Same reason uhauls are more expensive going outbound.
I assume this is an anti California comment more than a reflection on doc fees. Which don’t really matter, it’s all money going the dealers pocket. My last I don’t know how many leases I have contacted dealers in Virginia (high doc fees) and Maryland (capped doc fees) and Maryland dealers have been cheaper a distinct minority of the time.
It’s a free for all in Connecticut. The Chevy dealers here try to charge a $900 doc fee. Lunatics
Welcome to most of the rest of the country. Many states don’t cap at all and $899+ is common. $85 was the outlier as what I believe was the cheapest gov’t capped doc fee in the country.
Frankly, I think anything $499 or less is fair/reasonable (meaning doc fee should not be considered when negotiating at this amount), especially when you’re getting a good deal.
Cali was only $85? That is nuts, I thought they would be the hightest in the country off the bat lol
In Northern Virginia it is between $800 and $900. Especially for cheaper vehicles you really have to think about that since it can end up being 3 or 4 percent of the total cost. Do you find vehicles are cheaper in MA or NY with their capped doc fees?
I am still unclear exactly why the doc fee amount matters since unlike most other fees it is just taxable money going to the dealer. I do not understand from an accounting perspective why it matters having the money come in via a doc fee rather than on the purchase price. Although there could certainly be a reason.
To my point, CarEdge says VA ha the second highest doc fees in the country and I believe them. But based on posted deals on LH, we are not doing worse than other nearby states with much lower capped Doc fees.
We just get scalped on registration to offset.
But we don’t pay a yearly Property Tax fee on our leased cars.
CA super taxes on many many many things, but Car costs (excluding Gas) is pretty low.
The group has an ally in Sen. Dave Cortese, a Democrat from San Jose, who authored the bill on the car dealers’ behalf. He’s received at least $7,000 in campaign donations from the dealership association, according to Digital Democracy.
I mean it’s no surprise politicians can be bought, but it always surprises me how cheaply they can be bought.
We pay property tax by another name in California. The ‘License Fee’ part of the annual registration is a value-based tax. That’s why it says ‘may be an income tax deduction’ for that charge, since it’s essentially a property tax.
The hits just keep on coming
Yes. The low Doc Fee in CA is far outweighed by the highest DMV fees in the country that are unmatched to my knowledge.
Our fees on any new car or truck in the last few years have been anywhere from $500 to $1500 each year.
WA inside the RTA Zone is insane too, I believe CO and AZ are also really, really bad.
The V60 B5 I just grounded — which got 26 MPG — in roughly 2 years I drove 17,613 miles using 674 gallons of 91. 1.6 cents on 674 gallons would have cost $10.78 in tax over that period. Not ideal but I’ll find a way to scrape together $6/yr.
The bigger issue is the 12% tax you are paying to CA for each gallon of 91 as of 7/1/25 based upon today’s statewide average.
And is < 1% of the value of the car, NC does charge more than that.
I’m just saying that some parts of CA suck (like Gas Prices) but others are actually nicer…well WERE.
Yeah, they keep padding non-deductible annual junk fees almost every year. Flies in the face what the Governator did capping the VLF at .65% 20+ years ago. Pretty ironic given Dem supermajority in CA and how it affects lower income population.
In MA, dealer doc fees are about $500. I have seen some dealers charge $600+.
Virginia has an election coming up, with primaries next week. I was talking to a Democratic consultant, whom I happen to know socially, about the annual car tax which is a big issue here and it was interesting the changing dynamic of taxation. In the past twenty years the wealthy parts of Virginia have sprinted left while the rural downstate democratic votes have sprinted right even faster.
In many states (although to a lesser extent in California) regressive taxation has gone from being a positive for the GOP to being much better for Democrats. In Virginia, any sort of progressive tax scheme that deals with the car tax is likely to involve taxing deep blue Nova and sending that money to mostly red downstate voters. Unsurprisingly, representatives from Nova aren’t thrilled with those plans.