Car what is destination fee

That's more than 2. It may seem weird, but federal law requires that these fees must be tacked on separately. Automakers aren't allowed to just include the shipping cost in the final price of the vehicle, the way it's done for virtually every other product we buy.

Regulations say the price labels on cars must include "the amount charged, if any, to such dealer for the transportation of such automobile to the location at which it is delivered to such dealer.

To keep things equal, automakers charge the same destination fee amount for each vehicle model, regardless of where it's sold.

Read More. Destination fees can cost more than some options. The main reasons destination charges have been on the rise, spokespeople for General Motors and Ford said, are increases in the cost of shipping, in general, and increases in the size of the vehicles themselves. As Americans' preferences have shifted toward trucks and SUVs, that's meant higher shipping costs since they're just bigger and, therefore, fewer vehicles can be packed on each truck or train car, said GM spokesman Jim Cain.

That would make sense, said Ron Montoya, a consumer advice editor with the automotive website Edmunds. Meanwhile, sales of traditional cars have dropped from about half of new vehicle sales to just under a quarter. Overall, the costs of operating big semi trucks across all industries increased by about 10 cents a mile between and , according to data from the American Transportation Research Institute. There's no use haggling or looking for a discount on this fee.

We'll dive into that. Yes, cars are big, heavy things that need to travel thousands of miles to buyers -- except when they don't. This also means there should not be any additional delivery or transportation fees. The good news is that the dealer destination charge should include a full tank of gas in the vehicle. They generally include state sales tax plus charges for transferring the title and registration.

Though you do need to pay the dealer destination charge, you can avoid or negotiate other fees. Fees you can avoid or negotiate. Buying Dealership Visit fees. Related Articles See all. See all. TrueCar logo.