$580 MACO(Advertising) and Training fee?
 

My dealer agreed to offer my '07 X5 4.8 for invoice +$3,500.00, therefore I priced my car out in kbb.com. After giving all of my options, he said I forgot to add $580 which is the MACO(Advertising) and Training fee.

Is there such a fee? What does MACO mean?

Happy Holidays.

Training and Marketing or some such...evidently a new requirement for every new BMW by BMW or so I've been told by a number of dealers- but they have all said $380- not $580- so you may want to doublecheck.

BTW I've been offered invoice plus $2,500 from No. VA dealer. We got three bids- starting with $1,200 off list.

We're ordering it tonight or tomorrow.

BS Fees

MACO stands for something like Marketing Area Co Op. IMHO, both are shady fees used to pad profit. Very similar to those official sounding "Regulatory Cost Recovery Fees" on mobile phones. Imagine going to a restaurant and being told you need to pay a "10% sanitation fee" to cover the cost of local board of heath laws. These fees should be included as part of the cost of doing business.

I did just confirm with my dealer that it is $380. Only on cars like M5s and 6s is it more ($480). I totally agree it is a BS fee. Charging $580 for it is even more BS.

Even bigger BS still is that every buyers order I've seen now requires binding negotiation at the arbitrator of their choice. I'm not an attorney but I believe courts have overuled that sort of tactic and allowed access to courts.

They are included as part of the cost of doing business. Fact is, BMW charges the dealer for MACO and training fees and they are on the invoice. Just not on the KBB invoice because these fees vary by dealer.

[quote=Cairns]I did just confirm with my dealer that it is $380. Only on cars like M5s and 6s is it more ($480). I totally agree it is a BS fee. Charging $580 for it is even more BS.[quote]

The MACO fee varies by dealer (actually by the market the dealer is in). Some dealers pay more, some less. Some don't participate at all, thus have a $0 MACO. When dealer's have a hot selling car like the E70, then they are not going to absorb MACO or any other fee in their profit margin. Do you really expect them to ? It's all about supply and demand.

MACO, training fees, etc.
 

This is why you are better off negotiating MSRP minus $XXXX instead of negotiating "dealer cost" plus $XXXX.

MSRP is a "hard" number, unlike "dealer cost". It is a better number to use as the base figure when negotiating because it can't be padded with questionable costs such as MACO and training fees.

Thanks Tom that helps. I don't like it either but have to admit this particular dealer (Sterling) gave the best price even with the fee,

I have read on the various forums about dealers having no choice but to charge MACO fees for years, but I was never charged this fee when I purchased my BMW's. Does it have anything to do with buying a car off the lot vs. ordering a car and waiting for it to be build and delivered? All my BMW's for the past 12 years have been ordered (either Euro Delivery or just dealer pick up) and MACO has never even come up on any of my purchases. My last BMW purchase was my 2005 E60 two years ago, and at that time people on the various E60 forums were mentioning having to pay MACO fees so I was sure I would have to pay it as well, but again it didn't even come up when I made the payment.:dunno:

If you are paying list price, or a discounted price from list, it doesn't come up. It is one of the dealer's costs of doing business. If you are trying to purchase the vehicle for a fixed amount over what you believe dealer invoice to be, it often comes up, because the publications that list dealer pricing don't always know about regional charges such as this one. Similarly, those publications don't always know about various incentives, special dealer rebates, etc.