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As of September 1, 2026, Don Mealey Chevrolet in Clermont no longer charges a dealer documentation fee or a pre-delivery service charge. Those two line items came to $1,440 between them, and they are gone. Every new Chevrolet on the lot. Every pre-owned vehicle we retail.
One dealer charge remains, and we would rather you read it here than find it on the buyer’s order: a $395 electronic registration and filing fee. That number is on this page for the same reason the other two are: you should be able to do the math before you drive to Clermont, not after.
A documentation fee is what a dealership charges to prepare and process the paperwork on a sale. A pre-delivery service charge covers inspecting, cleaning and preparing the vehicle before it is handed over. Neither is set by the state of Florida, and neither is capped by it. Every dealership decides its own number, which is exactly why they vary so widely from one store to the next along Highway 50.
We decided ours should be nothing. The work still happens. The truck still gets inspected, the paperwork still gets filed. We just stopped charging separately for it, and that is the whole change. There is no coupon to print, no code to mention, and no minimum purchase. It applies to a Silverado 2500 HD and to a nine-year-old trade-in on the front line in exactly the same way.
| Charge | Before Sept. 1, 2026 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Dealer documentation fee | $995 | $0 |
| Pre-delivery service charge | $445 | $0 |
| Electronic registration and filing fee | $395 | $395 |
| Total dealer fees | $1,835 | $395 |
That is $1,440 less in dealer-imposed documentation and pre-delivery charges on every new and pre-owned vehicle we sell.
Amounts above are dealer charges only. State and local sales tax and the government charges for tag, title and registration are additional and are set by the State of Florida.
The $395 electronic registration and filing fee stays. Florida runs an Electronic Filing System that lets licensed dealers process your title and registration in real time instead of sending you to the tax collector’s office with a stack of forms. We are an authorized agent in that system, and this charge covers doing that work for you.
It is a dealer charge, not a government one. Florida’s administrative code is explicit that a filing fee like this has to be disclosed separately and cannot be presented as a state fee. We agree with the spirit of that rule, so we are naming it plainly instead of tucking it in beside the taxes.
Beyond that, you will still pay state and local sales tax, and the actual government charges for tag, title and registration. Those are set by Florida and by Lake County, and no dealership can waive them.
Most states either cap documentation fees by statute or hold them down by convention. Florida does neither. There is no legal ceiling here, and the result is that Florida carries one of the highest median documentation fees in the country. Edmunds research puts it at roughly $899, tied with Virginia for the top spot nationally.1
Set against that, our documentation fee is $0. We would rather earn your business through the service we give you and the Chevrolet you actually came in for. A documentation fee has never sold a truck to anyone. It only ever turned up at the end, after the decision was already made.
“The price you see is the price you pay.”
The customer is the most important part of this dealership, and we are here to earn your business for a lifetime, not just a single sale.
Our commitment to transparency starts at the top, and I stand behind every transaction personally.
Jay Mealey, Managing PartnerYour satisfaction is our obsession
Three charges get confused with one another constantly, including by people who sell cars for a living. Here is what each one actually is.
Charged by the dealership for preparing and processing the sale paperwork: the purchase agreement, the finance contract, the title application. Florida sets no cap on it and no dealer is required to charge it. Ours was $995. It is now $0.
Charged for getting the vehicle ready to hand over. Florida law requires any document carrying this line item to state that it “represents costs and profit to the dealer for items such as inspecting, cleaning, and adjusting vehicles, and preparing documents related to the sale.”2 Ours was $445. It is now $0.
Charged for processing your title and registration through Florida’s Electronic Filing System, which is what lets you leave with a tag rather than a to-do list. This is a dealer charge and not a state fee. Ours is $395, and it remains.
No. Don Mealey Chevrolet eliminated its dealer documentation fee effective September 1, 2026. The fee was previously $995 and is now $0 on both new Chevrolet and pre-owned vehicle purchases.
No. The $445 pre-delivery service charge was eliminated on September 1, 2026. The pre-delivery inspection and preparation work still happens on every vehicle; we no longer bill separately for it.
No, and we would rather say so directly. We eliminated the dealer documentation fee and the pre-delivery service charge, which together totaled $1,440. A $395 electronic registration and filing fee still applies, as do state and local sales tax and the government charges for tag, title and registration.
$1,440 compared with our previous fee structure. Total dealer fees on a purchase went from $1,835 to $395.
Yes. The change applies to every new Chevrolet and every pre-owned vehicle we retail, at any price point, with no minimum purchase.
No. There is nothing to request and nothing to qualify for. The two fees were removed from the deal structure entirely, so they will not appear on your buyer’s order in the first place.
It is a charge a dealership adds for preparing and processing the paperwork on a vehicle sale. Florida does not cap the amount, so it varies significantly between dealerships. Florida’s median documentation fee is among the highest in the United States at roughly $899.1
It is a charge for preparing a vehicle for delivery. Under Florida Statute 501.976, any document that itemizes this charge must disclose that it represents costs and profit to the dealer for inspecting, cleaning and adjusting vehicles and preparing sale documents.2
It is a dealer charge for processing your title and registration electronically through Florida’s Electronic Filing System, so your tag work is completed here rather than at a tax collector’s office. It is a dealer fee, not a state or government fee.
September 1, 2026. It applies to purchases at Don Mealey Chevrolet in Clermont from that date forward.
Every new Chevrolet and every pre-owned vehicle in our Clermont inventory is priced without a documentation fee and without a pre-delivery service charge. Start with the listing, add tax, tag, title, registration and the $395 filing fee, and you have the out-the-door number.
Don Mealey Chevrolet serves Clermont, Minneola, Groveland, Winter Garden, Ocoee, Leesburg, Four Corners and the wider Lake County and west Orange County area from Highway 50. Call (352) 394-6176 with any question about how a deal is structured.
Footnotes
1. Florida median dealer documentation fee of approximately $899, described as tied for the highest of any state, per Edmunds, “What Are Car Dealership Documentation Fees?” Figure cited as published August 2026; third-party averages are updated by their publishers and change over time. See edmunds.com.
2. Florida Statute 501.976(18) requires the quoted disclosure to appear on all documents that contain a line item for a predelivery service charge.
Dealer documentation fee and pre-delivery service charge eliminated on new and pre-owned vehicle purchases at Don Mealey Chevrolet effective September 1, 2026. A $395 electronic registration and filing fee still applies and is a dealer charge, not a state or government fee. State and local sales tax and government charges for tag, title and registration are additional. Prior fee amounts shown reflect this dealership’s charges immediately before September 1, 2026. Not applicable to wholesale or dealer-to-dealer transactions. See dealer for complete details.
