Used car "admin fees"

[93DW]

jamiem555 said:

Sticker price was £11500. I emailed saying I could give £10500 cash. A good starting point I think

You thought asking for £1000 off was a good starting point? I'm surprised you got a reply!

Did you go and do some handbrake turns on his used car lot in your new ST?

[jamiem555]

93DW said:

You thought asking for £1000 off was a good starting point? I'm surprised you got a reply!

Did you go and do some handbrake turns on his used car lot in your new ST?

Well, no harm in asking. In fact Glasses guide gave me a figure of £10500 for the retail price so thought it was a good start. First time I'd seen a price get more expensive after the first offer.

[Adz The Rat]

andymc said:

they pay more than a tenner a car

When I worked there the structure started at £10 per car, once you got to 10 cars I think it went up in £5 increments.
There was more bonus in selling the usual GAP, tyre, paint and extended warranty. Plus £10 for the admin fee.

[Funk]

I'm looking about for a nice used BM at the moment and it's the first time I've looked at the ads properly. So many of them put this in the ad and it instantly puts my back up. I wouldn't ignore the advert because of it but I'm sure as hell not paying one! I'll just go in with a price I'd be willing to pay and walk away if they don't want to play ball.

[Pookington]

We bought a car recently from EH, agreed the deal, got to the invoice stage and the £195 non-optional fee suddenly appeared. We were told part of it is to cover an HPI check which, when buying from a dealer, is surely their responsibility, not ours.

Got up and walked, more on principle than anything else. The fee was soon removed but it left a bad taste.

[ThunderGuts]

Pookington said:

We bought a car recently from EH, agreed the deal, got to the invoice stage and the £195 non-optional fee suddenly appeared. We were told part of it is to cover an HPI check which, when buying from a dealer, is surely their responsibility, not ours.

Got up and walked, more on principle than anything else. The fee was soon removed but it left a bad taste.

PoorCarDealer will be saying you're being nasty calling car dealers liars now what with it being a 'non-optional' fee which suddenly became optional once the Next suit clad chancer thought he'd lose the sale.

[Ste1987]

Dealer I work for does an admin fee that's peanuts compared to everywhere else that does it. It's claimed it covers a revalet, us sorting out plate retention (if applicable), settling finance on p/ex (if applicable), HPI on the part ex (if applicable) and taxing the new car (not sure why this needs to be done by us now). Plenty of sales advisors who can't remember all this and try and tell the customer it's compulsory, when it's not

[funkyrobot]

Yet, car lease customers quite clearly don't give a damn about the fees they have to pay.

[HTP99]

Ste1987 said:

Dealer I work for does an admin fee that's peanuts compared to everywhere else that does it. It's claimed it covers a revalet, us sorting out plate retention (if applicable), settling finance on p/ex (if applicable), HPI on the part ex (if applicable) and taxing the new car (not sure why this needs to be done by us now). Plenty of sales advisors who can't remember all this and try and tell the customer it's compulsory, when it's not

Sorry but I am in car sales and that is all bkss:

• Re-valet, first off they get a valet then when sold a re-clean and anyway it is just one of those things that a dealer should expect to have to do.
• Plate retention/private plates is all done on-line in seconds, usually by the customer anyway, if you end up doing it for them then so be it, it doesn't take long.
• Settling finance on a part ex; if it is from the same manufacturer financed through the manufacturers own finance house it is literally a matter of hitting a "contra settle" button on the finance screen, if not then writing a settlement cheque and then popping it in the post is no great hardship and should be all part of the service.
• HPI; well a dealer should expect to HPI any car and the cost; a couple of £ should be factored into the running of the department.
• Taxing a car; used is done by the customer when they collect, well I open up the relevant website on my PC, tap in a few numbers and ask for their debit card, it takes seconds. New well it is all part of the sale and a dealer has to register it, which generates the tax for the year.

Admin fees are pure and simply there so that the cars can appear cheaper than they are, thank god my dealer group doesn't have them.

[tomic]

I was at a certain prestige specialist in the South of England who can't be named and they told me that the admin fee included the 3 member months of warranty you get with the car- which is funny because the Sale of Goods Act covers that for free.

[daemon]

tomic said:

I was at a certain prestige specialist in the South of England who can't be named and they told me that the admin fee included the 3 member months of warranty you get with the car- which is funny because the Sale of Goods Act covers that for free.

No. A warranty is different from the soga

[The Mad Monk]

tomic said:

I was at a certain prestige specialist in the South of England who can't be named

Yes, they can be named.