It’s not exactly a secret that vehicle prices aren’t always the same as advertised. A lot depends on add-ons, fees, and various other charges that add hundreds or even thousands of dollars to the bottom line.
Now one car buying consultant says he’s exposing the all-too-common discrepancy between the listed price and the real price.
He says a Honda Pilot Black Edition listed online for $43,920 actually turned out to cost $47,785.99 when he asked the dealer for an out-the-door number. And even that was before sales tax. The single biggest addition was a $2,147.36 “shop bill” for replacing “a few things” while the SUV was at the dealership.
Justin (@car_buying_consultants), whose TikTok channel promotes his paid consultancy, Car Buying Consultants, posted a video about the price shift.
According to his company’s website, he worked as a used car manager, sales manager and general manager “for one of New York’s largest automotive groups” before going into business for himself.
“You honestly never know the real price of a vehicle until you contact the dealer and get an actual offer,” his caption reads.
‘That’s Supposed To Be Incorporated In The Price’
The dealer’s website, which Justin shows behind him, listed the Pilot at $43,695 plus a $225 doc fee, for a total of $43,920. “Cool. Smooth,” he says. Justin says that the manager told him that because he’s out of state, the dealer would ship the SUV and leave the sales tax to him. “So we’ll ship it to you and we won’t charge you tax. You can take care of that on your own,” Justin says the manager told him..
The first quote he purportedly got back was $47,785 out the door. “How’d we get there without taxes?” he recalls asking. He requested a breakdown of the price. After the $43,695 retail price, it purportedly listed “dealer services-2147.36,” followed by a note in parentheses: “Shop bill we had to replace a few things while it was here.” After that comes the $225 doc fee, $218.63 in “non tax fees” and $1,500 for shipping, for a total of $47,785.99.
“Now I’m paying their shop bill of $2,147 on this vehicle,” Justin says. He says he texted back that the shop bill was “supposed to be incorporated in the price.” The dealer’s reply, as shown in the video: “It really depends on where in the process the vehicle is.” The rest of that message is partly hidden behind Justin, but it begins, “This one we just got in.”
“Which just is completely false,” Justin opines. “And this was a shady way to do business.”
“The Actual Price Any Consumer Can Walk In And Pay”
Justin mentions Federal Trade Commission guidance in his caption. Earlier this month, agency staff put out a set of FAQs on vehicle price advertising, which says the FTC Act requires “the advertised price be the actual price any consumer can walk in and pay.” It adds: “If a dealer requires a consumer to pay a fee to purchase the car, that fee must be included in the advertised price.” The only charges a dealer may leave out are amounts “a Federal, State, or local government agency requires the consumer to pay directly.”
The FAQ says the same standard covers prices given in “phone calls and text messages with a dealer’s staff,” as well as on websites. It follows warning letters the FTC sent in March to 97 auto dealers, which cited “advertising a price that does not reflect all required fees” as an example of illegal pricing. The FAQ comes with the caveat that it “represents the views of FTC staff and is not binding on the public or the Commission.”
Justin doesn’t name the dealer, but the clues in his video point to Texas. The texts came from an 817 area code, the pricing panel carries the name Burleson, and the $225 doc fee is the most Texas presumes reasonable.
Texas has its own car dealership advertising rule, which says a dealer featuring a sales price “must be willing to sell the motor vehicle for that featured sales price to any retail buyer,” and that “dealer preparation charges and additional dealership markup, if any, must be included in the featured sales price.” The only exclusions Texas law allows are taxes, registration, title and license fees.
Gallery: 2026 Honda Pilot First Drive Review
“Text Them Back To Forget It”
Some commenters told him to walk away. “It’s their responsibility to get the car ready for sale, not the customer. I’d text them back to forget it,” wrote sdamb73. Dee98446 put it even more simply: “Text back. Forget it.”
Justin isn’t quite at that point yet. “If I gave up every time a dealer tried to be slick, I’d never get anywhere,” he replied. “I’m still working on it, so I’ll let you know how it goes. That said, if they’re super shady, that definitely does factor into the decision of whether we move forward.”
Brentthecargent, whose TikTok bio indicates that he works at a dealership, wrote, “These jerks make us all look bad.” Obesedegenerate wondered why these situations still generate astonishment: “It’s funny how there are 100,000 videos on TikTok showing 100,000 car dealerships doing 100,000 shady things, but the comment sections are still full of surprise.”
Justin’s advice, in the caption, is not to “negotiate off the advertised price alone” and to “get the actual numbers in writing.” The FTC encourages the public to report potential violations at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and “to include details about the dealership and the violation.”
Motor1 reached out to Justin by email for comment. We’ll be sure to update this if he responds.
