New car - destination charge

[wolf]

Live in San Francisco Bay area, Calif. Looking at new cars. Honda/Toyota.
Notice, cars are assembled East Coast area. Destination Charge around $910.
Understand does not matter where you live. If you lived in State where car was built, you still pay $910.

Just curious, anyone ''live" in the State where these cars are assembled.
Is your Destination Charge the same as ours on the West Coast. And do
you complain, if you are purchasing a new car?

 

[Ronnieboy]

I don't live in a state where they are assembled, but also have been led to understand that the fee is the same everywhere. It is spread evenly through all the dealerships so one dealership (the closest to the origination) doesn't have an advantage over the furthest away from the origination. Not sure if that includes Hawaii and Alaska though

I have complained and refused to pay for it before and have been able to get the dealer to off set the fee by lowering the price of the car or giving higher on a trade in but they wouldn't ever take the fee off as they say it is a fixed charge.

 

[travelover]

Yep, transportation is the same everywhere. I've lived 10 miles from the assembly plant and paid the same as someone on the other side of the country.

 

[marko]

Let's realize that "Destination Charge" has nothing to do with moving the car anywhere. It's just another way to boost the price. Like the "Convenience Fee" on my cable bill.

 

[atmsmshr]

After you negotiate the price of the car and trade in value, negotiate the destination charge before signing anything. It works - but they will have to take it off the price of the car. Once, I was only able to bargain half of that pesky fee away. Getting up and starting to walk out helps to cement the idea that it is a deal breaker.

 

[travelover]

After you negotiate the price of the car and trade in value, negotiate the destination charge before signing anything. It works - but they will have to take it off the price of the car. Once, I was only able to bargain half of that pesky fee away. Getting up and starting to walk out helps to cement the idea that it is a deal breaker.

I've found that you have to negotiate the "out the door" price. You can try to pin a negotiated discount on the destination fee, the documents fee or any thing else, but it all comes out of the same pot.

 

[MichaelB]

I've found that you have to negotiate the "out the door" price. You can try to pin a negotiated discount on the destination fee, the documents fee or any thing else, but it all comes out of the same pot.

Exactly. And have a fallback option in case the dealer tries to pull a fast one by adding something at the last minute.

 

[davemartin88]

Our approach has been to negotiate the out the door price and make them stick to it at delivery. I did walk one time over a less than $100 option that they added without agreement. They wanted to know how I could walk away from a deal over such a small fee and I agreed that it was odd that they would lose a sale over such a small amount. I did later buy another car from that dealer and no idea whether they remembered that almost transaction.

How they want to move the fees and charges around is mostly a non-issue to me at that point. The "documentation fees" are the ones that used to bug me but once I get to the point of working to a final price, I felt better, lol.

 

[RetireAge50]

The last new car I bought I negotiated (over the phone) the exact price including tax and license. Went to the bank and had a cashiers check made out for the exact amount.

Went to the dealer who then tried adding all the random fees. I had to explain the price had already been settled. They were very confused and made several calls but in the end they gave me the keys and I gave them the check.

 

[H2ODude]

I pretty much do the research on what my trade in is worth and then use the internet to peg what the median price is for the make and model I want. Armed with that I figure a price a bit below median (I don't like the haggle dance at all) and say "this is the figure I'll write a check for." All the little add ons, whatever they are, have to be included in that amount. Last time it took a day or two but they called me and agreed to it. The other non-netiable is no damn dealer sticker on the vehicle to advertise their dealership.

It's the charges on cell phones and cable bill that frost me.

 

[Beldar]

We haven't purchased a "new" car / vehicle since 1989 for many of the reasons above. And we've been completely satisfied with every transaction since. YMMV.

_B

 

[euro]

Let's realize that "Destination Charge" has nothing to do with moving the car anywhere. It's just another way to boost the price. Like the "Convenience Fee" on my cable bill.

That's how I see it too. Somehow it seems generally more "acceptable" to pay $20000 plus $1000 "destination charge" than to just pay $21000 for the car...

I have come to ignore ALL of this and I only negotiate "driving off the lot" price. I don't care how many taxes, convenience fees, license plate charges, etc they want to tack on. My bottom line is what it takes to drive the car off the lot

 

[jazz4cash]

When I worked for Mega Motors, the destination charge was a contract amount negotiated between Mega and the carriers. Basically an average cost for all cars delivered. Shipping to HI (and maybe AK) was higher.

I worked for awhile in an emission test lab located next door to an assembly plant. My supervisor ordered a new car with employee discount from the plant next door. They drove the car off the end of the assembly line across the parking lot and delivered it to our building. He had to pay the full destination charge.

ps: Driving an auto transporter is considered a highly skilled position in the trucking industry.

pps: Most cars will be transported by a combination of ship/rail/truck before arriving at a dealer.

 

[6miths]

Agree with all above. Live near an assembly facility. Our Honda Odyssey had pretty much the same PDI when we bought it 30 miles from the factory and looked at them when we lived in Dubai, UAE.

