7 Things You Should Never, Ever Buy at the Dealership

Dealerships are a lot like Disneyland — everything is way more expensive just because of where you are. 

Dealers love to charge for things like extended warranties, nitrogen in your tires, and more. They’ll charge you $95 to change your wiper blades (something you can do blindfolded in about eight seconds) and $395 for VIN etching, when your local police station may do it for free. 

Some of this stuff is actually worth getting — just not at the dealership.

Erika Taught Me

  • Products and services at auto dealerships often come with huge markups.
  • Extended warranties are negotiable, and third parties can often match a dealer’s coverage for a far lower price.
  • Window tinting is both cheaper and better at a specialist, and many police stations will do VIN etching for free.
  • “Anti-theft GPS monitoring” isn’t worth the money when an Apple Air Tag will do the same thing.

. . .

1. Extended Warranties

All vehicles sold in the U.S. come with a manufacturer’s warranty protecting you against factory defects for at least three years or 36,000 miles from new, whichever comes first. It also follows the car — not the owner — so if you buy a two-year-old used car, it may still have one full year of warranty left. 

An extended warranty takes your factory warranty protection and “extends” it by another few years. You’re often given a choice between Platinum, Gold/Silver, or Powertrain plans, which cover roughly 95%, 30%, and 5% of the parts on the car, respectively.

Whether or not you need an extended warranty depends on how long you plan to keep the car, how reliable it is, and numerous other factors. The question here is: Should you buy one from the dealer?

The short answer is: No. Dealers attach high markups to extended warranties, so at the very least, you should call multiple dealers to collect quotes — as well as some third-party companies like Endurance — before choosing a plan. 

2. Ceramic Coatings and “Protection Packages” 

Perhaps the no. 1 most common dealership add-on is some sort of “protection package” for the car’s paint, interior, or both. You’ll hear names like ZAKTEK, Clear Shield, 3M, and more, and the dealer will claim they’re essential to protecting your car’s paint and leather. 

They’re not wrong — these products really do help. But dealers tend to apply them quickly, cheaply, and badly and vastly overcharge for it. Imagine someone rinsing your car with a hose for 30 seconds and charging you $500 for a “car wash,” and you’ll get the idea. 

So instead of paying the dealer $1,595 for an application job of unknown quality, spend $150 on a bottle of Carbon Force ceramic coat and do it yourself in about two hours. 

If that’s too much money or effort, get a $16 bottle of Turtle Wax 53409 and spray on a layer every three months. That’s really all you need to match the quality of most dealership “protection packages.” 

READ MORE: 4 Ways Car Dealers Are Ripping You Off

3. Window Tinting

In addition to a ceramic coat, the next thing I apply to every car I buy is a window tint. 

The benefits of a tint go well beyond just looking neat. A good tint job can: 

  • Provide privacy
  • Deter break-ins
  • Protect your skin and your interior from harmful UV rays
  • Lower the ambient temperature of your car
  • Save a little gas/money blasting A/C in the summer

Lastly, if you roll your car (heaven forbid), your tint, which is essentially just a giant sticker, can help prevent glass from entering the main cabin. 

All that said, I would never recommend paying a dealer to tint your windows. At best, they’ll overcharge you. At worst, they’ll overcharge you and do a poor job. Instead, take your car to a nearby tinting specialist with good reviews. You’ll get a higher quality job for a lower cost. 

4. GPS and Anti-Theft Monitoring

Another common add-on these days is ~$1,500 for “GPS tracking.” The price might include the “installation” of a tracking device plus 24 or 36 months of “anti-theft monitoring.” 

Firstly, you can accomplish both with a $29 AirTag (or Tile for Android). 

Second, you should know that about 70% of dealers put GPS trackers in their vehicles. They do it so they can easily monitor the number of vehicles on their lot, track their location, and relay their position to the police if they get stolen. 

Safepoint, one of the vendors selling these devices to dealers, says the trackers also let them “track, repossess, or recover” vehicles that have already been sold. 

So, if you pay $1,600 for a dealer to install a GPS tracker, the dealer itself may use it to track you. So skip this add-on and toss a $29 AirTag in the trunk instead. 

5. VIN Etching

VIN etching is a service where they print your car’s unique, 17-digit Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on your windshield and maybe an extra window or two. 

The theory is that potential car thieves will see your VIN on the window and think: Ah, shoot. Now I’ll have to replace this window if I want the car to “disappear” on the black market. Better steal a different one… 

Source: u/QueenLiz42069 on Reddit

Granted, we’re not sure how many car thieves start their inner monologues with the words “ah, shoot,” but we do know this: VIN etching is a massive rip-off. I’ve heard of dealerships asking anywhere from $95 to $495 for a service that takes less than five minutes to perform!

