The bill would allow dealers to charge up to $500 for dealer document fees.

Buying a car in California might get a little more expensive. In a recent legislative session, California lawmakers handed state residents a rare loss by passing a bill that’ll allow dealerships to tack on more fees to the price of new cars. 

The bill, SB 791, was passed overwhelmingly by the California Senate with both Democrats and Republicans voting for it. The bill raises the cap on fees that car dealerships are allowed to charge customers by nearly 500 percent from $85 to $500. It’s a shocking change from a legislature that just a few years ago had pledged to crack down on “junk fees” in businesses across the state. Why the sudden change? You can chalk it all up to campaign contributions and dealer lobbyists. 

First up are the dealers, who sent their lobbyists to Sacramento to grovel and claim that it’s not fair that other businesses get to recoup costs through fee increases but dealerships can’t. Seriously, this is exactly what happened. From Calmatters:

“Anthony Samson, the California New Car Dealers Association’s lobbyist, told the Senate Transportation Committee in April that the Legislature continually passes new laws that add costs on car dealers and other California businesses. Other businesses are allowed to recoup similar costs through service charges, but dealers can’t, he said. 

Other businesses can adjust charges, but auto dealers “must continue to come back to the Legislature to ensure (they) can do so,” Samson said. “If we believed we could simply recover our costs and the price of the vehicle, I assure you that we would not be here today asking for your support on this measure.”

Dealers are actually claiming that the increase in fees is needed because it’s become more and more costly to process DMV docs for vehicles. The bill didn’t pass because lawmakers suddenly developed a soft spot for dealers. As Calmatters pointed out, more than a few senators on both sides of the aisle have received cash from the California New Car Dealers Association. Records show that over the last decade, the association has given nearly $3 million to various state lawmakers in the form of campaign donations. This has put some senators in strange positions. Senators like Dave Cortese (D- San Jose). Cortese received $7,000 from the dealer association and voted yes on the bill yet he’s still trying to argue that he and his colleagues still have Californians’ affordability in mind. He claims to be working to get the fees brought back down, saying that the bill will change before it reaches the Governor’s desk.

Luckily not all senators voted for the bill with some questioning why dealers need to increase fees but they won’t lower the price of their cars. The answer is simple: greed. There’s no good reason for any dealership anywhere to increase document fees for customers. They’re just greedy. As a Californian, we already have lots of things to worry about when it comes to unaffordability with things like gas prices and housing. Lawmakers  being oblivious to this by bending knee to dealerships false claims of increasing costs could cost them dearly in the next elections. Let’s just hope Governor Newsom doesn’t sign this legislation into law when it crosses his desk.