Title Fee in Florida

calmark999

Lexus of Tampa is quoting my mother a $528.25 title fee on a 2016 RX (MSRP $51,999). According to what I see on the Hillsborough County Tax Collector's site, the title fee on a leased vehicle is $65. Lexus of Tampa won't budge on the fee they're charging. Could it actually be correct? It seems very excessive to me. Thanks, all.

kyfdx

calmark999 said:

Lexus of Tampa is quoting my mother a $528.25 title fee on a 2016 RX (MSRP $51,999). According to what I see on the Hillsborough County Tax Collector's site, the title fee on a leased vehicle is $65. Lexus of Tampa won't budge on the fee they're charging. Could it actually be correct? It seems very excessive to me. Thanks, all.

A dealer can't represent a fee as a government required fee, if it isn't. Perhaps that fee includes all title/registration fees? Not sure about Florida, but $65 seems awfully low to get your car registered for the first time. Maybe the $65 you are seeing is just an extra fee specific to leased vehicles?

calmark999

It's not a registration fee. It's a title fee. The registration fee being charged is $191.99, which I accept. The $528.25 is separate, and it's labeled under "Title Fees". On her last Lexus lease, no title fee was charged. I've leased a few times myself (in California), and I was not charged a title fee on my last two leases either. Obviously, I can call the Florida DMV for an answer, but if anyone else knows anything about it, please let me know. Thanks.

kyfdx

calmark999 said:

It's not a registration fee. It's a title fee. The registration fee being charged is $191.99, which I accept. The $528.25 is separate, and it's labeled under "Title Fees". On her last Lexus lease, no title fee was charged. I've leased a few times myself (in California), and I was not charged a title fee on my last two leases either. Obviously, I can call the Florida DMV for an answer, but if anyone else knows anything about it, please let me know. Thanks.

Does she have a printout?

The reason I ask. Florida dealers are famous for exorbitant dealer/doc fees, in addition to the government fees. We've seen dealer fees as high as $899.

calmark999

Yes, I've got a copy of the lease agreement. And yes, I know they charge ridiculous "dealer fees". In this case, it's $699.95, which we are accepting - unfortunately. I suppose I could challenge them on it, but my understanding is that it's non-negotiable, or at least, nearly non-negotiable.

They've also got an exorbitant rent charge on the contract, which is equivalent to a money factor of about .00220. This is after the salesman quoted a MF of .00130, which, according to these forums, is the going rate for good credit. I've been told I have to speak to the manager tomorrow to resolve it.

On top of all of this, they've included a $700 acquisition fee. The salesman said it would be $0. (I have that in writing.) Indeed, I was surprised when he said it would be $0, so I'm not shocked to see it suddenly included in the lease. Still, it's a disappointment.

kyfdx

https://www.flhsmv.gov/fees-2/

I see:

$225 for initial registration fee
$28 original license plate fee
$77.25 for original new title fee

Those might or might not apply. Or, there might be even more fees on the county level.

calmark999

Thank you for your help, kyfdx. I did see those numbers as well, which is why I came here to ask about it. Since she's transferring a license plate, she doesn't need to pay the $28 original license plate fee.

The point of contention is the title fee. Hopefully we can resolve it tomorrow.

kyfdx

calmark999 said:

Thank you for your help, kyfdx. I did see those numbers as well, which is why I came here to ask about it. Since she's transferring a license plate, she doesn't need to pay the $28 original license plate fee.

The point of contention is the title fee. Hopefully we can resolve it tomorrow.

Good luck!

calmark999

Just spoke with the tax collector's office. The title fee should be about $85. Lexus of Tampa is charging $528.25. The registration tag transfer fee should be about $5. Lexus is charging $191.99. On top of all of this, they've tried to sneak in a money factor of .0023, rather than the .0013 they quoted us in writing. They've also put in a $700 acquisition fee, even though we were quoted a $0 acquisition fee (again, in writing).

Fortunately, I'm knowledgeable enough to have figured these things out pretty easily. To think that this is probably how they treat most customers (who probably aren't as knowledgeable)...well...it's outrageous, to say the least.

stever

Lots of dealer review sites out there - Yelp, Google, Dealer Rater and us too:

Dealer Ratings and Reviews

One hopes that with enough consumer education this sort of rip-off would go away, but it still seems all too prevalent.

calmark999

Found out that the title fee they gave us combines the title fee, registration fee, and electronic filing fee. The salesman knew very little about this, of course, so I had to get the information from the finance guy.

We corrected the money factor, saving us about $3000. They said they just made a "mistake".

The acquisition fee could not be waived. We were told the salesman made a mistake in quoting a $0 fee.

kyfdx

calmark999 said:

Found out that the title fee they gave us combines the title fee, registration fee, and electronic filing fee. The salesman knew very little about this, of course, so I had to get the information from the finance guy.

We corrected the money factor, saving us about $3000. They said they just made a "mistake".

The acquisition fee could not be waived. We were told the salesman made a mistake in quoting a $0 fee.

Sounds like you received good info in the end. Thanks for checking back in.