Sadly, countless folks still pay that much for VIN etching to protect their car from thieves. But here’s the dirty secret dealers don’t want you to know: Many local police stations will do it for free. 

6. Nitrogen-Filled Tires

For around $50 to $150, dealers will offer to fill your tires with nitrogen to “increase tread life and performance.” 

When you consider that a good set of tires these days is around $1,000, maybe paying $50 for magical, rubber-saving gas isn’t such a bad deal.

But dealership claims about nitrogen are dubious and misleading at best. Pure nitrogen is used in NASCAR and airplane tires because it’s less volatile than ambient air (which is “only” 78% nitrogen). But unless you’re circling Talladega at 200mph, you won’t notice a difference in a normal car. 

A Consumer Reports study compared tires filled with nitrogen versus air and found no meaningful differences between the two, concluding that, “Consumers would be better served — and would save their money — by just using air in their tires and checking them monthly.” 

But if you really want nitrogen in your tires, you can always get it for free in the Costco parking lot. 

7. Wiper Blades and Cabin Air Filters

When you take your car back to the dealer for a check-up or a warranty repair, they’ll almost certainly tell you that you need your wiper blades and cabin air filter replaced. 

To be fair, they’re probably telling the truth. Wiper blades and cabin air filters only last around six months and 15,000 miles, respectively. 

But before you pay the dealer $95 plus labor to replace them, you should know that wiper blades and cabin air filters are secretly one of the easiest things you can replace yourself. 

You can buy wiper blades at Walmart or Costco for about $10 per side, and they snap onto the end of your wiper arms like LEGOs. 

As for cabin air filters, you can buy one off Amazon for ~$15 and simply pop it into the hidden slot behind your glove box. It’s surprisingly effortless, and you can do a little dance knowing that you just saved $75 on parts and labor. 

Source: Amazon

FAQs

Are dealership extras worth it?

Some dealership extras are worth buying — just not from the dealer itself, who will most likely overcharge you. 

Ceramic coats, window tinting, and GPS tracking are all excellent upgrades to any vehicle, but you can do all three outside the dealer for up to 98% less than the dealership would charge. 

How do you refuse dealership add-ons?

A common (and skeezy) dealer sales tactic is to say “Well, we already installed it on the car so you have to pay for it.”

If a dealer says this, the first thing you can try is “I’m willing to let F&I (finance and insurance) try talking me into some optional extras, but for now, I’d like them removed from the invoice. 

If a dealer still doesn’t relent, don’t be afraid to walk away. 

What dealership extras should you say no to when purchasing a new car?

All of them. In the vast majority of cases, you can find a better deal outside of the dealership. Even if that dealership happens to have the best deal in town, you can always come back later to buy it. 

TL;DR: What Not To Pay for at a Car Dealership

In 10 years of buying cars from dealers — both for myself and for my loved ones — I’ve never once regretted saying “no” to a dealer. And I say “no” to dealers a lot

If you’re starting to feel some sales pressure and you’re not sure whether you’re getting a good deal, just say no. You can always go back. But you probably won’t need to, since most dealership products, services, and accessories can be found cheaper elsewhere. 

For more tips on getting the best deals and avoiding scams, check out these episodes of the Erika Taught Me podcast:

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I'm an award-winning lawyer and personal finance expert featured in Inc. Magazine, CNBC, the Today Show, Business Insider and more. My mission is to make personal finance accessible for everyone. As the largest financial influencer in the world, I'm connected to a community of over 20 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. I'm also the host of the podcast Erika Taught Me. You might recognize me from my viral tagline, "I read the fine print so you don't have to!"

I'm a graduate of Georgetown Law, where I founded the Georgetown Law Entrepreneurship Club, and the University of Notre Dame. I discovered my passion for personal finance after realizing I was drowning in over $200,000 of student debt and needed to take action-ultimately paying off my student loans in under 2 years. I then spent years as a corporate lawyer representing Fortune 500 companies, but I quit because I realized I wanted to have an impact; I wanted to help real people and teach them that you can create a financial future for yourself.

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Advertiser Disclosure

Our aim is to help you make financial decisions with confidence through our objective article content and reviews. Erika.com is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as MileValue.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

Advertiser Disclosure

Our aim is to help you make financial decisions with confidence through our objective article content and reviews. Erika.com is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as MileValue.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.