Countless vehicles, both new and used, are sold through hundreds of dealerships in the state of Florida every year. The last statistics show over 15 million licensed drivers in the Sunshine State (2018). And with the current COVID-19 pandemic, there will probably be an increase in car sales since most people who used public transit now prefer to drive to the office for fear of catching the virus.
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Aside from the actual cost of the vehicle, Florida dealers charge various fees when finalizing the purchase aka “the paperwork.”. But, Florida laws limit car dealerships with the types of fees they can charge and ask dealers to be transparent about them. These can range from extra services such as car repairs or even state fees such as taxes required by law.
Six percent sales tax
If you’re thinking of buying a car, it’s important that you know what a Florida dealer is allowed to charge you for and what they’re not. Sales tax for one is to be expected. In the Sunshine State, the minimum sales tax on a vehicle is 6% of the price of the car.
If you trade in your old vehicle at the dealership, you only pay a sales tax on the trade difference. So if you get $10,000 for your trade-in, and purchase a car that’s $30,000, you only pay 6% on the $20,000 difference. Some FL counties require car dealerships to charge an extra 0.25% or a capped surtax of 0.5%.
This sales tax can’t be absorbed, it has to be added to the sale of the vehicle and separately stated in the invoice. And if you get any type of manufacturer cash rebate, Florida law says you have to pay sales tax for the car’s purchase price, before any incentives are applied.
Processing or doc fees and bogus charges
Paperwork is inevitable when car buying, that’s why dealerships in Florida charge fees for their administrative work. Some states have caps on how much a dealer can charge for office work such as Texas that has a maximum documentation fee of $150.
Florida however is at the other end of the spectrum, with no cap and a range that can go up to $999. But the average price for processing fees in the Sunshine State is around $607. Arizona’s average is $401, while California has a maximum of $55 and Maryland’s is $200.
These documentation fees can include a variety of services including title and registration, tire tax, loan processing, and even bogus fees. What to truly look at out for in Florida is the dealer fee, in addition to the titling services with the DMV.
Most FL dealerships add $600-$700 as a dealer fee or dealer preparation fee. This can include checking the car’s fluids, removing all the stickers on the vehicle from when it was on the lot, even a carwash or gassing it up. Know that that is not a mandatory fee. Transport fee is another bogus fee to look out for, since there’s already a destination charge fee included in the Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP).
Title and registration
Most people who buy their vehicles at the dealership typically let the dealer handle the DMV paperwork. An initial car registration fee in Florida cost $225, but the car dealership may choose to add a processing fee to that amount and you’ll have to pay more.
A car registration is a must if you’ll be driving the car on public roads in FL. You can choose to register online with a company like eTags, after getting your title from the dealerships if you buy the vehicle outright. You can check if you can just transfer your license plate from your old vDealer Fees To Expect When Buying Car in Florida Dealershipehicle and pay less.
More weird fees
Depending on where you buy your car in Florida, you’ll see a different mixture of bogus fees. Some dealers charge an extra $1000 if you buy an in-demand, popular car. Some will charge for electronic filing on top of their doc fees, or an extra few dollars for every monthly payment you make on your car loan. Other Florida car dealerships will etch your vin number on the windshield for anti-theft protection and charge you for it.
Car buying doesn’t have to be stressful, it’s just important to be prepared for what’s to come and be ready to question and negotiate.
See Also: Is Buying A Car In Florida A Hassle? Not With These Steps
33 comments
I am about to lease a car and know I will be chg a dealer fee. I have my own plate and would like to transfer thru tags I don’t want to pay more than I beed to. I am a senior and hope this will be last car I drive.
Hi Patricia – The dealer should be able to transfer your plates for you. Make sure to bring your registration card and, if you plan to drive off with the car the same day, the actual license plate that they should be able to attach to your new car. As for the dealer fees, you’ll want to make sure that they don’t charge you the “new plate fee”, typically about $225. Lastly, they may charge their own service fee for processing your registration transfer and you may be able to work them down on that. Best of luck!
