The document fee is a dealer BS fee. You can definitely buy a car without paying it. I don't intend to ever pay such a fee again. I don't know where you are, but the most outlandish we ran into was a Toyota dealership.
My DH totaled a car that sounds a lot like yours last December. His insurance settlement was pretty much book value plus sales tax. We had also done about $1,000 of work -- I hate to tell you but we got less than $100 of that added on. We also had medical bills paid, a rental car for a month and a small "pain and suffering" payment they offer to get you to sign a settlement.
We spent two months looking for a replacement car (borrowed my FIL's after the rental ended) and came away with a gem from a private seller on Craig's List. We did go up in price by several thousand dollars, but similar cars were $2,000-$3,000 more at the dealers before the document fees. Our mechanic went over it with a fine tooth comb, too. We bought from someone we were able to check out, which made us feel more comfortable. We met him at the bank where we got all the legal documents witnessed and gave him a certified check.
My DH totaled a car that sounds a lot like yours last December. His insurance settlement was pretty much book value plus sales tax. We had also done about $1,000 of work -- I hate to tell you but we got less than $100 of that added on. We also had medical bills paid, a rental car for a month and a small "pain and suffering" payment they offer to get you to sign a settlement.
We spent two months looking for a replacement car (borrowed my FIL's after the rental ended) and came away with a gem from a private seller on Craig's List. We did go up in price by several thousand dollars, but similar cars were $2,000-$3,000 more at the dealers before the document fees. Our mechanic went over it with a fine tooth comb, too. We bought from someone we were able to check out, which made us feel more comfortable. We met him at the bank where we got all the legal documents witnessed and gave him a certified check.