So I managed to get my dealer to waive that BS dealer prep fee. In our email convo, I got the price + Tax +Licensing offer accepted by them. Then I placed a $500 deposit to get my car order. Recently I got the buyer order from the dealership and the MA decided to tack on a $150 doc fee.

This to me feels like I am blind-sided as I agreed on the price + tax + licensing fee, and there was never any mentioning of the doc fee throughout the emails. This doc fee is obviously negotiable as it even states so on the form. Tried to call my MA twice today but didn't manage to get a hold on him to discuss this.

Was wondering if any of you actually pay the doc fee? Seems like its another BS fee imo. And how would you all feel if you are in my shoes, would you all try to fight to get that waived too? This leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I actually thought the MA I was working with is decent...

 

Old but relevant.

 

Every dealer is different.....
Each dealer is a separate business...some will wave it...some do not charge it...some do.
Back in Dec 2004, I paid 0$ extra NADA, ZILCH. Period. Then again, list or even list + was common....

 

when my car was costing me $34k i wasn't too concerned with the tax/lic/doc fees

 

i've never paid this and never will. it's always negotiable. if a dealer tries this on me, i walk away. there is always more than one dealership in town.

dmv fees are non-negotiable, i understand that. but i'm not paying you extra to fill out paperwork that you need to do to complete the sale. that's your job, not special treatment, and should not cost me anything above the cost of the car. it's like going to the doctors office and them telling you it's a $20 fee to file paperwork with your insurance company. sorry but no, it's included in the cost already.

 

Is this your first car purchase? This is a common fee and not unique to MINI dealers. Every car dealer I've ever dealt with (and I've dealt with a lot) charge a doc fee. Some dealers will waive it, some will negotiate it, some won't do anything.

The fee varies from dealer to dealer and state to state. I've seen it as low as $99 and as high as $300.