I recently contacted a dealership near me in Florida about a car they had listed for a 2018 Nissan Versa S Plus with 85,468 for $,250. CarGurus listed this price as “probably too good to be true”, but I contacted the dealership anyway, thinking it must be a bait and switch but wanting to feel them out. After some back and forth the woman I was corresponding with told me, “On top of the sale price you would have your taxes, $2995 [dealership] Advantage, $1199 dealer fee and tag fees. Typically this is about $5k on top of the sale price :)”. So in the course of a day, it went from $4,250 to about $9,250. No, thanks. I’ll pass.
I am looking at a used car from a Subaru dealer. They quoted a license fee of $495, then a separate doc fee of $1199 on a $12K vehicle and paying cash. Almost double the state average with very little paperwork involved since there is no financing or loan processing necessary. By contrast, my house is selling soon, which involves 50x the paperwork and 30 days processing, and is less than 1% for doc fees. Smells like price gouging to me.
Dealerships do often charge their own fees, separate from title and registration fees. You can inquire and often negotiate those with your sales representative. Also, if you have an FL plate to transfer, make sure to let them know as that will save you about $230 on registration fees. Best of luck
I purchased a used Toyota from a Toyota dealer in Florida. I was charged $500.00 sales tax. The finance officer knew I would be titling the car in South Carolina. The SC DMV also charged me sales tax. Should I have received a reimbursement check from FL when I received the title?
Not all states have a reciprocity agreement as it pertains to taxes due on a motor vehicle. This means that you may need to pay taxes in both states (purchase state and state vehicle is registered). If states do have a reciprocity agreement, you would either receive an exemption in the state where the vehicle was sold (Florida in this case) and not pay taxes at the time you purchased the vehicle OR the state where you register the vehicle (SC in this case) would reduce or eliminate your tax payment there. It is unlikely that you would be receiving a refund from the Florida DMV so we suggest contacting the South Carolina DMV to have them review it.
I’m studying this now. Florida dealers, along with its real estate, is outa control.
Drove to Jenkins Nissan in Lakeland Florida last Saturday to look at a new Nissan Z Sport. Not the model I was looking for but it was just a 15 minute drive from my house. Long story shorter the salesman showed me a breakdown of the charges that included a $20,000 dealer markup on a car with an advertised price of $42,000. I walked out.
Jenkins dealerships are all about charging the customer EXTRA fees; buyer beware. Don’t buy from Jenkins!
Just left Jenkins and for a used vehicle there was a 2500 reconditioning fee and a $999 dealer fee on a $7999 used vehicle and a $1300 sales tax which may be the local rate?? Didn’t add up to a 7.25 % that was quoted also
$798 non taxable tax fee
Was very disappointed as I was already preapproved with check in hand 🤷♀️
Can a dealer in Florida charge a pre-delivery fee for a used car on their lot or can that be negotiated off
Do you know what these following fees are and if they are common:
SVC/HDL fee – $898.50
Doc stamps – $88.20
Official fee – $200
Elec/file/fee – $199.95
I went to look at a used car today in Florida. Here are the fees listed on the sheet he showed me:
St Elec Filing Fee. $199
Doc Fee. $1199
None Tax Fee. $673.06
Then I was told that there was a none negotiable lifetime warranty fee to cover the transmission and drivetrain that was $1995. I was trying to ask who says it is nonnegotiable, who is backing this, is it this Toyota, your dealership, the manufacturer (Hyundai)? Never got a clear understanding just that it was good at all national mechanic companies.
We test drove the car to see if we liked the model and when we got back the sales guy had something he needed to take care of. We spent a few minutes waiting. I snapped a pic of the paper and left.
The price was $18,377. I thought it would top out around $20,000 but the final he had was $23,740. How much of this was BS and what was ligit?
Sounds like the Nissan dealer I went to. Same kind of fees plus their certified pre-owned fee of $2995. So my trade in value of $6000 became worthless after all these fees. My husband said they were getting my car for free. I would check other dealers cause not all of them charge the same fees.
