I need some help here. Because of this and another forum I have learned how to buy a truck without going into a dealership [ what a relief ] . I started submitting for bids on a 3500 dually a couple of days ago, the first bid included an advertising charge of $790.00.....I need some insight into this charge, is this legit ?...do all dealers charge for it? Did you pay for it ? If it is legit them what were you charged ? Thanks.

not all dealers charge it, it is just b.s. another way to get more money.

find a dealer that takes gm in the driveway cerificate. I don't THINK they can charge advertising. the price works out to be real close to invoice(100 or 200) minus rebates. I still have some if you can use one let me know

That happened to me here in Minneaplos/St. Paul metro. They wanted $600. They said GM charges them for corporate advertising in major metro areas. I told them to make it go away or I would. They refunded my deposit. Since I had to order my truck due to the 6spd I saw no value staying with them. I looked up nearby GMC dealers outside the metro. The first one shot me a price $200 over invoice...no advertising.

NO ADVERTISING ON MY 3500........YOUR ASS FEEL FUNNY,IF SO SHOP SOMEWARE ELSEhttp://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Evil Smile.gif.


PS NO HARM INTENDED!

No advertising charged on my truck. If they ordered the truck for you, they spent no money to advertise it. I ordered mine too, but I don't live in any type of metro area.

tell him you dont watch the adds on tv. so you shoulden't have to pay that. advertising pays for itself. some dealers call it dock fees,or office charges. i call it greed.

"advertising" isn't one of the lies local dealers here use. I guess they haven't heard of it yet.

The advertising "charge" is true.


As a former field manager for FoMoCo I can attest to this. Often in Metro areas the local dealer association is assesed a small percentage for every vehicle they buy from the factory. This is usually put towards ads such as "your local Chevy dealers". Whether or not you think you should pay for it is a personal choice. But it's not something the dealer made up.


Of course there may be cases where a dealer uses similar terms to describe something he is just charging extra for but that would be something different.

The invoice on mine shows LAM which stands for Local Area Marketing. It's a 1 1/2 percent add on. One of the dealers was willing to talk about giving it up for a truck on his lot. None of the dealers in my area were willing to talk about giving it up when ordering a Dmax....


There's been some information that the charge is a form of holdback which is returned to the dealer by GM when they present evidence of local area advertising, but I've been unable to confirm that.


The current round of "GM In The Driveway" certs expire today IIRC. If a dealer will take those and they don't have to, it gets you close to the invoice, no LAM fees and no outrageous DOC or document fees. That's the ones they charge for doing the paperwork.


You'll need to nose around some more if you are dead set against paying it....http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Confused.gif

My truck worked out to be 200 under invoice with the cert.