with an msrp of 25,000 including the 750 destination fee.

10,000 trade in, 8% sales tax. what should i expect my out the door price to be in order to be getting a good deal?

It depends on your registration fees. In Minnesota it is pretty high. I want to say I paid close to $400.

Best way to do it is to call or email around before you go to the dealer and ask what the out the door price is for the car you are looking for, and ask what they charge for doc fees. I almost always negotiate via email or phone before I even set foot in a dealership.

A friend of mine payed 19k for an Aveo once :eyebulge:, and she thought she knew what she was doing, always bring someone that has done this before with you!

When I bought my first new car, I was 19-20, brought my mom with as she's a haggler of epic proportions, and she managed to get all the dealer fees waived, that on my first attempt I couldn't get them to budge. Learned a lot that day.

You cannot get a deal on the car because they should be selling it for MSRP.

The only room to get a deal on is your trade in value. If the dealer will give you $10k and the car is worth $13k on the market its a bad deal unless you don't mind losing 2 grand so you don't have to mess with selling it. But dealers right now are giving high value on trade ins. The used car market is great for them right now. What is your trade in?

Edit: The warranty and financing is often where the dealers make there money. They hate when someone walks in with cash and says no extending warranty :)
IMO don't get a warranty!!

Keep in mind that many dealers will try to get you on the trade (they probably make more money off used cars than new cars). I was getting a $1200 variance between Ford, Hyundai, and Mazda dealers on my trade recently. And whatever their first number is, you can almost always get more. My dealer came up $500 on my trade and matched what Mazda was going to give me.

Go to the edmunds site, new car buying section. There's a lot of good advice and information about buying a new car, what to expect, fees, etc. This is my 3rd new car, and I still learned a lot.

Shouldn't the tax be applied to the vehicle and accessories only? The fees should be added after the vehicle + tax, or am I mistaken? I see this little piece as another way for the dealer to squeeze a few extra bucks out.

Think about it. When you bring a car in for service you are taxed on the parts only, not the labor. A dealer DOC fee and any other misc fee should be considered labor.

the dealer fee is taxable with car price and accessories

You only live once so you should try to get what makes you happy, BUT if your worried about spending $2000 in tax I would say you can't afford it. Wait a few years or so and pick up a used one.

Everything is taxed. Fees, dest and delivery etc. Labor fees already include tax.

Oh I'm sure it is, but should it be, legally?

You even say that labor already is taxed, therefore the DOC fees should also be "pre-taxed" IMO, for the same reason.

Again, I have no doubt the experiences we've all had over the years in paying it the way you state, but do we really know if we could have done it my way? Has anyone tried?

I've never had this much trouble because I always offer a drive out price, very simple. However they calculated taxes/fees on my purchases, it came from inside the number I offered. For all I care they could have a $20000 DOC fee listed taxed or not.

I stopped by my local dealer today and he gave me this as a reference to what I'd be paying. Price is MSRP PLUS the $95 trunk mat. The 8.5% tax was after the price + doc fees. Out the door payment is $28723.05

It's legal. Shouldn't be probably but it is.

Wow, thanks for that chart! I never would have imagined that NC would have one of the lowest vehicles taxes in the country. It's not zero, but I can't really complain about 3%.