Tax and Title charges in Ohio Chrysler dealership

Bought a used Town and Country van for my wife on Friday night and was
quoted 22,000 plus tax and title by the Chrysler dealership.

Ok - good deal.

Then on the final bill of sale was a $100 charge for handling fee;
curries for title, paper work etc.

Was told that this was required by all dealers in the state of Ohio,
and is part of the "tax and title" fees they are entitled to collect.

Was late, wasn't in the mood to argue at that point and my wife and
kids were looking at me like - lets get the heck out of here and drive
the new van home.

So I rolled over and paid it.

Question: Did I get a snow job and they got an extra $100 to cover
their costs?

Steve

 

I posted the following in response to a similar question last
November. It applies to Illinois, but I imagine that Ohio has
something similar...

--------------------

http://www.illinoisdealers.com/memberarea/vol02no9.htm

----------
DOCUMENTARY SERVICE FEE FOR 2003: $52.57

The maximum documentary service fee for 2003 will be $52.57. This is
an approximate 2.2% increase in the 12-month Consumer Price Index for
All Urban Consumers issued by the U.S. Department of Labor. The "doc
fee" is subject to Retailers Occupation Tax as part of the gross
receipts of the sale of the car.

Pursuant to 815 ILCS 375/11.1, every retail installment contract under
the Act shall contain or be accompanied by a notice containing the
following information:

"DOCUMENTARY FEE. A DOCUMENTARY FEE IS NOT AN OFFICIAL FEE. A
DOCUMENTARY FEE IS NOT REQUIRED BY LAW, BUT MAY BE CHARGED TO BUYERS
FOR HANDLING DOCUMENTS AND PERFORMING SERVICES RELATED TO CLOSING OF A
SALE. THE BASE DOCUMENTARY FEE BEGINNING JANUARY 1, 1992, WAS $40.
THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT THAT MAY BE CHARGED FOR A DOCUMENTARY FEE IS THE
BASE DOCUMENTARY FEE OF $40 WHICH SHALL BE SUBJECT TO AN ANNUAL RATE
ADJUSTMENT EQUAL TO THE PERCENTAGE OF CHANGE IN THE BUREAU OF LABOR
STATISTICS CONSUMER PRICE INDEX. THIS NOTICE IS REQUIRED BY LAW."

Please note that if your dealership is operating under a Consent
Decree related to documentary fees, the Consent Decree may have
requirements in addition to those set forth in the above law.
------------

Generally it seems that the sentiment about the doc fee is that you
have to weigh the cost of your time to perform the relavent
registrations with your local DMV vs having the dealer do it for you.
Some say that you need to budget for a day off work to do this
yourself.

Other info about the doc fee pertains to some state gov'ts determining
that this fee is essentially an addition to the cost of the vehicle
being purchased and as such, from the gov'ts point of view, is a
taxible item.

A survey of message boards shows that this doc fee ranges from as low
as $50 to several hundreds of dollars. The doc fee seems arbitrary
and in some cases has been increased steadily to a point where 90% of
customers do not complain about it (but apparently 10% do). This
seems to be somewhere between $150 and $200.

Click and Clack said this in 1994 regarding a question about a $40 doc
fee:
http://cartalk.cars.com/Columns/Archive/1994/June/05.html

"Actually, it's short for "Documents Fee," which is what the
dealership charges for standing in line at the Department of Motor
Vehicles to get your license plates and registration."

See also:

http://cartalk.cars.com/Columns/Archive/1998/June/14.html
http://tax.state.nv.us/taxnew/documents/ntn041998.pdf

I guess if you follow the rule of thumb that the price of things
double every 10 years then a $40 doc fee in 1994 would be $80 in
2004...

 

Steve

Question: Did I get a snow job and they got an extra $100 to cover their costs?

They lied as usual. I ran into the same thing. I just scratched it off the list
and wrote the check for $75.00 less. They do it online automatically. There are
other dealershps and they knew it.
Bob AZ

 

Dealers Charge what they Want. But just put your foot down and tell them to
stick the doc fee up there ass if the want a customer. Her in Phoenix Az. It
is all over the oboard from $150 to $295. It's Just the dealer trying to
make extra money on a deal!

 

Here in SE Wisconsin, some dealer's add a $89.00 service charge.
What the service is , who knows? The Motor Vehicle registration form from
the State says that dealers may add up to an $89.00 fee, and the 2 places
I went to both had small stickers appended to the factory window stick with
the charge
added to the MSRP. After haggling on the price, the $89.00 "set-up" fee was
added on the
registration form after the agreed-to purchase price.