rb23lb

Just curious, I know sometimes this fee can be waived, but it is a fee that is charged to all dealers on every car they sell by MB corporate, and normally the dealers tack it on to the price of the car...

I could see some dealers waiving it one side but then charging closer to msrp on the other side to make up for it, and vice versa...

Why I am curious is because I paid invoice + this $500 advertising fee for my loaded c350, and was just wondering how mandatory it really is and if all dealers put it on the final price... I am just trying to figure out what the real story and application of this fee is in real life from all of your experiences so I have a little firepower to get a better deal on accessories from my dealer since he told me before I drove down to pick up the car that I would be paying strictly invoice and tax and tags, but then he gave me the dealer invoice with the extra $500 advertising built in...

Thanks in advance for reporting your experiences with this...

MBTex

I did not pay it per se...meaning it was not an individual line item on my final price sheet. I did pay about $1200 over invoice total for the car, so the dealer may have just included the fee into that.

The only fees I paid were licensing and state inspection fees of about $125 and sales tax.

stephensong

No, I got a small discount when I purchased mine in August.

Jorg

I have never heard of an advertising fee. That is ridiculous.

Jorg

RLE

You would think that these dealers tacking all those extra charges would at least include a large tube of Preparation H.

bluesheaven

I paid the $500 ad fee.

I guess a lot of us paid for it without knowing it.

If you negotiate over the invoice prices, you will find that dealers' invoice prices are usually about $500 more than the edmunds invoice prices. I talked to three dealers, and none of them are willing to waive that.

TEAShea

No. No processin fee either.

TEAShea
from Nebraska

KA8

rb23lb

EXACTLY... dealer price for 500 over KBB invoice price... I was like, whats the deal, that is not invoice? then he produced some BS printout that had the breakdown of KBB invoice + 500 mandatory mb fee for advertising = dealer invoice...

I did get the $250 MB giftcard, 2 blankets, 2 keychains, a hat, pen, and leather binder, so in the end I think that equates to pretty close to KBB invoice

rb23lb

how much over KBB/edmunds invoice total though then without the fee?

Blk04cobra1

The fact that you got your C350 at invoice already seems odd to me...but you are right, the IRG fee is attached to each individual car per MB corporate.

amdeutsch

As has been discussed before; that program is voluntary to the dealers as well as the levels they sign up to.

rb23lb

ya i got hooked up by a dealer... look lots and lots of emails and said I wanted to pay invoice only... he agreed because he said they beat anybodys price and are the best, and wanted to get me in the family now with a good first experience...

rb23lb

then the guy lied i guess to me and told me it was absolutely mandatory

MBTex

It is mandatory to the dealer if they subscribe to the MBUSA corp ad program, the fact that they pass the charge onto you is completely voluntary to them.

Jorg

Processing Fee? That is easy. Whatever they like to charge me as a processing fee, I have the same "Payment Fee" which makes it a wash.

Jorg

Krytech

When he was explaining to me what his actual 'costs' on the car where vs. kbb invoice, he said there was a marketing/advertising fee in there along with dealer prep and all that, but all those 'fees' are included in the MSRP price, so if you paid MSRP then maybe you paid it. I haven't heard of any 'fees' like that on top of MSRP though. That would be bunk, but if a dealer can get someone to pay more that's good for us who try to get cars for less

JimPap

Lets face it, car dealers come from another planet.

Rick Hunter

Sounds fishy, but it's not. Here's a direct quote from Edmunds.com:

"The invoice price does not include any fees that may be charged by the manufacturer to dealers in a particular area of the country, such as local advertising fees, dealer association fees, or docking and storage fees. Edmunds.com does not track or provide such local fees.

If a local fee appears on the invoice, it is an actual cost that the dealer paid to the manufacturer when buying the vehicle. In other cases dealers may choose to write in their own ad fees on the consumer sales contract. However, in either case these local fees are a part of the dealer's cost of doing business."

Hope that clears things up. Personally, I think they didn't need to do any advertising on such a wonderful, high demand car.

Yacht Master

That is dumb, why would you pay that?
Advertising is 100% tax write off.
The dealer just made 2X his money from you.

Rick Hunter

Mercedes Benz calls it "IRG Participation," with an accessory code of 905.