[jcamp116]

I have a question about dealer advertising fees. I called a dealer and before even going to the dealership,I got a deal for $100 over invoice to order a new Enclave.

When I got there, the invoice price was higher and when I asked about this he told me about the advertising fees (about 2% of MSRP). I said okay that is fine, order it. Now, looking back I am just curious about this!

Is this standard for Buick or GM in general (I have never bought a new GM vehicle)? I have bought cars several Fords at $100 over invoice and have never had this happen. Is this negotiable? Especially considering it is an ordered vehicle and they are getting all the holdback on it? ???

I was just thinking what a great deal I got on it, but now with the advertising fees, the conquest money is just about dissappearing!!!

Any thoughts?

 

[glimo]

It looks like GM dealers regularly add ad fees into their invoice price. That's why Edmund's invoice price is much lower than dealer's. According to carbuyingtips.com and Edmund's forum, ad fees are negotiable. Actually some people say consumers shouldn't bear the burden of dealer's advertising costs. But in reality, since Enclave seems pretty hot right now, I doubt if you can ask the dealer to remove all the ad fees.

Our dealer also included about 2% ad fee in the invoice. We managed to bargain the price down to $360 lower than dealer invoice. It's better to talk to the dealer about your bottomline OTD price rather than trying to remove each fee item.

 

[pfavor2806]

Edmund's.com hno: uses the invoice price without the 2 different ad fees because ad fees are different throughout the country and region and for some reason they just don't care to be accurate in their invoice price :help: . The 1st ad fee is a group ad fee that is thrown into a pot and used to advertise a particular vehicle in a particular region....if you ever see an ad that ends in "see your Chicago area Buick dealer for details", that is where that money is used. The other ad fee is used to suppliment the individual dealer's advertisements....neither one of these fees is a profit for the dealership and it is assumed that if you agree to a number above or below invoice, these fees are part of that invoice price. If you go to www.carsdirect.com, they ask for your zip code and include the local and dealer ad fees that are charged to each invoice. Their invoice price is usually much more accurate than Edmunds.... :thumb:

 

[mss42]

well, from what i understand ad fees are negotiable anyway. now, none of the online pricing is correct because some of those items come in packages such pkc ??? package, i may have have the initials wrong but it is the one offered in california and a few other states w/dual sunroof, option 19 wheels and it is cheaper than purchasing them separately for us out here. so, you sorta have to do more research than just the edmunds.com and the carsdirect invoices...however, they may get you as close as possible but just know that when you go to purchase and you have your copy of invoice that there are package options that the dealer has that will make your purchase cheaper.

 

[coopermine]

The dealership close to my house, didn't mention any advertising fee.

 

[cyclops]

The dealership close to my house, didn't mention any advertising fee.

Lack of mention does not mean lack of existence.

 

[coopermine]

But I did ask him, are there any other hidden expenses/charges and he said none. I didn't want to specify exactly about the Advertising fee so he would add it.

 

[cyclops]

But I did ask him, are there any other hidden expenses/charges and he said none. I didn't want to specify exactly about the Advertising fee so he would add it.

I understand. My experience with my dealer was that the advertising fees were not "hidden" or "additional" - they were simply a "normal" part of the invoice price. Consequently, when you tell your dealer you agree to invoice price the two of you are probably thinking different things. You are thinking Edmunds invoice - he is probably thinking dealer invoice which has the ad fees baked in.

I would ask your dealer to quote a specific invoice price - that's the only way you will know for sure.

 

[netmag]

The Ad fee is not a trivial amount. It's on the order of about $800 or $900. When we were going around just to look at colors we asked one sales guy how much the Ad Fee was for the Enclave in general. He said he didn't know but it would be in all the papers. I asked him if it was on the sticker and he said "No!, it's not going to be on there". He was too lazy to go look it up and basically told us it didn't matter because we had to pay it and also the only numbers he'd be talking about would be MSRP anyway.

That kind of ticked me off a bit but we weren't looking to buy that day anyway and I was just fishing for more info while we looked at colors.

Needless to say we have no intention of dealing with that dealership. If somebody isn't willing to sit and tell you the fees up front you need to find a different dealer even if you have to travel a bit. The crazy thing about it is that there are tons of Buick dealers around here. These guys either aren't interested in selling cars or have regular customers who don't care about prices. It's in a fairly large suburb around here so maybe they get enough people who don't bother to look up prices. Anyway we ran into several other dealers while we were looking around that were much, much better.

 

[mss42]

But I did ask him, are there any other hidden expenses/charges and he said none. I didn't want to specify exactly about the Advertising fee so he would add it.

did you actually think he would tell you if there were hidden fees? thats why they are hidden...

 

[cyclops]

The Ad fee is not a trivial amount. It's on the order of about $800 or $900.

This is exactly right. I used supplier pricing. The dealer told me my price was $200-$300 below dealer invoice. I confirmed this from the actual invoice. The problem was that the dealer invoice was about $900 more than the Edmund's/cars.com/etc. invoice. The difference (pausing for drum roll) - ad fees.

 

[coopermine]

did you actually think he would tell you if there were hidden fees? thats why they are hidden...

You have got a point there But for those kind of dealers I can easily stand up and walk away. If they are saying that is the final price then that is what I am going to pay.

 

[firebird]

We have 3 Buick dealers in our immediate area. I took the Edmunds & KBB invoice pricing with me & one of the dealers came back with a price that didn't match my invoice pricing. I pointed that out to the sales person & they of course had to take it to the sales manager. I told them they had one shot with this nonsense & if it wasn't right I was gone & wouldn't return. They came back & told me advertising wasn't included in my pricing so I said good-bye. I went to another dealer 7 miles away & bought the Enclave off the showroom floor with no mention of advertising charges & got my price.

 

[desgnconcpts]

Firebird,

I'm in IL too (NW Burbs, but open to going elsewhere to buy -- within reason). Can you reply with the name of the dealer that you bought from, as well as the others that jerked you around? I'm also very interested to find out -- if you bought off the floor -- how close did you come to invoice?

I have had dealer after dealer turn down Supplier Pricing in spite of me telling them they would have an immediate deal. I've been looking for a loaded CXL -- orig wanted AWD but I would also take a FWD (in fact, FWD might be my 1st choice but I'd take either). EVERY dealer I've talked to had said the same thing -- we sell 'em off the floor at sticker (or very close) and we'd be happy to order you one . . . yeah, as I saw in another post, 11 weeks already and they were told another 4!

If you feel uncomfortable posting for all eyes, please send me a message via this forum.

Thanks -- look forward to hearing from you either way.

 

[firebird]

desgnconcpts.....I sent you an email....

 

[desgnconcpts]

Firebird -- thanks -- unfortunately, ADMIN hasn't replied to my messages to help fix my account. My private email address was showing up regardless of what box I checked on the Profile page, so I had to change my email that shows up for all to see to something that's not a real email address.

I just sent you a private message via this forum -- I don't know if it goes to your email to the "MY MESSAGES" part of this forum -- but I sure hope you see it as I did send you my email address; I would love to have the information you talked about, it would help me immensely. I've had an awful time with Buick dealers -- and I've bought & leased a lot of vehicles over the years -- this has been one of the worst experiences. Just leased an Audi and that experience was absolutely terrific -- anyone in the NW burbs of Chicago interested in an Audi, I can pass along a great dealer reference.

Hope to hear from you very soon Firebird!