I ordered a new vehicle from the factory through a dealership. It has arrived and I have an appointment to take delivery this weekend. The price on the build sheet lists the MSRP plus the factory options I added to come up with a bottom line. I’m Ok with that price, but I I know there will be added fees such as taxes, doc fees, etc.
My question is, can I tell the dealer that the price on the build sheet is what I will pay, and any other fees, taxes, etc will need to be deducted from the selling price?
I know I can do that, but is that something that is routinely done? I’m sure I’ll be met initially with them saying those are mandatory fees and so forth. I’m not an experienced car buyer nor do I consider myself great negotiator. But I can be steadfast about a bottom line. I’m also not desperate and although I’d really like to buy this vehicle, I could walk away.
Did you sign an agreement when you ordered the car to buy it at a specified non-negotiable price? If you did, I don’t see how you could now say you want to negotiate taxes and fees, but I suppose anything is possible if you’re willing to walk away if they won’t negotiate.
Yes, I did sign the build sheet, but that’s how I’m thinking of approaching it: That’s the out the door price I agreed to pay, so that’s what I’ll pay. It’s up to you to make it work.
I just want to know if that’s completely insane, or within the general spectrum of how these things work.
Read the contract you signed closely. Since this was a special order I would be surprised if you could walk away. I’m willing to bet the contract specifies price plus various fees and you already agreed to all of that.
You need to check the contract you signed (or, better, have an attorney look at the contract but that has a cost of its own).
The only thing I signed was the build sheet. It contains no language about being obligated to buy or buying at a given price. I’ve been reassured by the research I did beforehand (and it was reiterated by the dealer themself) that until the final purchase is made, I can cancel the agreement and get my $100 deposit back.
We bought a special order Cadillac Lyriq and the only thing not on the build sheet was extended warranty BS. You can post your build sheet here if you want. It should include all non-optional fees. Taxes and destination are not negotiable IMHO. Doc fees maybe, but that should be minimal. We paid what was on the Monroney sticker and the dealer even made sure we knew about a Costco discount.
I’m confused- are you saying they built a car to your specifications with a $100 refundable deposit and no contract obligating you to buy the car at a specific price? Because that doesn’t make sense to me , that they would order a specific car for you that you don’t have to buy and they might never be able to sell.
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “doc fee” - do you mean the fees associated with the dealership registering the car and getting plates and so on?
In any event, you aren’t going to be able to negotiate sales tax and probably not much on the document fees. Maybe some, if you aren’t going to have the dealer register the car and get the plates - and there might be some situations where you won’t pay sales tax to the dealer, such as if you buy the car in one state and will register it in another. But in those situations you will pay sales tax to the state where you register the car. (Assuming, of course, that the car is going to be registered in a state that imposes sales tax on cars)
Did you negotiate the price at all, or just agree to pay the one on the build sheet ?
How it normally works is that you negotiate the price of the vehicle and you take into account any mandatory fees and taxes when you negotiate the price - for example, if you want to pay $40,000 total and the document fee is $1000 and the sales tax will be about $3200, you negotiate the price down to $35,800. It’s not going to be exact but the dealer isn’t going to collect $40K from you and figure out how much is the price of the car plus fees and how much is the tax.
A doc fee is frequently a scam/inflated/pure profit line added by the dealer. The state will charge some amount for registration/plates & there is some nominal cost for the clerk filling out said paperwork. If the clerk makes $50,000/yr that is $25/hr, & if it takes them ½ hr (but probably only 15 mins or less) to fill out the paperwork, the cost is $12.50, but then they don’t have lines on the invoice for electricity, or their property taxes, water, sewer, vending machine operator, etc. so why do they have a separate line for just one of their other support employees.
Call an independent tag place (where you’d go if you bought a used car privately) & see how much they charge; any “doc fee” should be at or less than that (unless they break it out for state fees & their costs whatever they’re charging you has some profit in it for them to stay in business). Don’t pay a penny more than that amount. If they won’t budge tell 'em you’ll do the paperwork at Joe’s House o’Tags.
I’ve also seen Notary fees of $50 or $100, or more; again, tell 'em you’ll provide independent notary services for significantly less than they are charging.
Someone else who was looking at a lease earlier this month & their associated fees - $589 to fill out paperwork???
sales tax, title, and license are non-negotiable. You will have to pay those. “Doc fees” should not be more than a couple hundred $. You will likely have little luck negotiating that either, but if it is more than, say, $250, I would push back on it. I would fight hard against anything else besides the above.
The real question is whether anything can be negotiated now. It may be that when the car was ordered, the OP agreed to pay a certain price, perhaps including some of these fees. Only by reading that document can one know.
Should? It should be zero as the cost to them is a few ducats at most. Honestly it is pure profit … the bottle water you drank while you waited 3 hours for your paperwork cost them more.
And in a state like Colorado where by law a dealer must charge everyone the same amount, the only appropriate negotiation is, “Take the $799 off the price of the car.” Any answer other than yes and I’m driving away
Anything more than $0 and push back. Ask them point blank, “What do you do to prepare the documents? How does that cost $799? Why is that a me issue and not a you issue?”
Even if that is true, a lot of car dealers will not uphold their obligation and will tack garbage fees on top saying that was not part of the agreed to price.
I guaranty it is NOT a contract because they have not run him through the finance abattoir. If he had a contract, he would have all of the papers with all of the fees written on them already.
Car dealers are infamous for having people sign things that the sucker presumes to have the legal weight (and do have the psychological weight) of signing a contract. Like getting you to initial some BS sheet that if I can get you that payment, will you agree to buy the car? I am not a lawyer but I’m pretty sure it is not a contract (loan rate & term, taxes, down payment, trade-in all not listed) AND (specific to the OP if you are right), that contract is null and void once they start adding on the extended warranty, ceramic coating, VIN etching etc. that changes the OTD price or in my example raises the payment above the $250 you initialed for.
tl;dr there is no contract before the finance office visit as they do not want to limit themselves as to what they can sucker you into.
ETA: Not legal advice to the OP, the posters in this thread or the citizens of the Earth.
has nothing to do with whether there is a contract or not
here is where most wanna be lawyers get caught up. It is perfectly acceptable for a contract to include to be determined items or to be negotiated future terms. It is a question of fact whether there was a sufficient “meeting of the minds” as to if the OP had a contract or not. We don’t have enough information. But the bottom line is that some line items in a car purchase can be negotiated (e.g. undercoating) and some that cannot (tax, etc.).
My point is the dealership would not commit themselves by contract until the sucker goes through financing.
I question if a number or two on a sheet of paper is truly a meeting of the minds. And you scribble a number on a paper and I initial it. What is the consideration making that document a contract?
But maybe one of the lawyers here can answer that.
You are fortunate enough to afford a new car with added bells and whistles.
You made some kind of deal with the seller at a given price.
You had them make a special order to your specifications.
You are going to pick up the brand-new car this weekend.
You now wish to take exception, after the fact, to the tax and the doc fee? You may or may not be under a binding contract… this is between you and your lawyer, if you wish to pursue the matter. No one here can tell.
Car dealers aren’t the only slippery characters in the world.
Hell, give it a shot, it may work.
If I could afford a new car sitting in my driveway by week-end, I’d be thrilled to pay the un-avoidable tax and doc fee. These are State fees, not under dealer control.