Fees for buying a Prius? Does this look right?

I would haggle the price down. With the market the way it is, any used car dealer anywhere is gonna have a tough time moving cars so they may be more willing to move down in price.

But either way, for a used Prius ... It's up to you if you want to buy it.

 

This.

Everybody adds "fees", because then you have a lower "price". And all these fees, well, they're beyond our control, printed on the contract, nothing we can do.


Until you sign at the bottom, that paper means nothing. It's not a contract, just a pre-printed proposal. You can stroke through all the fees, revise them all to zero, ask the salesman to initial the changes, then work on the car price.

 

i don't see anything in the fees that aren't required in cali

the bulk of it looks like registration?

 

The dealerships should absorb those, give the customer a simple price. The more "required" charges they tack on, the more they can slip in even more, bs ones. It's just like airports with baggage and fuel surcharges, tireshop recycle fees, and so on.

 

maybe it's a US thing? although we go by state. all the required fees here have always been at the bottom, not built in to the price of the car. especially tax, license and registration

 

Same here.

 

Are you saying that California requires a "document processing charge"? My state 'allows' and caps it, but has never required it. And what exactly are those other fees, are they paid to the state, or does the dealership keep any of them?

When I began buying cars, the only added charges were those paid to governments. Then, there were no euphemistically named "document processing" fee, which is mostly ADP -- Added Dealer Profit. The labor cost of handling required paperwork was simply part of the dealership's overhead, and built into their basic markup between factory cost and selling price.

But somewhere along the way, stealerships figured out that they could lower their headline advertised prices without actually lowering their selling prices, by setting aside some of the price to look like a mandatory fee or charge. Customers see a lower price number and think they're getting a better deal, without the selling price actually budging a single cent.

When I negotiate car prices, I make it crystal clear at the start that I don't give a eff what the dealership's 'mandatory' added charges and fees are. Any price they quote to me MUST be all-inclusive of all those dealership charges and fees. Only monies sent entirely to governments may be left out of the negotiated price. Here, that means only tax-title-license.

 

^+1

I only care about the bottom line price, and since they now have this new interweb thing, I don't even have to make phone calls.

Then?
It's just a matter of cost/benefit.

Will I drive 100 miles to save $100?
Maybe not....but I might to save $500.
I'm getting into the cantankerous old man stage of my life.
If some snot-nosed millinneal gets under my finger nails, I might just drive 100 miles and SPEND $100 extra bucks.
Once you get down to the Purchase Order stage....you only need to know one number, and if the dealer wants to amuse itself with fees and such, that's their lookout.

Car buying doesn't need to be overly complicated, bu it is a relatively major decision for the 99-percenters.

If you're not into the mental gymnastics?
Use a car buying service and get pre-approved at the bank.

YMMV

 

that's the question i believe the o/p is asking. only someone in cali, or familiar with their rmv would know.

so far, most have just responded to the model, the price, or suggested other vehicles.

'fees for buying a prius, does this look right?'

and if you look at the post, the dealership did give him the bottom line, and also broke out the fees. looks straightforward and honest to me. are some of them dealer nonsense? that's what he wants to know.

 

Not exactly on-topic, but the more little extra charges you have, the more less-than-honest dealerships have opportunity to "mess with you". Case in point, and this is the good guys at Open Road Toyota, Port Moody:

We'd settled on a price, had a printed out bill of sale (with a Toyota letterhead), that had "no charge" in the "documentation fee" field. The passed us over to a "closer", who reprinted the bill of sale with a dealership letterhead (a standard procedure there, he explained).

I looked it over, and for some odd reason the bottom line figure had gone up, substantially. Looked some more, and found "documentation fee" had gone from "no charge", to $295. C'mon...

They actually protested, said it was highly irregular, they'd have to clear it with the sales manager. Pretty ballsy, for someone with their hand in your pocket.

Again, that's Open Road Toyota, Port Moody. The good guys...

 

i always ask how much to make the check out for, before i come in. but that doesn't explain the fees, that's another discussion prior to that. and there's always fees