High registration fees?!

Cool, thanks, @Puppethead


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Hi Dotori. Thank you for posting. I, too, am ordering a Mini SE from Mini of Portland. I, too, was quoted a registration fee of $1,295. I was also quoted $1,495 for "clearmask" (some type of paint protection from 3M), $795 for "Gap", and $995 for "Dealer Prep Turbo Cord". Did your purchase include these costs as well? Thank you for sharing any insights you have!

 

Those items are mostly ones that the "finance guy" usually offers you when you are signing your paperwork. You should be able to refuse all of those. If I had accepted all of the crap offered by the closer/finance, it would have added MANY thousands to the car.

Not sure about the "Dealer prep turbo cord" as that sounds like 2 different things. "Dealer prep" should not be anything out of pocket for you, unless you agree to an add-on item. "Turbo cord" would need extra explanation to me.

EDIT: you should be able to check with your DMV/DOL/whatever to see what the Registration fee should be. In Washington, it depends on the value of the vehicle due to some excise taxes, the "regional transit" fee if applicable, etc.
https://dmv2u.oregon.gov/eServices/_/#2

Rob

 

Same dealership, I was informed about the $995 "dealer prep turbo cord" when I put down my deposit but was under the impression it was optional, as I remember asking my sales rep at that time if I had to decide right then and they said it wasn't an immediate commitment, I could decide later. Then once the car arrived and I was signing paperwork, the itemized price sheet included said package, and the sales rep told me it was mandatory, all the cars that came into their dealership got the "prep" treatment and I would need the "turbo cord" for faster charging at home. (They quoted the cord as about $700 in value? I explained it was possible to get an L2 charging cable for much less than that. Them: "Well, but this is MINI-branded.")

I resigned myself to paying for this but was also *extremely* annoyed, which I did not bother to hide, and in the end they offered me the windshield protection plan in exchange for the turbo cord. (So: I couldn't get out of paying the $995, but now that cost covers the door edge protection, etc. and free windshield repairs and replacements.)

 

Here in TX, there still is no special fee for EV's at all. There were several bills in the Legislature this year to add some extra fee for EV's, but a big argument erupted about how much such a fee should be to be "fair" in terms of comparing what is effectively paid as a road use fee by owners of ICE vehicles and what should be paid by owners of EV's. TX collects some $2.6 billion/year in gas fuel taxes for highway maintenance now, so this is not a small issue as EV ownership increases as a % of vehicles on the road.

It also didn't hurt that Tesla announced right in the middle of the legislative session that it would be building a huge EV factory in Central Texas, so the legislators felt that anything they might decide in 2021 would be premature in terms of "fairness."

Methinks that this will be only a reprieve for a couple of years for Texas EV owners having to pay something extra as registration fees. But at least for now and the next couple of years, there are no extra registration fees or road taxes on EV's here.

 

What exactly is the turbo cord? Is it actually a 240v charger? I already had my level 2 installed when I picked up the car so I would have absolutely refused to pay $700 for something I was never going to use.

I got the door edge protection for free (they never even mentioned it was on the car) so I guess my salesman's incompetence had at least some benefit

Edit: seems like the turbo cord is a dual voltage thing but is limited to 16A max at 240V... That's absolutely terrible for $700 especially since most people don't have the required NEMA 6-20 outlet anyway and would still have to pay for an electrician.

Oh and BMW is selling it for $500 so I guess the MINI sticker adds an extra $200...

 

In Tennessee, there is an additional annual registration fee for electric cars of $100 because gas is taxed to pay for roads which I don't pay.

 

I was very interested in this as well since I am in Texas. Thank you for the update.

 

When I picked up my SE yesterday, the dealer told me that they "forgot" that I didn't want their tracking system and clear plastic door/bumper stickers. I told them they could take it off. They threw in the clear stickers for free, instead of ripping them off, but disabled their tracking system.

The MA said that they were hoping that I would back out of the car b/c they're getting $3k over MSRP.

 

What is that anyway? The SE has built-in GPS and you can see the location of it from the MINI app.

 

They called it SWAT. I assume it's some Lojack equivalent. Unnecessary now w/ GPS.

 

Since you are in TX (and if you don't already know about this), the TCEQ recently reopened the TX $2,500 incentive to purchase a new EV in the state and made it retroactive to September 1st. Not sure when you may have made your purchase or if the purchase was made from a Texas dealer.

 

Yes I did hear about this. So I will definitely be taking advantage of this! I am super excited because my purchase will actually be this week. My MINI SE just arrived to the Plano, TX dealership yesterday. Thanks for the information.

 

small update, in case it helps clarify anything:

my plates and registration stickers came in, and it turns out my car is registered for the next four years (did not realize this beforehand, unsure if there's any way to ask the dealership to register for shorter durations... every other state I've lived in has only ever let you register/renew one year at a time, and I've never had the dealership handle DMV stuff on my behalf before). So:

4-year registration: $880.50
title: $192
processing fees: $150

$220/yr is still high for registration but I'm guessing that's due to the EV tax.

 

@Puppethead Mine may be a unicorn, but my 2022 SE that I picked up just before the end of 2021 came with both the APTIV portable EVSE and the Mini Turbo Cord (see image below), though, as highlighted in the other thread I created about this, I paid the "DEALER PREP TURBO CORD" fee that dotori highlighted in his post at the start of this thread. That fee was $995 which, as dotori noted, also included a few other items that I didn't necessarily want, but, honestly, I wasn't particularly bothered about this. Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but I absolutely love the car and I thought my Motoring Advisor, Ana, was excellent. The car came exactly as I spec'd it, everything happened exactly when she said it would (IMHO, really impressive given the current state of global supply chains), and I got the car before the end of 2021. Oh, and the car was at 80% SOC when I arrived to pick it up (she even apologized that it wasn't at 100%!).


@dotori I'd love to hear how you fare with dealers in the Seattle area. I wonder if they'll be able to register the car with Oregon DMV for you or if you'd have to take care of that yourself after taking possession? As I understand it, Oregon residents don't have to pay the Washington sales tax for passenger vehicle purchases so long as you can show proof of residence in Oregon, which is a big plus. I'm sorry to hear that you've had a bad experience with Mini of Portland and hope you have better luck with dealers up there!

 

Well, another year another dollar. The period of reprieve for Texas BEV owners now appears to be over. A few days ago the Texas governor signed a bill (SB 505) passed by this year's Legislature that (effective September 1, 2023) will add $200 / year to new registrations and registration renewals of BEV's licensed in Texas. The money raised via this new law is to be dedicated to the state highway fund. It applies to BEV's (and not PHEV's) under 10,000 lbs. GVW.

 

What a crock!

 

And I thought Tennessee was expensive to have an electric car. Texas, "hold my beer".