Processing Fee

[Anonymous]

Any idea on what is reasonable to pay for a processing fee when buying a car from a dealer? The one we are looking at has a fee of $799 which seems awfully high. From what I read dealers won’t negotiate that fee but the buyer should negotiate it off the price of the car.

We are in VA.

[Anonymous]

Only way to know fo sure is to try another dealer & see if you can do better.
I bought a used car last year for my home in Florida. I live in NY.
I thought I had all my bases covered and when I get there to pick up the car there was a $500 fee printed on the sales form (printed by the printer, not typed in). I balked at the fee and threatened, politely, to back out. We ended up splitting it only because I was in a hurry and I needed/wanted the car.

[Anonymous]

There is no "reasonable". It's just an additional fee for the dealer to charge. What you can do is deduct it from your offer price so that the resulting total price is the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no "reasonable". It's just an additional fee for the dealer to charge. What you can do is deduct it from your offer price so that the resulting total price is the same.

That’s what I’m figuring. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Is it a new car? What is the total of all fees? Processing fee was the least of my problems. All combined was way too expensive. We did get $2700 off the price, but the fees were still too high. Not buying a new car any time soon.

[Anonymous]

VA's is really high. You'll note it's pre-printed on the form. If you're buying from a chain dealer (like Koons) with dealerships in MD also, then threaten you'll just go to their MD dealerhsip and buy the exact same car (they can transfer it) since MD has a lower procsessing fee. They'll drop the price accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it a new car? What is the total of all fees? Processing fee was the least of my problems. All combined was way too expensive. We did get $2700 off the price, but the fees were still too high. Not buying a new car any time soon.

For the most part we are focusing on used (2017-2019 w/ less than 20,000 miles).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VA's is really high. You'll note it's pre-printed on the form. If you're buying from a chain dealer (like Koons) with dealerships in MD also, then threaten you'll just go to their MD dealerhsip and buy the exact same car (they can transfer it) since MD has a lower procsessing fee. They'll drop the price accordingly.

Ah. That is worth a thought. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VA's is really high. You'll note it's pre-printed on the form. If you're buying from a chain dealer (like Koons) with dealerships in MD also, then threaten you'll just go to their MD dealerhsip and buy the exact same car (they can transfer it) since MD has a lower procsessing fee. They'll drop the price accordingly.

MD law caps the doc fee to $300, VA has no laws on it