What are the fees that we can avoid / negotiate when leasing a car

Ask the Hackrs
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1

Hi
I am in Tampa, FL (zip is 33578) and in the market to lease a car (probably a Honda civic)
Could someone please help me understand what fees (e.g. documentation, handling, etc) are the ones we need to absolutely pay and what fee are the one we can negotiate / tell the dealer to scrape off the deal?

Also, appx how much would be title, tag and registration ?
Trying to be prepared when negotiating the deal to avoid any fee that I can

Thanks a lot in advance for your kind guidance

2

Doc fees, acquisition fees, title, transfer, etc are all along for the ride. Dealer doc fees in FL tend to be very high but some dealers are more than others.

The dealer can’t really mark up gov fees like registration… they are what they are. If they’re going to try to upcharge fees, it’ll be on the dealer doc fee.

Destination fee is already included in the msrp, so it should not be listed.

3

Current market, if you can strip dealer adds and rate markup you’re pretty much golden. Try for some discount while you’re at it but those are the two most likely to come off.

4

While looking at one of the advertised lease, I found this
Bank fee - 595
Dealer handling fee - 388
Dealer Doc fee - 899

This is besides the tag/title/registration

Does these looks reasonable? Can any of the above 3 be negotiated or perhaps instead of negotiating these ask the dealer to take that off of the MSRP?

Thanks

5

There typically is not a separate dealer handling fee from the doc fee.

6

Handling fee for sure. Figure out if there’s any markup in the rate as well.

7

So basically there are 2 fees that are a must

  1. Acquisition fee / Bank fee - This is the fee we need to pay the financial institution financing our car
    For Honda Financials it is 595$

  2. Documentation Fee - for paper work processing etc etc…

Destination fee is always included in the MSRP so that is clear

Any other fee besides above should be asked to removed / negotiated . Correct?

8

It’s a lot harder to negotiate certain fees out than it is to figure out a realistic target discount off MSRP then figure out which incentives you qualify for and make the dealer an offer of X per month with Y due at signing. Obviously you need to know the base rate mf but it becomes irrelevant if they can meet your numbers.

FL is known for a pretty steep doc fee so it’s up to you to determine if it’s worth it to shop out of state.

9

As a local Tampon myself, I avoid the local dealers and just deal with out of state ones, even when you add in shipping or flying up and driving it back, much better deals can generally be had outside Florida.

10

Thanks a lot

Any specific area / state I should start looking into? I am looking to lease a civic (actually 2 civics)
Any help in terms of which state to look into that can ship the car to FL would be really appreciated

11

Do all Tampa bay residents refer to themselves as tampons?

12

I think it’s technically Tampanians, but I’ve heard Tampons a number of time over the years.

13

Atlanta is usually a good place to start, the market is much more competitive and flights up are super cheap. Drive back is only 6-7 hours. Also check Louisiana, much lower dealer fees (capped at ~ $200). Shipped my wrangler earlier this month from Lake Charles, LA and it was $600.

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