Buying a New Toyota- Understanding Fees Listed On Invoice

[GrayYaris]

Hey YW,

I'm helping a family member pick up a new 2018 RAV4. During a dispute about invoice pricing, the dealer pulled out the "I'll show you the invoice" routine to prove they are "losing money" on the sale.

Listed on the invoice was the base price of the car plus $1045 destination, $11 fuel, $471 TDA and a $260 FIE fee.

Does anyone have any insight into the TDA fee or FIE fee? My understanding is the TDA fee is something Toyota "passes on" to the buyer to account for advertising cost (or is the dealer being reimbursed by Toyota for local advertising?) and the FIE fee (as explained by the sales person) is the aggregate of random accessories in the car- In this case the rear hatch tonneau cover, floor mats and some other random junk.

What I find suspicious is that the invoice did not list holdback- Which should be ~2% of invoice. The vin matched the car we were looking at, but I thought holdback is usually spelled out on the invoice.


Thanks for any insight you have!