I came across this at a car dealers a couple of years back. When he said there was a £99 admin fee, I asked what is was. He said its fee to process the paperwork and cover the HPi check etc. At the time i'd never heard of it before and said so you want me to pay you to do the paperwork to sell me car. He said it's not quite like that but yes in some ways. I really did think he was taking the piss and said for him to keep it then and he had the cheek to say you're not going to lose the car you want for the sake of £99 surely. I replied, watch me, as I left the office.

That said, I gather its pretty much a standard practice for a lot of main dealers these days? I've bought two cars from smaller independent dealers, in recent years, and asked up front about any paperwork admin fees and was both times told no, they didn't feel the need to make such a charge.

My local Triumph dealer makes a similar admin charge. But to be fair, they do offer a good deal in my experience so it's all part of the haggling. When I first saw it recently, not having come across it before, I was irritated that their selling price for a new bike is actually £100 higher than the maker's list price because of this charge. I expected list to mean list.

But no need to walk out because I like them, they're local and they were willing to haggle on the cash difference between their sale price inc the admin charge and the px value of my old bike, which is what really matters on a px deal, and we agreed eventually on a cash balance which was a few hundred less than their first proposal. If I had no px, they would similarly have haggled on the price. So it doesn't really matter about the admin fee in practice in my experience, where the dealer will haggle.

Being a bike main dealer is a tough business, what with the costs of premises and staff etc. so they have to make every penny they can, whilst at the same time keeping the punters like us happy with good deals etc. So although I found the admin charge annoying, not having come across it before, I understand why they do it and I want them to stay in business.

Well, I can go back to the early 70's and even then on my new Honda 50 from Tickets in Queens road Southend there was a PDI & registration fee, I went to Costins and they quoted the same.
Same at Nelson & Ford, Basildon.
Fast forward to today, and DVLA charge £55 for each registration which dealers have to buy in blocks, so even if its not mentioned in the sales pitch it still has to be paid.
Honda or any other manufacturer do not include registration, number plates, road tax or pdi or VAT in the cost, so its calculated in the OTR price or shown as + registration fee's.
Either way, the customer pays for it!

DVLA used to do the whole registration for free at local VRO offices.
Later a small fee was added, then farmed out.

The VROs were profitable because they also enforced tax disc offences in court using their own prosecutors and played a part in recovering stolen vehicles, imports/exports, various law enforcement, trade plates and all kinds of things.

After years of running them down and restricting resources the government started shutting them down to improve “efficiency” (ie take more money off us and provide less service)

I’d rather go without than be taken for a mug. I’d tell them to stick their bike where the sun don’t shine if they tried that trick on with me.

I am looking to buy a second bike (new) One dealer said that is the price plus admin costs so I said what admin costs? Do you seriously think for one minute that with cash in my hand I am going to pay admi costs, I want ,the bike plus extra's, like heated handlebar grips and maybe a top box and I will not be paying the retail price, I expect on the road price and at least £100 off. Once I decide which bike I want I will call at the dealers and compare what they are prepared to offer.

Sylar wrote:I am looking to buy a second bike (new) One dealer said that is the price plus admin costs so I said what admin costs? Do you seriously think for one minute that with cash in my hand I am going to pay admi costs, I want ,the bike plus extra's, like heated handlebar grips and maybe a top box and I will not be paying the retail price, I expect on the road price and at least £100 off. Once I decide which bike I want I will call at the dealers and compare what they are prepared to offer.

You may be dissapointed, they dont like cash, they want you to take out finance for the commision, there's no commision in cash!
Plus, not many main dealers are struggling at this time of year to offer incentives like that, there's not much wriggle room on new bikes.

You could be right but, I have no part ex, so the profit margin has some wriggle room. I was a salesman at one point in my life.

Take up the offer of finance to get a good price, get the bike, cancel the finance within the cooling off period and pay it off. Sorted.

Bonniedogsdad wrote:

Sylar wrote:I am looking to buy a second bike (new) One dealer said that is the price plus admin costs so I said what admin costs? Do you seriously think for one minute that with cash in my hand I am going to pay admi costs, I want ,the bike plus extra's, like heated handlebar grips and maybe a top box and I will not be paying the retail price, I expect on the road price and at least £100 off. Once I decide which bike I want I will call at the dealers and compare what they are prepared to offer.

You may be dissapointed, they dont like cash, they want you to take out finance for the commision, there's no commision in cash!
Plus, not many main dealers are struggling at this time of year to offer incentives like that, there's not much wriggle room on new bikes.

When i was in the motor trade we much preferred financed deals as we got a percentage of the interest charged. Oh, and first chance at repossession of the vehicle too, should the customer fall into arrears!

We certainly didnt do big discounts for cash, but would maybe do a little something if it was on a car we'd had a while. But discounting good stock was pointless as yoiu only had to replace it, which isn't always as easy as you might think.