South Florida Documentation Fees
 

Since buying a scion supposed to be a no haggle pure pricing experience. I did a little research and found the "documentation fee" (cough,cough "profit fee") for all the scion dealers in south florida (hopefully it'll be useful for some others in the market). Really I see no reason to spend hundreds of extra dollare just to get a pleasant "dealer experience." Of course this fee is on top of the $635 Del, Proc & Hndlg Fee. As you'll see, with one glaring exception they all are in the 500-800 dollar range:

1. $0(yes zero!) Earl Stewart Of N. Palm Beach LAKE PARK
2. $489.50 Armstrong HOMESTEAD
3. $498.50 King DEERFIELD BEACH
4. $499.50 Vero Beach VERO BEACH
5. $569.00 Expressway MIAMI
6. $598.50 Bev Smith FT. PIERCE
7. $598.50 Stuart STUART
8. $599.00 Hollywood HOLLYWOOD
9. $599.95 Maroone DAVIE
10. $659.00 Kendall MIAMI
11. $659.00 Headquarter HIALEAH
12. $695.00 Ed Morse Delray DELRAY BEACH
13. $699.95 Palm Beach WEST PALM BEACH
14. $798.00 Lipton FT. LAUDERDALE
15. $799.50 Lehman Potamkin MIAMI

has anybody been able to negotiate the waiver of those "profit" fees?
or, what are the chances of any of those dealers in south florida waiving it?

wow, its state-regulated here @ $57.33 I knew that there are states where its not regulated but hundreds of dollars for it? wow

ohmy.. thanks for the orignal post. i am getting my new XA tomorrow from Earl Stewart in north palm beach. They are really good with customer service and seem very honest. their web site explaine the "no fees" deal and all the honest things they do because they want to "keep customers for life" instead of rip you off on the first deal. I did all the main transactions over the phone and i going tomorrow to pick it up.

gracias!

I'm not going to defend the whole dealer fee issue here, but here is something to ponder. While it is almost pure profit, the dealers that do not charge them, make very little money on a vehicle. Assume a base scion with no dealer fee, profit on the vehicle itself is under 1000.00.

No stand alone dealership for Scions can survive that way because alocation is very low. Therefore only dealers that sell them within toyota can do this. Furthermore those dealers do not take scions seriously, they consider them just 1 more unit for month or perhaps a bonus to the toyo units they sell. Not the healthiest attitude. The pure pricing philosophy will be the way of the future for all cars IMO. Now are you willing to be mistreated over $500, perhaps. But visit some of these stand alone scion dealerships and see the difference in both inventory and quality of staff.

If the public consistently seeks out the absolute cheapest vehicle it can find it will eventually find the cheapest possible staff, perpetuating the poor reputation salesman already have and that scion is trying to break.

This is just my opinion of course.

FWIW - The only reason for a 'processing fee' is to cover the real costs to handle processing a customers registration. That is why most states regulate the fee. Of course any other fee can also be charged, in that case most states require an addemdum sitcker.

There is a real cost to train and maintain full time employees. The tags also have to be picked up in person. A cahs buyer can waive the fee, and take care of their own registration.

The 'Delivery" charge is part of the Pure Price, it only covers the charge by Scion to the dealer, that we pay, to deliver the car to us. If a dealer is adding that to their Pure Price, they are violating the Scion covenant.

If what you are saying is a dealer is adding both a $695 del/handling/processing fee and a documentation fee then your state is allowing them to get away with murder.

The delivery and Proc fee is the charge that your distributor charges your dealership, not Scion.

And as a small clarification, the pure pricing philosophy is to be maintained by the dealer, not over a district or nationwide. Simply put, every dealer must sell every equally equiped vehicle at the same price. A dealer can opt to place an adendum on all vehicles or even discount all vehicles, but all must be priced the same, that way every customer can and will get the same deal.