Car Purchase

[kork13]

That's definitely a good way to go, jim. Generally, your personal bank, or esp. a credit union will give you a better rate than a dealer. You can also use it as a bargaining chip, though... as they make most of their money off of financing, they may be willing to beat your third-party's rate/terms to get your loan rather than losing all hopes of it by essentially having a cash purchase.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Maat, you would be pissed then with my DH. He got the only car in the ad, I too until him had never meet someone who bought the ad. Nor did he think it qualifed but on the ad page it said qualified buyers get 0%.

Read qualified buyers. Not everyone qualifies. But his mom cosigned.

Also he got a better deal than the $12.5 car you would have negotiated for. He basically got the car for $9995 "extra special" price that they lure you and then tell you they sold.

Well in this case they really sold the car. And he showed me the ad! He was so proud of it! He kept the ad and everytime he told people they said NO WAY! WTF????

Who gets those cars. Well now you have an answer, my DH. The urban myth! Trust me I couldn't believe that crap story either!

Those dealers in the fine print always say ONE car, this VIN #, with these specific features, etc. And then they "sell" the car to some person. That person was my DH!

Like I also said the ad was for the weekend, but he walked in on Wednesday when it came out for the weekend and they sold him the car. They said since it said it was for this weekend, it "qualified" as part of the deal.

Car dealers are horrible sharks. They guy who sold it to DH said he was glad it was gone to some poor student. He said he loved it, he could use the story this weekend how a poor student walked in and was SOOO fortunate to get the el-cheapo car in the ad. And then he "upsold" them a model with more features, etc.

[disneysteve]

The bigger issue here is the car companies probably make more on the financing than they do on the car itself

No "probably" about it. Car dealers make the vast majority of their income from financing and the service department. They make very little of their money on the sale of the cars.

[tripods68]

I would like to put your theory to the test. You could go in and make your best deal with 0% and I'd bet you I could pay less with cash.

Numerous times while browsing the sales adds, I've seen this:

Cash price 12,500 or only 15,000 at 0%. IT would piss me off. It's my contention that you do not get money for free.

I don't doubt that at all.

Dealership is pretty tough cookie during the negotiation process. True story: When I bought our Nissan Murano SL 2003 just before Thanksgiving, the Friday's paper read: $4000 off MSRP. It was originally listed $35,500 MSRP. I thought that was really a good deal since I'd been searching for months. The following day I check it out. It had all the Options we wanted. When they made their first offer, they only gave me $2K OFF, trying to trick me of course. I showed them their own advertising for the same car/model. In the end they had no choice but to give me as advertised $4k below MSRP. I was able to negotiate with them to give me 3.9% financing program since it would put me us on more affordable monthly payment. My Credit Union only offered 6.0% for new cars. I saved myself $2K for not caving in plus lowered my interest cost of about $750. Bottom line: Everything is negotiable.


DisneySteve: People can always complain about how their getting "rip off" on trade in. But unless, they are willing to put the work in, my response would be "Put up or Shut up". That's my attitude.

[disneysteve]

DisneySteve: People can always complain about how their getting "rip off" on trade in. But unless, they are willing to put the work in, my response would be "Put up or Shut up". That's my attitude.

I agree. I was just making the point that the dealers adjust the vehicle prices and the trade in allowances to make up for the 0% financing offers.