- A Chevrolet dealerships in Florida reportedly charges expensive junk fees on its inventory including new and used cars.
- A content creator exposed several of these fees when he went with others to potentially buy a Dodge Charger Hellcat.
- The dealer also has multiple recent negative reviews that appear to back up the experience of this creator.
It’s no secret that dealers across the country try to eke out every dollar they can from consumers. At the same time, some of their tactics live on because they’re not publicly exposed very often. When a group of friends approached Tropical Chevrolet (also known as Miami Chevy) to buy a used Dodge Charger Hellcat, they documented the bogus fees and charges in the transaction.
The sedan went from just over $56,000 online to over $72,000 out the door. Here’s a breakdown of what happened and what the dealer had to say for itself.
More: Dodge Sellers Still High On Demon Fumes As 20 Challengers Listed From $300K To $400K
A content creator running a YouTube channel dubbed HoodrichCredit takes the lead in this video. He’s there to aid the potential buyer in negotiating for the right price on a used Hellcat. The pair, along with a cameraman, take a look at the car early on before going into the dealership. It’s there that the numbers come out and look higher than advertised online.
The market value selling price listed by the dealer is $56,995. On top of that, they want to charge the customer $2,495 for something called the “Tropical Advantage Plan.” According to the dealer, it comes with door edge guards, wheel locks, paint sealant, and a $500 credit to the body shop should you ever need it (within the first 36 months).
It also comes with a Stargard GPS tracking system which lots of dealers sell for under $1,000. Did we mention that Tropical Chevrolet says that they install this “Advantage Plan” on every vehicle they sell? What a clever way to mark up a car without calling it a markup. Of course, it would be no big thing if customers had the choice to remove it. Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the case here. It’s also far from the last ‘junk fee’ on this pricing proposal.
In addition, the dealer wants to charge the customer $1,199 for a used vehicle inspection and $2,781.69 for used vehicle reconditioning. These fees are typically considered part of doing normal business for a dealership and while they’re often baked into the price of a used car, they frequently aren’t exposed and in my experience, aren’t this pricey either.
Finally, the dealer boldly tacks on $3,000 for “outside financing”. Since the buyer smartly has his own bank loan set up, the dealer can’t make anything on that side of the business so it’s just decided to charge the customer outright. In total, that means he’d be paying $66,470 to use his own bank.
All of that cash is taxed as well and there’s even an ambiguous non-tax fee of $897.50. In total, the dealer gives him an out-the-door price of $72,549.10 or some $15,554 over the online price. Granted, that online price didn’t include taxes and applicable non-junk fees.
Nevertheless, it’s a great example of the dubious things that some dealers do to make a few extra thousand dollars on every customer they see. It’s also why the federal government is trying to put an end to junk fees like this. Strangely, all of this seems to go directly against Tropical Chevrolet’s statements online.
One of its main banners online says “Give us 5 Minutes of your time and we’ll give you the MOST TRANSPARENT PRICE IN MIAMI.” And yes, it capitalizes all of those words in their entirety. It also “promises” to “never take advantage of you” and to “keep everything transparent and accurate.” Despite all of those “promises”, the reviews online don’t appear so rosy.
Cars.com says that it’s scored 4.2 stars out of over 700 reviews but the most recent ones point to a potential problem. “Dealership is very difficult to work with, change numbers three times, baited me and then switched me on a figure. Dealership’s website shows a sales price and then when you get a quote from them, it’s much higher than what the website shows, misleading dealership. Terrible dealership. I would never recommend them,” says one.
More: What, $99K Not Enough? Toyota Dealer Asks $107,000 For 2024 Land Cruiser
“AVOID THESE SNAKES! Wanted to add bogus fees of over 5K onto the sale before the usual fees and taxes that you always pay. Pretty much a bait scam, where the internet price is not even CLOSE to what you’ll pay. Awful,” says another. Those experiences seem to track with what HoodrichCredit experienced. Needless to say, Tropical Chevrolet didn’t sell a Hellcat in the video here. The potential buyers rightly walked out.
We reached out to Tropical Chevrolet to get its side of the story. Used Car director Alex Trujillo wasn’t interested in clearing the dealer’s name though. “We’re really not interested in commenting… we’re good,” he told Carscoops before we could even ask a single question. Perhaps the dealer hopes a story like this will fly under the radar or maybe they recognize that its position is indefensible in the eye of the public. Either way, we’ll be here to continue pointing out when shady dealers try to do consumers dirty.