Advice on dealer fees?

Ask the Hackrs
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1

I was told the following from a dealer in a text:

“Total due at signing is…
$925 acquisition fee
$839.81 first payment
$785 doc fee
$509 license/lien fee”

Mainly asking about the doc and license fee. For context, the dealer is in Oklahoma, but the vehicle would be registered to Pennsylvania. ~800 seems high for doc fee and ~500 seems high for license fee. Just wanted to ask if this is normal and what would you guys do in this situation? or are the only options to either pay it or go somewhere else?

btw the attached image is not the final lease term, just inquiring about the fees specifically

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2

Don’t fight the fees. Ask for more discount if you are not happy with the deal. But the deal looks bad anyway. What car is this?

3

Not to mention worth going all the way to OK from PA.

4

You’re never going to negotiate a doc fee.

The $500 sounds about right for PA Plates/Reg + the cost of a title service, assuming they’re using one to do the plates for you.

That said, what is this car you’re getting 13% off on?

5

Agreed, don’t fight the fees. Doc fees for PA are nearly $500 now anyway (capped). Gov gees are ~$200-250, and they need to pay a 3p company.

I suppose you could offer to handle plates/reg on your own and maybe they’ll discount the gov fees, but they’d have to send you power of attorney and you take to DMV.

6

What discount would you guys target on 2026 m-lite(M340/M240) models that have been sitting for +150 days?

in addition, is the ‘dealer contribution’ part of the Corporate Program Incentive suppose to come off after MSRP discount?

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7

This was their first offer, pre-negotiation. M240i so the car itself is bad to lease unfortunately.

8

Understood. I was just wondering if the numbers looked standard and if there’s ever anything to do regarding those. 2025 M240i demo, pre-negotiation.

9

Make offers, don’t request them.

10

Understood, I won’t fight the fees. Just going to consider it when comparing effective monthly payment across my options. Thank you for the advice.

11

well everyone here is posting 13%+ on BMWs…but the M series? not so sure.

12

First thing is to choose the right structure. Don’t buy a car that’s better to lease and vice versa.

13

I was considering that at first but was worried they might pad the dealer/doc fees extra if I started off asking for 10% discount, so I thought it was a good way to get those numbers locked in first, then counter with my offer. Should I not give much thought to the fees? Like do dealers always give out the same number for fees regardless of what discount the buyer is asking for?

14

Fees? Yes
Add ons? No.

15

You have to make an unambiguous offer. Your offer should have the appropriate fees already included and called out, so this isn’t an issue.

If you make an ambiguous offer that’s just a discount percentage, you’re absolutely leaving the door open to mark ups of fees, add ons, rate mark ups, them including incentives in their discount, etc.

16

I wish I could but due to religious reasons I avoid interest based loans. However, I would be open to a contract where we ‘buy down the interest’ or essentially agree to a higher sale price and draw up a 0% contract. Have you ever seen that with BMW? Was wondering if that’s worth sending to a bunch of dealers or if there’s no chance.

17

Yes, that is possible on a retail finance contract, at least with BMWFS, as of now.

That said, how does a lease solve that problem for you? It’s still an interest based loan.

18

On the ‘light’ M’s I think 8% is realistic…with 10% a goal. I had to fight tooth and nail to get 10% off an X3 M50 here in SoCal.

19

Usually the lack of words such as Interest or APR in the contract is enough regardless of the underlying details.

20

Technically, you’re paying “rent charge” rather than interest.

Yah, it’s effectively the same thing as far as your wallet is concerned, but if one wants to be super pedantic to skirt around a religious decree, I guess you could.