Used car admin fee's..

[Privanthe]

I shouldn't be touching Evans Halshaw with a barge pole, but they have a low mileage example of the exact car I want, for the best price in the UK - so it shouldn't hurt too much that I'm going for it.

The car is listed for x price on the website, and on autotrader. On calling up to have the car moved dealerships for me to purchase, I'm told that there's a £99 'blanket admin fee'. The internet says this is an overpriced HPI check, which I obviously don't want, and people seem to say that it's optional.

I specifically stated that I don't want to pay this fee and I refuse, and was told that if that was the case I could not buy the car. Does anyone know, is this fee actually optional and I'm getting ripped off (and can get this back after - I still want the car), or can fees like this actually be compulsory?


fees*

Edited by Privanthe on Friday 4th October 15:27

[littlebasher]

I've bought a few cars from EH, and haven't paid it yet.

'If' the car is any good when you view it, just stick to your guns and tell them you're not paying it.

For my daughter, they just discounted her car by £99 to mitigate it

[Privanthe]

littlebasher said:

I've bought a few cars from EH, and haven't paid it yet.

'If' the car is any good when you view it, just stick to your guns and tell them you're not paying it.

For my daughter, they just discounted her car by £99 to mitigate it

They were perfectly happy for me to walk away yesterday over not paying it! I'm hoping that I can find it is actually optional, so I can lodge a complaint afterwards if necessary to get a refund. If it is compulsary, then it's stupid but I don't have an issue with it. It's only if it's optional and they are lying to me that makes it a problem.

[littlebasher]

Sounds like their refusal was off the back of a telephone conversation, if they've not moved it yet.

I bet if you're sat at the salesmans desk, ready to deal - their attitude will be somewhat different.

[Trevor555]

It's entirely up to the dealer whether they make you pay it.

Some dealers charge them, some don't.

So you'll either have to pay it, or wait until a similar car comes up elsewhere.

If they're stating it's compulsory then it's their company policy, not a law of any sort.

[Jamescrs]

If they are refusing to budge on it and say it's part of the deal my view is one of three options

1- Refuse to pay it and walk away
2- Try to negotiate a discount on the windscreen price of that or more and let them add the fee on at the end
3- Pay the fee and buy the car.

I think paying the fee and complaining about it after the fact is pretty pointless, in fairness to the dealer they have made you aware of it up front and not tried sneaking it in on the final invoice,
I don't agree with the admin fees personally though, I believe its a back handed way for dealers to try and claw back some profit margin because they are all competing on Autotrader etc to get their cars as high as possible on the listings by keeping their prices lowest when a prospective buyer filters cars on price low to high.

[Wacky Racer]

I would just add it to the price of the car, then decide if it was worth paying it.

Not rocket science.

If they knock it off, happy days..

[Auto810graphy]

Wacky Racer said:

I would just add it to the price of the car, then decide if it was worth paying it.

Not rocket science.

If they knock it off, happy days..

Get out of here with your common sense.

Why has nobody suggested reporting them to the ASA.....

But as above, if the deal is right factor it in and get it moved to a local EH dealer.

Evans Halshaw will not negotiate on prices and you need to check the car over well along with history and spare keys etc as the cheaper cars are often cheap for a reason.

[Pistonheader101]

Wait till what you hear car giant charge - £199

[Grunt Futtock]

I bought a Qashqai a few years back from Evans Halshaw, I went to the dealership and had a test drive and was serious about buying. I asked the sales guy what the £99 fee was for, he told me it was to allow them to cover the costs of the HPI check etc.

I simply said "I expect if you are selling me a used car you have already done the due diligence of an HPI check as a major business, I'm happy to buy the car now but I am not paying the fee" , cue the 'Let me talk to my manager' and he disappeared for 10 minutes, came back and the deal was done minus the fee.

[stevemcs]

On the other hand, if its priced £1000 less than a similar model and there are only 2 examples in the country and its the perfect car wouldn't it be a little silly to lose the perfect car for the sake of £99 ?

[Skyedriver]

Had my first experience of EH a week ago.
All a bit Arthur Daley
Went to look at a car, over £11k, 23k miles etc, popular model.

It looked somewhat abused, scratches in strange places, like it had been in a hedge somewhere. Wondered what other damage I couldn't see.

They start adding on all the little extras, admin, breakdown, anti scratch paint finish or something (!) all sorts of other stuff adding near on £1k to the price.
I say no, seller gets chief seller when I ask about this and a cash discount: "well we'll knock off the admin fee, you don't have to pay the other fees, but can't drop the actual price as it's set by main office". He then goes off and returns with his lap top showing me the profit he has to make........
Not my problem tried to chip him a bit but like head to brick wall.

Said we'll think about it, walked away, I wasn't interested anymore at full price as I could see a respray at least partial to tidy up the scratches, some were minor and would polish out (ie wear away some of the laquer) others were through the paint itself.

Paid a little bit more for a much better car (same model better spec, newer, lower miles, cared for look) at a main dealer.

[Far Cough]

If they don't want to discount it , negotiate the car being delivered with a full tank of fuel. Probably near enough same value.