So I ordered my car July 1st under the USAA program at $50 over invoice.
My car was supposedly built last week and as of now is on a train headed west.
I was looking over my order sheet and the copy of the print out they gave me is of poor quality (looks like a copy from an old fax machine where parts of letters are missing).

Near the bottom I see what looks like:
FDAR or FDAT, or RDAR then the word Assessment then a charge of $486.00

It's only listed under the Invoice price section and not listed in the MSRP side of the columns.

What the heck is this?
It looks like a bogus charge the dealer is adding on to the price of the vehicle for some reason.

Anybody know what this is and is this a required charge or just a way for the dealers to be sketchy and get more money out of you.

Thanks for the help

 

That is the advertising fee and it is a legitimate fee from what I understand. BTW, I am also a USAA member. How did you work the $50 over invoice thing? That is better than x-plan!

jb

 

It is called FDAF, ford dealer advertising fund, It is added to all vehicles except commercial fleet ordered units. A, z, d, x plans all have to pay it, that includes me at d-plan. The dollar amount sounds about right, If it all adds up to the number in the box at the bottom you are good to go, and you are getting a great deal!

 

Legit. Every dealer is assessed this advertising association fee......Who do you think pays for all those Mike Rowe ads? (us). There' also a $45 fuel surcharge you might have missed. These are real costs to the dealer so are included on the invoice (what he pays initially before eventual holdback reimbursement)

 

I asked my salesman the same question since I thought advertising was covered under the holdback which as I understood it, was provided to the dealer by Ford. Every Ford has the "FDAF AASSESMENT" as well as the "FUEL CHARGE". It happen the Mustang charges are $486.00 and $45.60 respectively.

Guess what? That free tank full of gas is not free.

 

Thanks guys, and yes there is the gas fee on there too.

unbelievable that customers have to pay for advertising!!!
That should make us owners in the company.

Can you imagine any other company trying to stiff their customers for advertising?
Guess in a way we do anyway, as they just increase the selling price of their products to cover advertising. BS

The $50 over did not require negotiating.
You just go to the USAA website, join, enter the car you are interested in and your info and it spits out the price participating dealers in your area are selling the car for.

There was actually one dealer near me selling the 2011 GT at $50 UNDER invoice but it was 20 miles further away and it wasn't worth it to me to spend the extra $100 to deal with LA traffic and driving the extra 40 miles roundtrip.

$50 under to $200 over invoice was what the prices were for participating USAA dealers in my area. No negotiating needed.

Again thanks for the responses guys.

 

Who do you think pays for Walmart's advertising? Would you feel better if Ford just added $486.00 to the base price? It doesn't matter what they call it, we are paying for every expense that Ford or any other company has.

 

Yup as I stated in my post above.
But I don't pay for Walmart's advertising, I refuse to shop at their stores.

 

Care to name another company that doesnt include its advertising cost as part of the wholelsale price? Most companies just dont break it out separately. Car Dealerships are a Franchise so like most franchises are required to shoulder a portion of the local advertising costs in their marketing zone. The fund is money held back buy Ford to pay the dealers part of advertising where as the Holdback goes primarily to pay Floor Plan (interest on inventory).

At one time Advertising used to come out of Holdback but since inventory turnover has slowed and advertising cost increased they either had to increase Holdback or break it out separately.

The Fuel is the same deal. Ford wants every new car owner to get a full tank. The separate charge on the invoice was to basically force the dealers to do it. If they dont they dont get the money refunded from Ford that was charged for it at wholesale level.

 

Yes, but you still pay for Wrangler's advertising where ever you buy their jeans.

 

As I stated in my post a few up, we pay for it in increased costs of product.
"Ford wants every new car owner to get a full tank (of gas)."
But what's the point there when they charge the customer for the gas anyway and then to add insult to injury put in the crap 87 Octane?

**** good thing I don't buy those either.

 

But using logic, it's kind of ridiculous. The customers are paying for a company to put out advertisements to bring in customers? Sure, it's great business-wise, but meh.

 

yeah it sucks.. but where do you think the money would come from? the ceo's toilet paper is paid for "buy" us.

 

That was exactly my point when I said it was BS.
They want customers and money and to build business from customers, but they want customers to pay for the opportunity to build their business and make even more money.
Again, I think "hiding" it in the price of the vehicle is better than outright charging people nearly $500 for it.
And in actuality some companies over the years have lowered their prices for their products and services yet still continue to advertise as much as they ever have.

Anyway, as for the topic, I got my questioned answered so thanks guys.

 

they do the same thing on your phone bill. They charge access charges, 911, research, future network and so on.

 

The days when the advert money came out of holdback was a long time ago.
I can remember explaining FDAF to customers almost 15 years ago.

 

Regardless of the product or it's fees, the consumer always pays for it in the end.

 

Yup even when they are bankrupt and about to go under, we still pay for them to succeed these days.
Bet GM still charges advertisement fees to it's owners, I mean customers.

 

You keep trying to suggest that you somehow don't voluntarily or knowingly pay advertising costs for the things you buy. When in fact, it doesn't matter what you buy, and you do buy stuff, everyone does. All the costs of doing business, yes advertising too, are covered in the costs you pay, no matter what you buy period.

 

Don't ever buy any Bose gear then...Seems 40% goes to advertising, 30% to profit, and 30% to the actual product..it's a great scam..