"Closing" costs for purchase

[AVATT]

All:

Picked up the '08 3.0 yesterday, very pleased. Time from order to build and delivery was 15 days, impressive. Found this board to be very helpful w/good comaraderie, appreciate it. Am also a member of the M5 board which led me to this board.

Anyway, wanted a reality check. Negotiated the price, a very good deal. The manager and I came to agreement, however, as he was writing it up, he indicated that somehow the numbers werent adding up and he was $400 off what he figured. He asked if we could split the difference. I agreed (still a great deal). Fast forward 15 days to pickup. Going thru the invoice , there was after the agreed price a "documentary fee" of $150, an "Optional ERT Fee" of $25 and a $143 fee for registration and title (registration and title are normally $65/$15 and of course tax. When we wrote up the order sheet/invoice 15 days prior, it had the price and options all listed by the computer generated doc @ MSRP but the Manager wrote the agreed to price underneath with "plus tax."

I expected the 65/15 title and registration fee (as well as tax) but was put off by the doc fee, ert fee and the high reg/title. Sure its not a lot of money but I thought we had an out the door price. I objected and we again compromised and split those costs. BTW, the ert fee was dropped altogether and the doc fee was described as being for processing the financing and other paper work. Thats were its fudgy. Under fed law, an APR must include all costs associated with a loan. Therefore the .9% apr includes any processing fees already (APR is a defined term as opposed to the stated interest rate that does not have apr appended to it. The salesman insisted that it is always charged. I pushed back that there is frequently OTD prices and you certainly cannot have fees in addition to an apr w/regard to the financing portion of the paper work. Anyway, split the difference as stated above.

Was I out of line? Dont want to be unreasonable. Were these customary fees I should have expected given the negotiation and the original sheet which has n/c listed for such things as MACO and training/service fee? Dont want to default to the dark side but part of me questions whether the accounting issue when coming to agreement and these new fees were just tools used to increase the bottom line.

Frankly, I felt badly afterward that I may have come across as unreasonable. I like the salesman and manager and I always try to be conscious of treating staff w/repect as I often find some car owners berating technicians and carrying a world owes me attitude.

I welcome your opinions.

[Loki]

AVATT,

I PM'd you about this. Take a look. In summary, it is not out of line to question each and every item before signing. It looks like you did well if they agreed to split in half (considering the $143 is mandatory to the state of IL with $65 for reg/title and a $78 charge for new plates).

L