If I purchase the car for cash from the dealer, how long would eTags take to transfer the title, tags (I have a Florida plate), and registration? I would prefer to avoid using the dealer for this service as they over-charge
Hi there! eTags would take about 5-7 days to transfer the title and plate. If you’d like to get started, visit our site and place an order for title transfer.
Do anybody know what a license fee is ? 😫I see they trying to charge me 500$ for a license fee
we haven’t heard of license fees specifically, but that can just be another term for dealer fees or doc fees which include documentation, and a variety of others. Some states like CA cap it at $80, but it could be as much as 10% of the price of the vehicle. Ask the dealership for specifics, what does license fee entail. They may include title/reg in it, or certain taxes…
The car dealership I bought my car from clothes is doors they closed down all their businesses location and not answering any phones calls they moved all their belongings out of their buildings and all the cars out their car lot there’s nowhere to make a payment I’ve been paying on my car 3 4 years now and I’m almost done the website said the car dealership has closed down and call this number to make any future payments but there’s no one answering the phone there’s no way I can finish paying off my car could you please help me
Wow, that seems like a sticky situation! If you can’t get in contact with anyone from the dealership or bank, consider contacting the FDIC. Good luck!
Upon signing for my truck, i told the dealership that i had an old plate # that could be transferred. I just needed to pick up the physical plate after purchasing. When I told this to the dealership, they stated “we can help you with that” and he pulled a brand new license plate out of his drawer, not a temp tag or a dealer plate, it was a new plate, and then he printed my registration. I still have the old plate # in the system with the DMV, nothing was transferred. Are dealerships allowed to issue a brand new plates on the same day of purchase? I thought you got the paper tags.
This sounds like a bit of shady business! In Florida, the fees are higher for a new plate and registration than if you were to transfer a valid one you already have. While it’s typical that a dealership might have an inventory of plates, if you expressed the desire to transfer one you already had, they should have obliged. I would contact the dealer and double-check what you paid for and why!
I just bought a new SUV from a dealership & sold off my old car. How do I transfer my old car license plate to my new SUV? Do I have to go to the DMV with my old license plate? Will it be cheaper to do it at the DMV or let the dealership do it?
you can transfer plates online with eTags, by clicking Register Vehicle
My husband paid 10,000 extra for his new truck above the sticker price. It was no where on the truck but when we said we wanted it they then showed up with this additional 10,000 for shortage fees. I insisted he buy it as we had been there a long and he hated his present truck. Do we have any recourse
eTags doesn’t handle legal question, perhaps inquiring with a lawyer will help. Here’s an article with some of FL laws regarding sticker price and labels on cars for more research.
Could you please help me answer to these question?
I bought a car from auction with help of a dealer (he has license to buy from auction $100 fee to buy and $50 Dealer fee )
CAR Sale price :$26.250.00
Buyer FEE: $1,443.75
Virtual bid Fee:129.00
Gate :59.00
Copart mailing fee $20.00
Total payment $27,901.75 (all these payment from auction)
now dealer fee add $100 bid fee + $50 dealer fee
Does sales tax applies to buyer fee , virtual bid fee ,gate?
Do I have to pay tax on sale price only or on total payment which is 27,901.00 + $150=$28,051.00?
I really appreciate you help and looking forward to hear from you,
This should help with your question, plus it has a phone number you can call should you want more details
https://floridarevenue.com/Forms_library/current/gt800030.pdf
Can you ask said dealership in FL to remove the “reconditioning fee”, estimated taxable fee and non tax fee? Those are the three that I’ve never heard of over the last 2 months of doing tremendous research across a handful of states. Quiet infuriating this one dealership has 3 different “tax” fees, a “reconditioning fee” and a $1k doc fee.
Each dealership has the discretion to add or remove these taxes and fees. You will need to contact the dealerships individually to discuss this matter.
Good morning.
Is legal for a dealer in Florida to markup the cost from his tag agency to issue plate and registration?
The cost is shown to the registration.
eTags is an online tags and title services private company, we’re not a dealership or sell vehicles. Perhaps some online research can help or talking directly with your car dealer.