The article linked by keithnmick is brilliant…utterly fantastic. As I was reading it, I kept getting these weird memories triggered by the jargon. That cat did a good job explaining things.
A friend of mine and her husband just took delivery of a new Mazda 5, and they seemed happy with the deal that they got and, in general, the service that they received.
But my friend told me that when they were signing the forms the salesman tried to be helpful by pointing out the benefits of the car. One of the benefits, according to this guy, was that Mazda recognizes that women don’t know anything about cars, so all the controls and instructions are laid out very clearly and simply so that women will be able understand them. It was apparently quite clear that the salesman thought that my friend should be falling all over herself in appreciation of this brilliant advance by Mazda. Needless to say, she was less than impressed.
Quiteman_ there is a difference between “dealer” financing and “manufacturers” financing. With the usual dealer financing, they look around, and find you a “deal”- usually one good for them, and not so good for you. But if you finance thru one of these “special manuf” rates, you are given a special rate, approved not by the dealership, but by the manuf, and their finance co (GMAC for GM cars, ect). These are fantastic deals- one that your CU can’t even come close to.
For the last year, these deals have been regularly available from most car Manuf. In fact these deals are so good, that it would be silly to NOT buy a car with one of these deals- assuming you can qualify for the financing. IF you can NOT qualify for the MANUF financing at the “0%” rate- they do not finance there, go to your CU.
Note that these are only trustworthy if it is the manufacturer who is offering the deal- and it will be nationally advertised.
Since 0=zero, it is pretty easy even for a naive person to check the figures- amount you owe divided by 60 (number of months)= monthly payment, then reverse it to amount of paymentX 60= amount you owe. There are no financing charges at all.
Your advice is good, and with the small exception of this one change- which is is recent & temporary- all fine.
My soon to be ex wife and I went car shopping a few years ago. We wound up with a Saturn. It was a good car, but a big part of why we wound up going with them was that theirs was the only salesman who paid attention when I told him that I can change a tire but she can change an engine, so you’ll be talking to her until we get to the financial side of things.
One of her uncles ran a car dealership in a small city in northern Saskatchewan. One day there was a scruffy looking native guy wandering around the lot. After about ten minutes Uncle got up, walked out of his office and past the sales staff to go and talk to the guy. Half an hour later he was signing the paperwork for three brand new Yukons, which this guy was buying on behalf of one of the local reserves. Word got around that Uncle was a good guy to deal with, and after that he got about 90% of the native business in the region.
Screw the finches, Darwin should’ve studied car salesmen.
I would recommend obtaining a current copy of your credit report before buying a car. I had a finance manager/asshole shredder extraordinaire tell me that my credit score was “x”, so my interest rate would be thirteen and a half fucking percent instead of the low, advertised rate. Luckily, I knew better.
I wish I could’ve kicked that fucker in the temple, laid him down with his head just in front of one of my tires, and peeled out on his cranium until the entire dealership was covered in his grey matter.
DrDeth, I readily acknowledge that difference in financing. When rates were higher, there were still plenty of shenanigans with “Manufacturer” financing with some dealers (but not all, granted). The Meat Markets always found a way.
You raise a good point that Zero Percent makes it difficult to hide extras in the contract. Of course I remember seeing a deal where some poor schmoe got a 22.9% APR on a new car. I think we can all agree that he got Screwed.
I will add one last thing that i should have mentioned before. In these days of printers it’s rare, but still, you people all know to never sign a contract that has Blanks unfilled in, right? Even if its something you don’t want, the letters “N/A” for Not Applicable should be clearly typed on that line. Any fields like “APR” or “Monthly Payment” should Never be signed blank.
So 5 out of 6 car dealers gave you no problem whatsoever, and you title the thread " Car salesmen are fucking scum."?
Esprix
Thanks for the link, it was a very interesting story.