Admin fee for buying a car

bebelbrug

Hi folks

I'm interested in a car and have arranged for it to be moved near me so I can take it for a test drive.

When I spoke to the dealer they mentioned there was an admin fee of £98.99 and it covered registering me as the owner and some of things

I'm very suspicious, surely I can register it myself online (and it certainly doesn't cost that much)

Is that fee a rip off and more importantly do I have to pay it if I do decide to buy from that dealer?

k3lvc

bebelbrug wrote: »

Hi folks

I'm interested in a car and have arranged for it to be moved near me so I can take it for a test drive.

When I spoke to the dealer they mentioned there was an admin fee of £98.99 and it covered registering me as the owner and some of things

I'm very suspicious, surely I can register it myself online (and it certainly doesn't cost that much)

Is that fee a rip off and more importantly do I have to pay it if I do decide to buy from that dealer?

Of course it's a rip off - presumably one of the larger chains dealing in 2nd hand cars. You are of course at liberty to take your business elsewhere.

Nobbie1967

It's all part of the negotiation on the price of the car. Just add it onto the price you negotiate for the car and then compare with other deals. There's no law that they have to charge that fee, so they can drop it if they want.

bigjl

That fee will also include the cost of the HPi check and the associated Indemnity coverage.

Have paid the fee several times when buying from CarGiant.

Simply add it to the advertised price.

If the total is more than a similar car elsewhere then buy elsewhere.

I have never found any of the cars where there was an indemnity few payable to be more expensive so I had nonissue paying it. And as the fee is widely advertised you can't say you didn't know before hand.

But no, you can't register yourself as the owner, the current owner/keeper/trader/dealer must do that. When I bought the Picanto CG also sorted out the Roadtax online when I signed the V5.

If £100 or so is a deal breaker than perhaps you can't actually afford the car?

As my Picanto was roughly £1000 cheaper than similar cars on Autotrader (mostly from Kia dealers) I had no issue with the fee.

Though I have seen a franchised dealer charging such a fee in order to get the sticker price below a certain price point (£9999 or £5999 etc) to make the car look more attractive.

Stageshoot

If its Motorpoint ask them to remove it, they always add it on, but in very very small print on the website it does say its "optional" and they do remove it when asked to.

Marktheshark

Basically, they want you to pay the auction charges they had to pay when they bought it from Manhiem

arcon5

Id refuse or walk, no reason a price shouldn't be the price.

Crabman

If it's compulsory, it must be advertised within the screen price.

If it's optional, then you are at liberty to have it removed.

motorguy

bigjl wrote: »

That fee will also include the cost of the HPi check and the associated Indemnity coverage.

So £98.99 for something that they should have done anyway, only protects them and costs them £2.50?

bigjl wrote: »

If £100 or so is a deal breaker than perhaps you can't actually afford the car?

Are you having a laugh? Hes baulking at the fact that they are taking the !!!!.

bigjl

motorguy wrote: »

So £98.99 for something that they should have done anyway, only protects them and costs them £2.50?



Are you having a laugh? Hes baulking at the fact that they are taking the !!!!.

So they are taking the !!!! because they publicise the charge instead of just including it in the price?

I just checked the prices of Picanto 1.0 City models for sale. Turns out that I still paid £1000/£1200 less than similar cars and that was after paying the indemnity fee.

Do you also argue that the similar charge from an auction is unfair? Or would you only be upset if it was itemised rather than just included?

bigjl

arcon5 wrote: »

Id refuse or walk, no reason a price shouldn't be the price.

And if the advertised car is £1000 cheaper you would rather pay the extra money instead of buy the one where they list these charges as on top of the screen price?

Doesn't that mean you are paying more not less?