 

[street]

I haven't bought a new outfit for 13 years now. I can tell you that doing your home work pays out. I would check to se if there was an rebates for the vehicle in the region I was buying the car. There (dealer) site will tell you that and the seller doesn't have to tell you there is a rebate and the rebate will be the dealers money not yours. I too have a bottom line they take it or they don't. I will give 3 to 4 dealers a call and tell them what I'm looking for and to give me their bottom line price. Then I will compare what my bottom line was and go from there. This is comparing apples to apples and I have the price vary as much as 4000.00 dollars.

 

[travelover]

..........I worked for awhile in an emission test lab located next door to an assembly plant. My supervisor ordered a new car with employee discount from the plant next door. They drove the car off the end of the assembly line across the parking lot and delivered it to our building. He had to pay the full destination charge............

Slightly off topic and rambling, but.............

I worked for the other MegaMotors and I did outsmart the destination charge once. I ordered a new truck as my personal lease vehicle, delivered via Mega and as soon as I got it, I turned it in. We were able to tag our own lease vehicles for purchase, less a discount since they were now "used". I not only did not pay a destination charge, I paid less than the employee price for a new vehicle. Generally the subsidized lease was such a good deal that people didn't pull this trick, but I wanted to own this particular truck.

 

[euro]

Slightly off topic and rambling, but.............

I worked for the other MegaMotors and I did outsmart the destination charge once. I ordered a new truck as my personal lease vehicle, delivered via Mega and as soon as I got it, I turned it in. We were able to tag our own lease vehicles for purchase, less a discount since they were now "used". I not only did not pay a destination charge, I paid less than the employee price for a new vehicle. Generally the subsidized lease was such a good deal that people didn't pull this trick, but I wanted to own this particular truck.

very crafty!

 

[Midpack]

I've found that you have to negotiate the "out the door" price. You can try to pin a negotiated discount on the destination fee, the documents fee or any thing else, but it all comes out of the same pot.

+2. You're kidding yourself if you think you can avoid specific charges. If they agree to change the destination fee, they are just lowering their margin, and humoring a naive buyer. The dealer's costs are fixed. All the dealer cares about is what they net after all their costs. And all the buyer should care about is the total out the door price.

 

[REWahoo]

I haven't bought a new outfit for 13 years now.

Don't be saying that too loud or the fashion police will cite you for "wearing past the expiration date."

 

[street]

LOL! Non-Clarification can cause rumors. Thanks

 

[Sunset]

So how do folks feel about the true car thing. I notice lots of other sites like AARP call it their own, but it's really true-car in the background.

Basically I takes off some from the MSRP price, which is the only price I can see reliably for different vehicles.

When I went to a dealer who had not done my true-car pricing, they started about $2K above the true-car price, and of course were incredibly resistant to moving the price.

 

[jazz4cash]

So how do folks feel about the true car thing. I notice lots of other sites like AARP call it their own, but it's really true-car in the background.

Basically I takes off some from the MSRP price, which is the only price I can see reliably for different vehicles.

When I went to a dealer who had not done my true-car pricing, they started about $2K above the true-car price, and of course were incredibly resistant to moving the price.

I have been monitoring True Car for a used vehicle and I think it has great potential. It's like an enhanced buying service with more data like a sales price bell curve and days on lot/ price changes for used cars. The PenFed buying service is run by true car. I plan to speak with a dealer I trust to see how they feel about true car but of course expect they will say they can meet or beat.

 

[travelover]

So how do folks feel about the true car thing. I notice lots of other sites like AARP call it their own, but it's really true-car in the background. .............

I sent quotes out to multiple dealers, then decided as a lark to ask for a Costco price. Turns out the Costco affiliated dealer had already sent me a quote - $100 less than the Costco quote (from the same dealer). The price I finally paid was $690 less than the Costco price. I'm assuming the Costco and TrueCar prices are similar.

 

[meierlde]

So how do folks feel about the true car thing. I notice lots of other sites like AARP call it their own, but it's really true-car in the background.

Basically I takes off some from the MSRP price, which is the only price I can see reliably for different vehicles.

When I went to a dealer who had not done my true-car pricing, they started about $2K above the true-car price, and of course were incredibly resistant to moving the price.

I live about 60 mi from San Antonio and 100 from Austin, True car would not include Austin dealers which had the car I wanted while the San Antonio ones did not. There was no way to tell true-car the radius to search for dealers, they just assumed the nearest metro.

 

[REWahoo]

In addition to TrueCar, I found https://www.cargurus.com/ to be very helpful when I was in the market for a used car.

This site allows you to drill down on a particular car to see how the asking price compares to others (same year, make and model) locally and nationally. I found the charts on this site to be really helpful. Find a listed car, click on it and scroll down to "Instant Market Value," then click on "Show breakdown" and you'll see a chart like the one below.