Dealers additional charges

[Rosanne]

Although the above are not new, I have noticed them being applied to the sale price of a car more and more often. Several of the cars I have looked at recently have add on charges of nearly two hundred quid. They will be called something like "Admin. Charge " or "Buyer Premium " and what they ostensibly are are charges for any warranty the dealer might give on a car. I take the view that a warranty on a car sold by a bona fide dealer is his responsibility.

What do others think ?

[Wooda80]

You're not buying your Hubby's birthday present Alpina from a Car Supermarket, are you?!

[dibblecorse]

I have no idea what others think, but I think you are jumping to an assumption as to what the additional funds are for, they could be for anything, admin overhead, salesmans commission, MDs coke habit .....

Surely someone who is buying DB9's, GTC's etc isn't shopping so far down the foodchain to ever have this as an issue ?

And in the interests of transparency I am strongly of the opinion you are a trolling fantasist.

Bought the Alpina yet ?

[Rosanne]

dibblecorse said:

I have no idea what others think, but I think you are jumping to an assumption as to what the additional funds are for, they could be for anything, admin overhead, salesmans commission, MDs coke habit .....

Surely someone who is buying DB9's, GTC's etc isn't shopping so far down the foodchain to ever have this as an issue ?

And in the interests of transparency I am strongly of the opinion you are a trolling fantasist.

Bought the Alpina yet ?

I have asked two dealers to explain what their additional charges are. Essentially they are for a three months warranty, a cosmetic valet, a health check of the car, and maybe, if you are lucky, A three month subscription to a breakdown service.

What I buy and what I drive is immaterial. A rip off is still a rip off, and that’s what I think these admin. charges are.

I haven’t bought the Alpina yet. I’m still waiting for the dealer to return my call re technical aspects of its gearbox.

[Mojooo]

Its basically a way of trying to make a car look cheaper than it is - does it then makethe car under a banding? i.e £9999 so its on under £10,000 search?

I believe Autotrader have banned this so it might be worth reporting to Trading Standards if it wasn't made clear when you saw the advert. More difficult if its right next to the advert.

[Mandat]

Rosanne said:

I have asked two dealers to explain what their additional charges are. Essentially they are for a three months warranty, a cosmetic valet, a health check of the car, and maybe, if you are lucky, A three month subscription to a breakdown service.

What I buy and what I drive is immaterial. A rip off is still a rip off, and that’s what I think these admin. charges are.

I haven’t bought the Alpina yet. I’m still waiting for the dealer to return my call re technical aspects of its gearbox.

These types of charges are an annoyance but they are set out clearly and upfront, therefore where is the rip off that you claim?

[anonymous-user]

dibblecorse said:

I have no idea what others think, but I think you are jumping to an assumption as to what the additional funds are for, they could be for anything, admin overhead, salesmans commission, MDs coke habit .....

Surely someone who is buying DB9's, GTC's etc isn't shopping so far down the foodchain to ever have this as an issue ?

And in the interests of transparency I am strongly of the opinion you are a trolling fantasist.

Bought the Alpina yet ?

He is.

[Rosanne]

Mandat said:

These types of charges are an annoyance but they are set out clearly and upfront, therefore where is the rip off that you claim?

What I dislike is the fact that whilst one can haggle on the price of car if it includes a warranty,
there is no scope for doing so if the extra charge is automatically added on with no chance of haggling over it. Say for example that a car is priced at £50 k and one haggles it down to
£45 k, then one knows that the add on surcharge has been negated. This makes one feel better about the overall price. If, irrespective of the final price, the same add on surcharge
is still added on, then, I for one, resents this. Maybe it’s a female thing ?