And before that Chrysler merged with Mercedes’ parent company, Daimler-Benz, to form DaimlerChrysler AG.
Chrysler hasn’t been an American company for the better part of 30 years.
Mostly true, though Daimler-Benz spun Chrysler back off in 2007, selling it to Cerberus Capital Management (but Daimler kept a minority stake). So, it was mostly US-owned again, for a few years, until Fiat bought it.
Excellent suggestion.
Adding to this semi-fresh thread instead of starting a new one.
I’m likely looking for a new-to-me vehicle after my 2012 Subaru Outback stopped running.
All of the dealers’ websites contain this (or similar) language:
All prices exclude tax, title, tag, registration and $398 dealer doc fee
… my question is: what are each of those? Which are negotiable and which are required?
Also, any sense on what reasonable amounts for these fees should be?
I’m in Vermont, and will likely be paying cash- does that give me any more leverage? (Also, I assume when paying cash, I can just write a personal check?)
I have almost zero experience in negotiating car purchases, and am on a very short timeline.
Tax, title, tag & registration are all government-imposed expenses that you’ll need to pay one way or the other: either to your dealer who will do the paperwork for you, or to the government when your register, tag, & title the vehicle. If you are buying in one state to export and register in another state then the process gets more complicated but the fact remains those fees are inevitable other than differences in amount from state to state, and the very special case of the few states where the sales tax on vehicles is … zero 
!!
The $398 dealer doc fee is simply them trying to charge you $400 to process the paperwork to sell you the car. How nice for them. That is a classic BS fee that you can/should push back on. But …
High level overview:
In my recent experience, more and more dealerships are switching to a nohaggle, no discussion approach to sales. The price, and the fees, are 100% baked in. Your choice is reduced to “Buy this car from us at the price we post and with all the fees we demand, or don’t. Next!”.
This definitely varies by region of the country and type of dealership and all the rest. But do not be surprised if their answer to your “opener” is “The price is the price. Take it or leave it and don’t waste our time with your silly ‘negotiating’.”
When considering used cars, the first things I do are look under the vehicle for leaking fluids, and use the flashlight I brought to peer down into the oil filler hole. If it’s clean, that’s good. If there is baked-on gunk it’s a deal-killer. It’s a sure sign oill changes were not done in a timely fashion. If the initial inspection produces no objections I take it to an independent mechanic for a professional inspection, making sure that compression tests are done on all cylinders.
Thanks!
An additional question(s): My current vehicle is sitting at home and will not run. It gave out on me on the interstate- all the lights came on and the engine ceased to enage the wheels… I slowly came to a stop and stepping on the gas revved the engine, but did not transfer anything to the wheels.
I am trying to figure out the most cost-effective way to get the car out of my hands recouping any value if possible. I had some other imminent repairs coming due (unrelated to engine/drive train) which pretty much mean that the car is not worth repairing for anything beyond around $1000. I’m no car expert, but I expect that this curent issue is transmission related, which is likely to put me way over that amount.
But, I havent had a mechanic confirm anything. Since towing is expensive, I want to move the car as few times as possible. So.
- Do I tow it to the dealer and have them look it over and then give me something or nothing for it?
- Tow it to a mechanic for an independent analysis, and then tow to the dealer?
- Tow it to a mechanic/used lot and take whatever they’ll give me in cash?
- Something else?
If you have a junker, check the local junkyards to see how much they’ll give you for it. Some of them may have online quote forms. A regular car will probably be in the $500 range. Some of them will come and tow it, others may want you to get it to the junkyard yourself. There are also charities who will take your car. They’ll tow it away and give you a receipt which you can use for your taxes (if deductions matter).
You can also try Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. There are people who rebuild cars who buy junkers like yours. They may fix your car from parts they have or they may use your car for parts for other cars that they are fixing up. I’m not sure how much you could sell it for. It’d be more than the junkyard.
To find people who rebuild cars of your make, do a Craigslist search for your make with the title status of “Salvage” and “Rebuilt”. The cars that come up may be cars from people who specifically rebuild that make and may want additional parts cars. Contact them and see if they’d be interested in your car.
If you wanted to get an opinion on how much to fix it, you could call a mobile mechanic to come out and take a look. I’m not sure how much that would cost. But it would save you the towing expense and hassles.
I don’t think that a dealer, used car lot, or mechanic will buy the vehicle from you. I don’t think that’s really something that they do. Perhaps if it was a really unique car they might, but not for a regular car.
F’rinstance…
For vehicle donations - make sure the title gets correctly transferred. Friends of our were hit with fine for tickets run up by the car they donated, and it was a hassle to straighten out after the fact.
Ah! Great suggestion, and @DavidNRockies , thanks for the link… I hear them advertising that program on public radio all the time and it didn’t cross my mind (probably because I only ever listen to radio in the car, which I haven’t been able to do for a few weeks!).
Yes, yes, yes (I’m Mrs. Typo Knig).
When our nearly-22-year-old Civic wanted repairs totalling many times its value (it failed inspection due to emissions issues). we wound up donating it to the local school district. They were all set up as, basically, a dealership - they’d take donated vehicles, the students would learn by fixing the cars, and then the cars would be resold.
Your state likely has a way to register that you no longer own the vehicle - which will help protect you from bullshit like our friends experienced.
I do not know if they would have come to fetch a car that was not able to move under its own power - ours was drivable, just not producing terribly clean exhaust at that point.
Amusingly, a few months after we donated the car, we got a message from an acquaintance. He was an independent car trader - and had bought our car from the school district (after repairs were done), and saw our names on the title history. This was 4 years ago, so I have no clue whether it’s still on the road, but it was neat to know the car had a little more life in it - it was about 240K miles when we donated it.
Just be careful with donating it to a charity. If the charity uses it for themselves then you can get a deduction for the fair market value of the vehicle; however, if they sell it, you only get a deduction for what they sell it for. If they sell it for scrap, it’s akin to making a donation of only a couple of hundred dollars; depending upon your tax bracket you’re going to net a deduction of around 1/3 of that amount…next April. Not such a good deal for the donator.
Unless you’re sure you want to get rid of the car, you might still want it looked at by the dealer or an independent mechanic, if you know one. Given the cost of a new car or even a late-model used one, it might be worth keeping it even if you have to put some money into it.
And donating is fine if that’s what you want to do, but unless you itemize your taxes, you’re not going to get any benefit from doing so. For me, the standard deduction is so high that I don’t itemize.
That’s a little worrisome… we wound up getting her a 2017 Subaru Forester from Carvana.
I’ve gotten several messages saying “we’re working on the title!!” and I just looked at their web page, which says “title documents on the way to our partnered vendor”. Then supposedly it goes to the DMV, and we need to do something at that point. I gather the plates will be mailed to us (then we mail to our daughter with strict instructions to INSTALL NOW). And the Carvana website says “estimated 40 days” which I hope like hell is from the purchase date, not from today, or her temp tag may expire.
Our last two car purchases were new cars - and had the plates on them at the dealership. We wuz spoiled.
We’ve already sunk a fair bit of money into the car - not “this broke down”, but “nearly 100K miles = expensive scheduled maintenance”, plus new tires since she’s in a snowy area.