[911TerryT]

My son in Florida is trying to buy his first car(used) and sent me the no trade buyers order and I was floored at the dealer fluff.

I worked in a dealership in my early days and know how all this works. I don't think the goals have changed for dealers and that is to make profit but how you arrive at selling prices has.

For example, a car advertised on Autotrader at $16,500 that has a great price rating is really $20,500 before tax. I am astute enough to look past all this and determine if the 20,500 is a good deal or not but I bet there are customers that don't get hit with this until it comes time to paying or financing. But....thought it was interesting how these dealers end up at the selling price. Some of the fees from a VW dealer on a used Passat were...Inspection fee of 795.00, Preferred Vehicle Benefit $1,395(fabric treatment), Documentation fee $1198, Electronic filing fee $560, PTA $189, Tag fee $425. Another dealer discounts the car by 25% that you need to make up in cash and the same dealer you must add $1,500 if you don't finance with them at a terrible rate compared to what you can get at your own bank.

The fine print says fees may apply. Some fees are listed but most are not. So you have to go through the painful back and forth to get an actual price.

I just wish dealers would advertise the price that you would pay if you wanted to buy.