I remember that, but I shouldn't be expected to gather info from an online forum. So as far as they are concerned I had no knowledge of this until it showed up on my contract. It should've been mentioned up front and was not.
I'm pretty sure I can now take my numbers to another dealer and cut the same deal, so let's see how far they are willing to go.

 

All dealers will have a "Document Prep Fee" it is the money that y have to pay to someone to register the car get all the paper work in line etc. This is a given that very few dealers will ever mention.

Is is slightly deceptive - YES - is it standard to all vehicle purchases YES

 

Rich told me last night that they can register my car in ME for me as they have a "runner" and he told me they do this at no charge but it might delay delivery by a day or two.
I'm awaiting a return call from the business mgr. to see what he can/will do.
The fee varies by dealer, so I know it's able to be adjusted. Whether they will or not remains to be seen.
I've Googled it and there are some articles from The Globe where the legal counsel to The Mass Auto Dealer's ***'n says you do not have to pay this. There is nothing the dealer has to do to charge this fee that you cannot do yourself.
I just really resent being charged for them to fill out paperwork that they have to complete in order to sell me a car. And even more so that it wasn't disclosed.

 

The reason they charge you is just that. They are doing the paperwork for you. I f you do all the registration paper work yourself then there is no reason to charge you.. But if they do it then like any other business they will charge you.

Just like my insurance agent can also do all this paperwork on my behalf and when they do there is a charge for it. Although it is only like $10 not $300.

So if you do not want to pay the fee then you can do the registration, insurance docs, etc yourself.

I agree that the charges are high for what is done, but any business that is doing work for you that you could do yourself should get paid for it.

Nothing is free in life.

It kind of like all the people that feel that they should get free rubber floor mats. So if they get them for free (not paying for them) then someone else has to pay for it, and that is you and me because the price of our cars just went up due to the fact that the dealer had to pay BMW/Mini for the mats and they have to make the money back on that some how.

In the case of paperwork they have to employ someone to do the paper work and that person must, under the law get paid. This is why each dealer charges different costs for this, it all depends on how much they pay the employee that does the work.

 

I get it. And I am not one to expect freebies. I'll be buying my floor mats.

I just equate it to something like going to purchase an item at a store and being charged a fee for the clerk to ring it up to help cover her wages. It is part of their cost of doing business.
And $289 is way too much. Had it been $95 I might have mentioned it because it was not disclosed, but I'd let it go. But more than 3 times that is simply too much to just slide in.

ETA: I actually feel kind of bad because Rich is really a nice guy. He's off today so I left a message with the Business Mgr who I dealt with on Sunday. Also a really nice guy, but seemed to be able to make things happen outside of the Gen'l Mgr's rule.
Having thought about it, I really don't want to cancel the order over this and I'm certain they have dealt with this complaint before.

 

One angle would be to ask him to give you an extra $200 on your trade to make up for it. That way, they can pretend to get the whole fee and you can pretend that they gave you a fair amount of money for your trade.

As for registering the car bought in Mass. in Maine... boy that's fun. Mass. doesn't have 14-day tags like Maine and NH, so you'll have to pick up transit plates from the DMV to bring your car home, and get the insurance squared away as well. And then after you leave the dealership with your new car, you'll have to go straight to City Hall to pay the exise tax. You can also pay the sales tax and registration fees there and pick up your plate, unless you want to save $3 by going directly to the DMV (not worth $3). After that, you need to quickly go get an inspection sticker. I took mine to Twin City auto in Biddeford. They didn't even bother to look at the car after they saw it was an '08 with 200 miles on it... they just slapped the sticker on.

So if they have a runner to do all this for you, they'd have to send him up with the car with dealer tags and have him go back and forth between City Hall and your place until everything is signed and paid for. That's a lot of work, but if they're willing to do it at no additional cost (above the doc. fee), then I guess I'd let them do it. Just wait until they actually get up here with the car before you put your insurance on it.

 

I haven't bought a car in Ma and registered it here, but since moving to Portland, with the last car, I was able to pay the tax and do the reg all at the DMV out on Presumpscott. No waiting. I think I was in and out in 10 minutes.
So, yah, I'm puzzled how they do this running to all the N.E. states thing for no extra charge. Seems like that's where they should slap a charge on if you opt to use the service, but not (as much) for completing required paperwork.

 

All set.
The fee had already been worked into the numbers. So they'd increased my trade to compensate. I don't have to come up with an additional $289. He apologized that I hadn't been made aware.
Nice people there, so far.

 

They have always been very responsive at HC. At Least IMHO.

I was called the morning the car actually arrived at the dealer receviing and storage lot. HC has a large facility in Cambridge not the show room where they do all the receiving and storing of new vehicles.

I told Rich i wanted to come down and see it the next morning (saturday) and he had it brought over to the show room for me so that i could look at it. I then picked it up on Monday night after they put all the extras on that were dealer installed. Rich even stayed late Monday to go over everything with me and my SO. We finaly left the dealer show room with the car at 10:15 PM (yes at night).

It was a wonderfull experience.

Rich went over every detail of the car. How to program the key fobs, all the controls (lights, wipers heat a/c etc). He then sent over every inch of the exterior of the car with me so that we could see if there was any scratches etc that needed to be taken care of (there were none). Rich spent a little over two hours with us on the delivery.

Rich then also called me about "MC2 The Mini Magazine" when he saw that our clubman and dog were pictured in an article about Mini's On Top. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=154381

He realy is a grate guy to deal with and the rest of the people there are great.

Congrats on your order and hope to see you motoring soon.

 

Thanks Schatzy. That's awesome. I'm glad I have that to look forward to at pickup. He certainly does seem like a good guy! When I placed my order (Monday night)I was considering the bumper protection thing for the back. It only costs $43 but the installation was pretty high. He told me he's pretty good at it and if I wanted him to, that he would install it for me, N/C. I thought that was really nice of him. He definitely seems to go above and beyond.
My SO has absolutely 0 interest in the fact that I'm getting a new car. I'm 100% certain he won't go with me to pick it up. He views a car as very utilitarian and doesn't get the "fun" factor or my excitement right now. So I'll take it out in this place!
On the bright side, he'll never care about driving it either!

Oh, I just spoke with Rich a short while ago and aded the "Venture Guard" protection. A chunk of $$, but I plan on keeping it a long time which is how I justified it. I'd be heartbroken to get a chip in the paint, as well.

Edit: Oh, he told me about your dog when I was there on Sunday!