to adjust the final drive out to compete for your business. When they bring up items like doc fees and advertising fees, just tell them you don't care what number they put on those lines of the invoice, they can adjust the numbers on the back-end any way they want to be competitive and earn your business. Once you make that statement the light-bulb usually goes on and they understand they are not dealing with the typical poorly informed clueless car buyer.

The dealers are selling a generic product - not making them compete in writing for your business is a serious mistake. There is no need to buy a car like its still 1975 - don't throw your hard earned money away paying way too much for a car.
 
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And make sure they throw in the floor mats. And you don't need "fabric protectio" and "paint sealer".
 
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Originally Posted By: HerrStig
And make sure they throw in the floor mats. And you don't need "fabric protectio" and "paint sealer".


Gag. I had a salesman spend more time on the fabric protection (never mind that the vehicle had leather interior), paint protection, and glass protection... than he spent on trying to get the sale.

He didn't get the sale. Run Forrest, run!!!
 
The doc fee is definitely a profit center for dealers. I'm sure states vary but in Az dealers can't vary their established doc fee from one customer to the next. You have to get that money back somewhere else in the deal. $799 is the highest I've ever heard of.
 
Another vote here for negotiating an OTD price. I want the final dollar amount for the check I'm going to write. I don't care how the dealer wants to break the numbers out- all I care about is the total amount I'm going to pay.
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
And make sure they throw in the floor mats. And you don't need "fabric protectio" and "paint sealer".


Gag. I had a salesman spend more time on the fabric protection (never mind that the vehicle had leather interior), paint protection, and glass protection... than he spent on trying to get the sale.

He didn't get the sale. Run Forrest, run!!!



My favorite was the time that I bought the Ranger in my signature.
Through the salesman/sales manager, we had an an agreed on OTD price and I already had the check written. I purchased the truck over the phone at 8am that morning and put a deposit on it.
At this point, it is 8pm, I had been up since 4am, worked all day, returned home plus driven 120 miles to pick up this truck.
I hand him the check and ask for the paperwork to sign. He says that I need to sit down and listen to his "presentation", at which point he starts in about an extended warranty. (I really wasn't in the mood for that at that juncture and feel that there is only one thing in this world that I have to do and that is die.)
I asked him politely, "Where is your pop machine?"
He said down the hall and to the left.
I said "Thank you. My wife and I will be down the hall having an ice cold pop.
Give your presentation to the wall behind me and when it is time to sign the paperwork, send someone down to get me. If I have any questions about your presentation, I will ask the wall when I get back."
The look on his face was priceless, paperwork was signed, and I was out in less then 10 minutes."
 
Funny, there was just a post about a Mitsubishi Mirage yesterday.

It doesn't bother me that they have 73 horsepower (economy is a feature).

It doesn't bother me that Car & Driver gave the car 1 star (they know nothing).

It bothers me that the IIHS gave this car the lowest possible overall safety rating because the airbags failed to prevent a crash test dummy's head from hitting the dash!

I would never put my wife in one of these. I work in a bodyshop, I've seen vehicular fatalities, I don't want to see my wife's brains all over our dashboard.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
$15,125 for a Mitsubishi Mirage?

Here's one near Orlando for $8,929. Brand new

Link to Mirage
no ac?



Auto Climate control is standard.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
$15,125 for a Mitsubishi Mirage?

Here's one near Orlando for $8,929. Brand new

Link to Mirage
no ac?
Where does it say no A/C?
 
I wouldn't spend another thirty seconds at any dealership where I saw those kinds of "fees" listed. Nothing but Billy the Kid without a gun outfit. Run, don't walk to the nearest exit.
 
Thanks for all your replies, so far. I don't have my heart set on a Mirage. I heard one of those fast talking commercials on the radio and I just happened to be in the area.

Originally Posted By: Ethan1
lowest possible overall safety rating because the airbags failed to prevent a crash test dummy's head from hitting the dash!


Do the seat belts not work as well?
 
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