You can bag yourself a brand new Ford Bronco for just a shade over $40,000. Drive to your local dealership right now, stroll up to a 2026 Bronco Base, and you should see “$40,495” written on the window. But it costs more than that, the price you see is an absolute lie.
This is due to the destination fee, one of the many hidden costs associated with an auto purchase. The actual price you pay for that Bronco (excluding sales tax, which varies, and doesn’t even exist in some states) is $42,490 when you tack on the mandatory $1,995 delivery/destination fee.
This fee applies to all Ford vehicles, though it varies slightly. At the low-end, you’ll pay an additional $1,495 on an Escape, Escape Hybrid, or an Escape Plugin Hybrid if you can still find the now-discontinued crossover. At the other end of the spectrum, you’ll have to part with $2,795 for larger vehicles like the Ford F-150.
While the Bronco’s delivery/destination fee is the same as it was in 2025, delivery/destination fees in general have increased over the past few years. They generally range between $1,000 and $3,000. Mini, Subaru, and Volkswagen have some of the lowest fees, with their smaller vehicles costing roughly $1,000. Ford, Cadillac, GMC, and Jeep have some of the highest, with the higher costs again corresponding with vehicle size.
The fees are also generally trending upwards. Which is a bit of a kick in the teeth, as vehicle prices are also skyrocketing.
Destination fees are getting higher, and it isn’t just Ford
While Ford has some of the highest destination fees in the US, the Detroit-based manufacturer isn’t the only company charging them. The fees were originally intended to split the costs of delivering vehicles to dealerships across the country. That way, a customer buying a car in nearby Ann Arbor would pay the same as a customer buying one in Key West. The customer in Ann Arbor may feel a little hard done by, but the fee is “affordable” to them, whereas a fee based on distance would be unaffordable to customers further away.
The main issue is that dealerships and manufacturers seem to be folding other costs into the destination fee. According to the Detroit News, the fee, which has outpaced inflation over the past few years, is a way manufacturers can use it to hide additional costs while technically keeping the vehicle’s base price low. What makes matters worse is that they’re not really mentioning it. As with the Bronco, the price you see a vehicle advertised for generally excludes this fee, other fees, and the various taxes that come with the purchase.
To make matters worse, the destination fee is often mandatory. You can’t really negotiate it away, even in a situation where there’s a surplus of a certain model, and you do have some leverage. A dealership would seemingly offer you 0% financing, or a discount on the base price, rather than touch the destination fee. The excuse here is that the fee is set by the manufacturer, and dealers do not have the power to alter it.
On the other hand, this is America and the price you see is rarely the price you pay. Stores often exclude things like taxes from the sticker price and use the argument “well, that’s what we’re getting.” But the truth is, it just makes things seem more affordable and encourages customers to pull the trigger on a purchase they may otherwise walk away from. It happens with a laptop at Best Buy, and it happens with a Bronco at your local Ford dealership.
You’ll also pay the fee if you choose to lease a vehicle, which may seem unfair as you tend to hand those back after a few years. The one way around the destination fee is to buy used. It’s only charged on new vehicles, so if you do snag something second-hand from the dealership, you can dodge this particular bullet.
