I have been getting quotes from a number of dealers for my 2016 Lariat Sport 502A 4x4. Interesting how many have either dropped the ball on getting back to me, or flat out give me wrong info, like "we are still ordering 2015's now and can't order 2016's until December."

All dealers that I have gotten prices from seem to have the same factory invoice advertising fee (895) except one which is at 1167. The quotes appear to come from the same system printout. Does this vary by region or is this one dealer possibly manually changing this to bump up invoice price?

 

it is regional, if that one quite a distance or in a different state that might explain it

 

there weren't any advertising fees on my sticker. Only destination and delivery. 1195.

You can refuse to pay it or just negotiate your way down past it. They obviously add it to pad the msrp and make it look like you are getting a deal.

Personally i'd refuse to pay and negotiate from there.

 

Just speculation...the $1167 is the Regional Ad Fee ($895 invoice) plus a fee of $272 added by the dealer to cover his local advertising expenses.


Albeit, I favor the idea that the higher fee is from a different region than the oft quoted $895, likely the fee for the region you reside in.


Surely a dealer wouldn't pad the factory invoice fee to increase his margin...Ugh, would he?

 

Ad fees are not itemized on Monroney stickers since they are included in the factory-to-dealer invoice total for each vehicle. Ditto for fuel charges.

 

Ad fees are part of the invoice. They're itemized; you're not paying more for the car but the gov't requires the manufacturer to itemize that part of the cost.

 

Exactly.! We should make this a sticky considering how many misinformed people here keep trying to post that it is a dealer add-on profit rather than being a standard item on the Ford invoice.

 

On all my quotes, fuel and advertising are line items on the invoice price but are not included in the MSRP price. D/D is included in both.

 

If ya really wanna screw with a salesman, do this.... negotiate your deal, get to the finance guy, and look at the paperwork. Then ask him where your advertising credit is. When he says what are you talking about, tell him you need an advertising credit to you from the dealer. You need this credit since you will have a dealership sticker/badge on your truck. He'll call the salesman in. Keep at it. I always ask for $1/day or remove the advertising. They gripe about it, but they always take off the stickers. I hate having that crap on MY truck.

 

Upon request over many decades of purchases, the dealers have either removed any promotional items from my vehicles or never installed them initially. I never considered that conversation to be 'screwing with the salesperson', just a simple request with no drama involved.