Dealing with Dealers Questions

* Many Dealers charge this "Document Fee", however, many buyers feel this is the cost of the Dealer doing business, and refuse to pay this fee. But, in the case of the NEW 2010 Prius you may have NO choice in paying this fee.

You may also be charged for items you do not want, like Carpeted or All Weather Floor Mats, it's simply a matter of supply versus demand, DEalers have more people wanting these cars than cars available to fullfill those needs.

If you REALLY want that Prius, you just may have to pay their "Document Fee", accept those Floor Mats (which many want anyway) and maybe even some Pin Striping or Door Edge Guards that aren't particularly important to you, or you can wait till supply catches up with demand...however long that takes.

Most Chatters here will tell you, "the car is worth every penny"!

David (aka Blind Guy)

 

Look around at some other dealers and see if they charge a similar fee.

Its a non-required prep fee, pure profit for the dealer. If you can find another dealer who can sell you the same car without the fee...go for it. I bet all the dealers in your area are charging a similar fee though. Its becoming more and more mainstream.

 

It's hard when the car isn't in stock. The easiest way is when the car you want is in stock at different dealers. Look at them on Sunday, write down all the info and call the sales manager on Monday and ask what they will sell you that car for. Since you can just hang up if they know you are serious they will usually give you their best price right away to get you to come in.

 

My dealer adds $2400 for chrome rims, or a $2000 "market adjustment". Others (further away) do not. I get lifetime oil changes ... and a Blizzard-Pearl Prius III. There was also an extra $1800 for a "poor" Nav that I did not want.

 

Oil change interval is 10,000 now, so that means after 5000 miles, you only have that to do it every 10,000 miles...(I don't mean to be a downer, but do you really trust that dealership who con you to do the oil change correctly?)

I was looking for white/2010/solar 2 days ago and I found 3 places in LA that had them, La Puente, Glendale and Burbank.
I've talk to a dealer in La Puente over the phone (on the 60 fwy), He promised me a msrp and convenient "forgot" to tell me about having added the chrome wheels and tinted windows which totaled up to 3000 extra (it is also the only dealer not willing to email me vin number, I should've known) He tried to stall me by taking away my license (typical trick to make you wait and feel rushed to purchase) I left right away because he is not willing to swap out the wheels for free (no wonder that car is sitting there for weeks..it's probably still there).

Later the day I purchased my car at Glendale with very little trouble.(thumbs up)
Keyes toyota near Burbank is very helpful as well, the sales emailed me all the info vin #/ package details very quickly.

 

talk2 me,

I'm pretty familiar with dealer practices in Colorado. A dealer fee of around $400 is pretty much standard in Colorado but can be bargained away in many cases. It is actually pre-printed on their contracts. In other areas, like Oregon where I bought my car, there are no such fees.

For popular vehicles, dealers may not budge on it, but I would check with other dealers before giving in. When I taked to dealers in Colo Spgs in July, I was offered $600 below MSRP on a Prius IV with Solar Roof which after the $400 fee actually meant $200 below MSRP.

What specifically are you looking for that required the dealer to bring it in from elsewhere? That might help me and others give you better advice.

 

That fee is right up there with window etching. Varies by region. If memory serves, I paid $80 for the document fee at my dealer. I paid MSRP for my Blizzard II, with the usual carpeted mats added. Also ended up with a port (I assume) installed IPOD harness, which IMHO, is near worthless. All in all, not too bad considering it was on the lot and during the height of C4C madness. I'd check around and see what the prevailing practice is.

 

In NJ I paid a $400 document fee. I said everyone has paper work to sell something, why do I have to pay this fee? BS answer that it's charged by all the dealers. Also, after he gave me the price, MSRP, he said that they put door edge moldings on and wheel well moldings on and they wanted $500 more. I said $500 is outrageous and he came down to $200. Then a couple of days ago I saw an offer for a free carfax report. I got it just for the heck of it and discovered that there was window etching on my Prius. I didn't know about that. The salesman never mentioned it. So I guess that $200 for moldings and etching wasn't so bad.

 

I have been shopping for a IV with SY, and have run into the same bogus charge - there is a dealer here on Long Island, NY who even wanted charge $750 extra in "fees" over and above the Toyota $750 destination fee. I have since found out that they are known as a sleazy organization. I ran, did not walk, away from those deals. I will just never pay anything above MSRP, nor will I pay any bogus rip-off extra fees. There are actually honest dealers who give a discount off MSRP. Go to Overstock.com, click on cars and follow the prompts. You will find competitive prices there. I am buying my car from one of those.

 

It's all a game. Dealers will take some money out of one pot and put it in another. The bottom line is, you need to look at the BOTTOM LINE. For example, when I was shopping for my P-III, one dealer had a document fee of $100, but would not budge on MSRP. The dealer I purchased from had a $300 document fee, but they went $600 below MSRP on the selling price (and this was at the height of C4C). In the end, Dealer #2 won. I found a lot of good free tips on negotiating car deals at this site: www.carbuyingtips.com

Good luck! You'll love your new Prius!

 

I'm wondering how you know that the OCI is 10K.... inside info??