4 Add-Ons You Should Skip When Buying a New Car

In February, Kelley Blue Book reported news that was music to the ears of anyone in the market for a new set of wheels. The new vehicle average transaction price, which had already been falling, tumbled by another 3.5% in January to $47,401.

With lowered prices, you might be inclined to spend a few thousand more tricking it out with all the latest accessories and upgrades.

But before you do, consider banking the extra cash and just saying no to expensive and unnecessary options — especially these.

The dealer’s finance office is where you’ll hear the pitches to spring for upgrades that they want you to believe you can’t live without.

Among them is fabric protection, which is especially easy to sell to people with kids or pets. According to MotorBiscuit, you can expect them to use Oppenheimer-esque phrases like “microfiber polymer” and “molecular adhesion,” but it’s just Scotchgard in a cheap tuxedo. Actually, it’s a very expensive tuxedo that usually adds $200 to $400 to the price of your car. Or you can DIY it with two 10-ounce cans of Scotchgard auto fabric and carpet shield for $20 on Amazon.

Like molecular adhesion, nitrogen-filled tires just sound cooler and more sophisticated than boring tires filled with regular old air. The pitch is that they hold their pressure for longer and can even prevent rot by reducing interior moisture.

According to Les Schwab Tires, both those things are technically true, but “the claims are overstated.” The benefits are lopsidedly negligible compared to the high price, which is usually $70 to $179 for the initial fill at the dealership and then $5 to $7 per tire when it’s time to top them off — if you can find a place with nitrogen. The company says this upgrade mostly makes sense for race cars that demand consistent pressure at high track speeds. Alternatively, chains like Wawa let you fill your tires with standard-issue breathable air — which already contains 78% nitrogen — for free.

Tinted windows can reduce glare and make driving safer, limit exposure to harmful UV rays, lower your car’s temperature and minimize interior fading. However, you can almost always get a better deal at an independent shop than at a dealership at the time of purchase.

According to CarEdge, tinting joins fabric protection and nitrogen-filled tires as one of the biggest dealer markups. Dealers typically incur a $25 cost and charge $300 for $275 in profit.

According to Tintix, standard tinting on a regular car should cost less than $200.

VIN etching engraves your car’s unique vehicle identification number (VIN) on all the windows to deter thieves who would have a harder time selling a car with VIN etching. But that requires car thieves to see the etching and to know that it could foil their plans to sell it — if they plan to sell it at all. VIN etching provides no deterrent to the many thieves who boost cars for joyriding or to use in the commission of another crime.

MotorBiscuit recently said VIN etching might be the “scam of the decade” because many dealers proactively etch each vehicle’s VIN and then bake the cost into the price of the new car whether you choose it as an add-on or not. Make sure to ask if that’s the case with any car you’re considering, because if you’re interested in inscribing your VIN on your windows, Amazon sells DIY kits for $20 or $30, and both MotorBiscuit and CarEdge say dealers charge up to $400.