I live in Charleston, South Carolina. Blah.

I am trying to find out what type of charges I should look out for when buying a scion.

In 05 I bought my xA at my local dealership. I put money down and kept doing research.

I later found out that my dealerships in Charleston were charging a 300-350 dollar surcharge, but I can't remember the name.

I checked locations around South Carolina and found that Greenville didn't have this charge and confirmed they didn't "pad their sales" this way.


What charges are mandatory via Toyota when buying a Scion, and what charges are mandatory for my region (SE coast). What charges should I completely stay away from and if there are any is there a way to get around these charges?


thanks

 

None are mandatory. If you don't believe me - call Toyota of Boone (might be called Norman Cheek Toyota of Boone, NC) - whatever the MSRP of the Scion is - that's what you pay + sales tax of your county.

We bought an '06 xA from them a year and a half ago - paid $13280 and drove off, then paid sales tax when we were getting the title at the local tag office.

All these "doc fees" are pure profit. I would never pay $400-600 fee, but am going to drop $270 extra just to get the car faster and relatively close to home (Boone is 5 hour drive for me and everybody in ATL is charging $400+).

 

'documenatation fee' is pure profit and pure ripoff because they are charging extra for services that are already included in the MSRP set by Toyota. If you ask, the salesman will probably lie and say "oh, everybody charges that".
dealers near me are charging $600+, I drove 100 miles for my new car to avoid that $600 ripoff.

 

Don't buy from dealers with doc fees. If you can't find a dealer that does not charge them look in other areas or buy another brand of car all together. Pure pricing at some dealers means pure ripoff.

 

Got this from the Gene Reed site and the Greenville site was about 100 dollars less in Dealer Fees.

Pricing
MSRP
Base $17,000
Options $23
Manuf. Delv, Proc & Hndlg $715
Subtotal $17,738
Dealer Fees $399
Total $18,137

Is the Manuf.Delv, etc fee standard? It seems a bit high from what I read on these forums.

Dealer fee?

 

freight charge is standard, and i'm assuming that's what they mean by delivery. looks a little high, should be under $600. those extra words "Processing and Handling" are probably what they are trying to charge extra for.
Your $399 dealer fee is the junk fee, unfortunately most dealers add these bogus charges. you paid about $500 extra which is about average, many customers pay more. You can find dealers who don't pad the bill but you might have to spend time shopping around and drive some distance. Most customers couldn't be bothered so they just pay the junk fees, and that's what the dealers are counting on.

 

I would not buy from that dealer. Just say NO to ALL FEES!
Take your hard earned money to some other stealer.

 

Pure Price includes freight/destination. In addition, the dealers Scion website has to reveal all other possible fees.

Processing Fees are legit, in Maryland they are controled by law, $100 max to cover our actual costs. If you pay cash, we waive the fee.

BTW, because of some comments here, MSRP is not the same as Pure Price. Each dealer sets their price, like ours is $369 below MSRP.

 

I wish I lived in Maryland.