How Automakers Increase New-Car Prices Through Delivery Fees

Reported by the Detroit Free Press, this story explains how automakers raise new-car prices by increasing mandatory destination fees. Read the analysis.

Automakers in the United States are increasingly raising the real cost of new vehicles without changing the official MSRP. Rather than adjusting base prices, manufacturers are relying on higher destination and delivery charges—mandatory fees that are automatically added to the final price paid by buyers.

This approach has become especially visible in recent model years. Chevrolet, Ford, and Ram have increased destination charges from roughly $1,995 to $2,595 across much of their 2025 and 2026 lineups. While the MSRP remains unchanged, the window sticker total continues to rise, pushing up the true transaction price.

Market experts link this trend to automakers’ efforts to offset pressures from tariffs, inflation, and broader economic uncertainty. Destination charges are defined as the cost of transporting vehicles from factories or ports to dealerships and are applied uniformly to all customers. They cannot be waived, even if a buyer lives close to a manufacturing facility.

Analysts also point to uneven increases across the industry. Detroit-based manufacturers have raised these fees more aggressively than their foreign counterparts. Brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen continue to post some of the lowest destination charges, highlighting growing differences in pricing structures.

Specific models illustrate the scale of the change. The Ford F-150 carried a destination charge of $1,795 for the 2023 model year, which rose to $2,595 by 2025. A similar pattern appears with the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, where delivery fees have increased steadily from one model year to the next.

From a legal standpoint, the practice is fully permitted under U.S. regulations, which require destination charges to be disclosed separately but do not limit their size. For consumers, however, this means that MSRP alone is becoming a less reliable indicator of what a new vehicle will actually cost.

As living costs remain elevated and economic concerns persist, mandatory fee increases add further strain to new-car affordability. If the current trajectory continues, destination charges may solidify their role not as a technical detail, but as a central lever in automakers’ pricing strategies.