Bogus fees from the dealers?

I agree. But I believe Loccusst is saying he doesn't want to pay destination charges for a car he buys off the lot. I can kind of understand his position but I really think it's just a matter of jhow the destination charge is incorporated into the price. It just happens to appear as a line item on the sticker so it give the perception that an extra fee is being tagged on...and it is, but I'm okay with covering the costs of getting the car from the factory to my local dealer.

What I won't do is pay my dealer extra to go get the car i want from another dealer. I'm sorry if they don't have exactly what I want on the lot but if they can't get it for me I'll go somewhere else.

Here's a funny one from Coastal motors in Corpus Christi. I guess they could call one of their fees "pin-striping fee":

I can sell you the red GTI that we have on the lot with automatic transmission, package 1 and 18" alloy wheels. It is well-equipped and I can offer you a price of $26,300, which also includes the window tint and hand-painted custom pinstriping. All of our vehicles are sold with the window tint and pinstriping already. This is how you can tell you have a car from Coastal Motorcars in Corpus Christi. I don't know of another dealership that offers that.

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trick000 said:

Here's a funny one from Coastal motors in Corpus Christi. I guess they could call one of their fees "pin-striping fee":

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That's classic:laugh: :laugh:

Here in AZ a particular dealer in Tucson trys to sell you a "Desert Protection Package". Basically saying they have treated the paint, plastic and interior fabric/leather with special space age technology that prevents damage from long term exposure to the intense sun we get here. Rings up at $800.

I called them on this a few years ago when I bought a Mazda Protege'5. They then said, "oh you are a Univ. of Az employee so we include that for no charge" Then argued that was a great "discount" on the car and we should therefore pay the MSRP. I absolutely refused and said I wanted to order a car to my exact specs from Mazda and didn't wan this dealer installed option. They quickly changed their tune and knocked another $1200 off the car.

The funniest stuff is the whoel treatment consists of a $40 can of scotchguard and some $5 leather conditioner and waxing the car with turtlewax. Got this info from a salesperson who used to work there. They called this their "cushion" package. AKA pocket padding by the dealer.

This kind of lame actions are what gives the honest guys a bad name. Same thing for F&I guys. My dad did that for 12 years and saw all the tricks in the book pulled by other dealerships and other F&I people. Funny how he ended up the F&I manager and never had to sink to doing this kind of crap to sell an extended warranty.

Sorry for the rant.....

I just get frustrated with destination charges that are the same no matter if the car is built here or over seas. But yeah, I don't like the whole paying for destination when the car is already here....just me. I don't know I guess talking about it on here I can see why they do it, doesn't mean I like it. Hell I would like them to knock off the whole "it only comes in this package" so you have to pay $2,000 for a option that by itself is $500.