Is This A Dealer Scam?

[kenmac]

My sister just recently purchased a new buick and the salesperson convinced her that a team of experts performed a 3 day 15,000 point check on the car.

The problem is that he charged her a $600 dealer prep fee to covers their cost of removing plastic from the seats, vacuuming, adding fluids, and preparing it for sale.

I'm assuming it's too late to get that fee back, but is this a regular practice of car dealers or did she get scammed?

Some of the dealers around here try & do get that much for dealer prep & doc fee ( paper work) for a total of $1200.00 add on fee. when they tell me their fees . I usually just leave rather than arguing with them

 

[MicroPilot]

I've also found that it's helpful to have someone who has no stake in the purchase to be there to point out if you may be making some bad decisions or missing some aspect of the deal.

I recently bought a small pop-up camper. The price was $3500 dollars. When we went to the finance guy they presented us with a "deal" that included nearly the price of the camper in add-ons (insurance, road side assistance, camper club membership and several others). I told them no way, just figure it up at the agreed price and drop all the other BS.

 

[shvl73]

I just paid $299.00 for the document/prep/misc fees. Didn't bother me too much, as I couldn't come closer than $1400.00 to the "out the door" price I paid at any of the other dealers I shopped. The other dealers were also giving me pricing that hadn't yet had any added fees so, potentially they could have been even further off.

 

[jdbower]

You also have to take a look at the deal as a whole. These days you can get dealer invoice prices and people try to get zero-margin deals, a possible dealer counter is to have some add-on costs afterwords to stay in business so if you got a great deal on the car you now know how they can afford to do so. Also consider the dealer's service, did they actually help pick out the car based on the buyer's needs? Were they doing a hard sell into something the buyer didn't want? If the service was good, do you want them to be in business the next time you need a car or do you not mind if they succumb to the Internet-world of lower prices at all costs?

My dealer I like and I'd rather spend a little extra to keep him in business. My wife's dealer I'd much rather just wait until I can buy direct from the manufacturer online and bypass the local dealer cartel entirely.

 

[EarPlug]

Here is a great resource for car buying articles - Edmunds.com Especially helpful is the article "Confessions of a Car Salesman" , it's a little log but worth the read for the less experienced buyer.

Jack

 

[California]

Shop the 'out the door' price, ignore what they add in to arrive at that price.

Here's another gimmick: I bought a Subaru at a big multi-dealer auto mall. It was $1,000 or more lower than what I could negotiate at several other dealers - worst case was the guy with a $3,000 Additional Dealer Profit sticker right there in the window!

But the automall 'Dealer Prep' included unplugging one headlight and several other subtle sabotages that were clearly intended to bring you back to their shop the next day. I had checked the car when I test-drove it and I don't think those flaws were there.

Next day I took it to the nearest dealer instead (the $3,000ADP guy) and got the sabotage fixed as warranty work. Bah!

 

[Wayne County Hose]

15,000 point check? On a new car? I would go back and ask for a copy of that 15,000 point check. For $600, I want to know every item on that 15,000 point checklist and how everything did in fact check. 15,000 point check in 3 days, 24 hours of labor, is 625 points an hour, or just over 10 a minute, or over 1 every 6 seconds. Now also figuring for 2 company paid breaks at 15 minutes each, then 5 minute wash-up before breaks, lunch, and quitting time, this is something that is physically impossible. It would take more time to fill out the paperwork than do the check.

 

[WTA]

I've been a mechanic at quite a few new car dealers over the years and never heard of this one. We did have a PDI ( pre delivery inspection) at all of them though and I hated doing them because they only paid us between 3 tenths and 8 tenths of an hour on average to do it. They take from one hour to two hours to do them right. Flat rate sucks and everybody does it!

I've never taken more than two hours to do a PDI except on a vette. Those long ones typically were on things like tahoes with trailer towing packages and receiver hitches that had to be installed. Sometimes a few years ago we had to rewire a few cars when car companies were told they had to install passenger airbag key switches if the customer asked for it. That sucked too.

The worst or longest PDI I remember was on Corvettes. Those, came crated at the one dealer I worked at that sold them. He only did special order vetts that were customized to the hilt and it was a lot of work. Sometimes days of it.
This sounds like a scam to me and I would sure walk out of that dealer.
The check lists I remember were more like 150 point checks on new cars. Not 15,000. That would take a book 50 pages thick to cover and there just aren't that many things to check.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I stopped to look at a truck last year, the dealer had a sign by the door advertising their $500 processing fee. I told the salesman that is why I would not buy from them. He said he would remove the fee for me. I still didn't buy, price was way too high. I could have gotten the truck from another dealer for $2k less.

 

[Champy]

I've not only had the processing fee debate, but the last truck I bought had a $200 charge for "Interior Conditioning"..........they applied Scotchguard to the seats! I told them I did not ask for this to be done; they said we do this to all new vehicles and can't remove it; I told them to remove the charge or lose the sale........bing - no charge. If you don't speak up then you get nickle and dimed to death. (I also doubt they even applied anything themselves...probably already applied at the factory / seat supplier).