"Admin Fee" when buying a car
Discussion
Cotty said:
The problem is our definition of clearly signed and the garages definition of clearly signed differ greatly.
If its "£15,000 + admin fee" fine. if its £15,000 then three pages down hidden in the terms and conditions then no.
Someone mentioned car giant, so I just had a look on their website and it is clear that there is an admin fee. Some others might not be so clear I guess. If its "£15,000 + admin fee" fine. if its £15,000 then three pages down hidden in the terms and conditions then no.
Carshop is the same. I've refused to pay in the past but they won't budge, and given I'm more interested in getting the right car at the right price I'm not going to lose out if the car and price is right. You can walk over principles but you need to get past it and work out if it's really worth an extra £100 of your time if you've found something you want, rather than carry on searching.
As for the rest of the 'value add' cr@p where they want to charge you to valetscratch it, tax it and fill it with fuel, just opt out.
As for the rest of the 'value add' cr@p where they want to charge you to valet
I saw a dealer ad which said they'd charge an administration fee if a customer-sourced finance company was used, which seemed fair enough.
The issue is that car dealers cannot put up their prices like everyone else, who just shovel on another RPI+ whatever each year and we just take it.
The issue is that car dealers cannot put up their prices like everyone else, who just shovel on another RPI+ whatever each year and we just take it.
Edited by Robertb on Tuesday 7th May 14:37
Jimjimhim said:
Mojooo said:
The question to ask is why do they do it.
You then have you answer as to whether they should.
So why do they?You then have you answer as to whether they should.
Its not different to restaurants doing a 12% service charge as a way of adding 12% onto the cost of the goods - they know that most people will just focus on the menu prices when ordering rather than also adding 12% every time.
If there was no benefit they simply wouldn't do it.
First time I heard of this until shopping around for a car the other day.
I got pre-approved finance via Zopa and was looking through their list of cars and stumbled across a Seat Ateca I liked the look of.
Spoke to the dealer and went through the spec of my car for trade in. Got to talking about financing the car and I mentioned I had been pre-approved elsewhere at quite a decent rate, to which the reply was;
"Oh, then it that case we charge a £399 admin fee for the car, as we don't deal with Zopa directly. They're not taking any of the risk, they just handle the finance and that's why we do it."
Part of me assumed it was normal practice, but reading through here, I'm guessing it isn't!
I walked away, because I got quite annoyed at the fact he kept saying "If you go through our finance provider, we can see if we can't get you a better deal on your trade-in".
I got pre-approved finance via Zopa and was looking through their list of cars and stumbled across a Seat Ateca I liked the look of.
Spoke to the dealer and went through the spec of my car for trade in. Got to talking about financing the car and I mentioned I had been pre-approved elsewhere at quite a decent rate, to which the reply was;
"Oh, then it that case we charge a £399 admin fee for the car, as we don't deal with Zopa directly. They're not taking any of the risk, they just handle the finance and that's why we do it."
Part of me assumed it was normal practice, but reading through here, I'm guessing it isn't!
I walked away, because I got quite annoyed at the fact he kept saying "If you go through our finance provider, we can see if we can't get you a better deal on your trade-in".
Mojooo said:
Jimjimhim said:
Mojooo said:
The question to ask is why do they do it.
You then have you answer as to whether they should.
So why do they?You then have you answer as to whether they should.
Its not different to restaurants doing a 12% service charge as a way of adding 12% onto the cost of the goods - they know that most people will just focus on the menu prices when ordering rather than also adding 12% every time.
If there was no benefit they simply wouldn't do it.
Jimjimhim said:
Someone mentioned car giant, so I just had a look on their website and it is clear that there is an admin fee. Some others might not be so clear I guess.
Peter Vardy have admin fees which previously wasn't disclosed but are now in the T&Cs. £299 on every purchase and it was £500+ if you took our third party finance. Ouch! Not shown on their AutoTrader ads, clear breach of AT T&Cs as it makes every car they sell £300 cheaper, AT not interested. ambuletz said:
Mojooo said:
Jimjimhim said:
Mojooo said:
The question to ask is why do they do it.
You then have you answer as to whether they should.
So why do they?You then have you answer as to whether they should.
Its not different to restaurants doing a 12% service charge as a way of adding 12% onto the cost of the goods - they know that most people will just focus on the menu prices when ordering rather than also adding 12% every time.
If there was no benefit they simply wouldn't do it.
If the overall cost is cheaper than a like for like car elsewhere then I don't really see what the issue is.
Cotty said:
Jimjimhim said:
If the overall cost is cheaper than a like for like car elsewhere then I don't really see what the issue is.
How can you compare prices if you don't know the final price because of the hidden charges.Jimjimhim said:
ambuletz said:
Mojooo said:
Jimjimhim said:
Mojooo said:
The question to ask is why do they do it.
You then have you answer as to whether they should.
So why do they?You then have you answer as to whether they should.
Its not different to restaurants doing a 12% service charge as a way of adding 12% onto the cost of the goods - they know that most people will just focus on the menu prices when ordering rather than also adding 12% every time.
If there was no benefit they simply wouldn't do it.
If the overall cost is cheaper than a like for like car elsewhere then I don't really see what the issue is.
The Price Marking Order 2004 requires all goods for sale to include mandatory fees - therefore splitting the price up is already illegal when the fee is mandatory.
The whole point is to make it easy for the consumer to see a price and act accordingly.
Unless you want the ridiculous situation whereby milk is £89p in Tesco with a 3.4% admin fee and £79p in Sainsburys with a 4.5% admin fee.
As I say -give that we once had no admin fees it is obvious why they were brought in. For cars another reason is to get under a specific price on a search - e.g car is £9999 so under 310,0000 on search but had the admin fee on top.
The whole point is to make it easy for the consumer to see a price and act accordingly.
Unless you want the ridiculous situation whereby milk is £89p in Tesco with a 3.4% admin fee and £79p in Sainsburys with a 4.5% admin fee.
As I say -give that we once had no admin fees it is obvious why they were brought in. For cars another reason is to get under a specific price on a search - e.g car is £9999 so under 310,0000 on search but had the admin fee on top.
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