Good point.
Several years ago I was shopping for a small inverter generator, and a local motorcycle shop had a Yamaha generator in stock. This was a $900 item so a cash transaction for me, but the young salesman (maybe 20 year old) pulled out the 4-square and was attempting to get me to finance it, and raised the selling price to $1300 in the process. I laughed at him and walked out.
I’m curious as to what constitutes “branding.” I’ve bought two cars from the CarMax in Buena Park (CA), and they both had “CarMax” in raised lettering on the back.
I heard they put a bumper sticker thing on. You can just peel it off.
Not on mine. Each letter was affixed as a standalone. I took a razor blade to one once, and while it did come off, it didn’t do the finish any favors.
Back in the day dealership decals or raised letters were absolutely commonplace in CA. Bordering on universal.
I recall when I was in Junior high (early 1970s) and parents had ordered a new car for Mom. From the factory back in the days when that was still done by a decent fraction of buyers. The car finally arrived at the dealership, they prepped it, and called us to come get it. Cue much excitement.
Until Dad saw they’d stuck a raised letter logo & dealership name across the trunk. Deal was off until they removed it. Which took them 3 days and they damaged the paint. So the second delivery attempt was a failure because now the trunk lid needed repainting. Cue another week’s delay.
We did finally get the car with a pristine trunk. But the dealership was mightily miffed and totally did not understand how anyone could object to the dealer name being slathered across the back of a car.
Yes, this event left an impression on ~12yo me.
I cannot speak to current CA practice. But at one time for darn sure permanently installed dealer names on the back of cars was not only legal, but common industry practice in CA.
Living now in FL as I do, I see cars from all over the country. Everybody here is an expat from somewhere. Including me although with >10 years here now, I’m almost eligible for my honorary FL native ID card 
.
Dealer names slathered on the back of the cars I see are quite common. Not universal, but very common. Dealer-advertising license plate frames are also common.
I have been buying new cars for my entire adult life (total of 8 vehicles to date), and with only one exception* I have told every dealer to not put their logo on my vehicle. (I’m fine with a temporary dealer license plate frame.) In my experience, they don’t do this until after the sale because there is always the chance the vehicle will be sold to another dealer (like if someone at another dealership is looking for a vehicle with those specs).
Anyway, it’s never been much of an issue until the last Subaru I bought. When they prepped the vehicle I saw they had applied their logo with raised letters. I told them the deal was off unless they removed it. They did, evidently without much trouble.
*The one exception was when I bought a vehicle from a family friend and neighbor of my father who owned an auto dealership. In addition to just getting an “OK” but not particularly great deal and being unable to effectively negotiate, this was yet another reason to never buy a vehicle from a friend or acquaintance. I realized after the fact that the reason this guy was so wealthy was because he would screw his own mother for a nickel.
Speaking of license plate frames, I’m amused by the ones that say the make and model of the car, like “Toyota Camry”, even though that’s already displayed on the trunk lid.
I have never seen anything as easily removable as a bumper sticker, but I see the attached CarMax lettering all the time.
Note above: I had the dealer take off the branding specifically because any mechanical or solvent method you as the buyer will use will damage the finish.
Yeah, no reason to insult them by throwing it away in their trash. Wait until you get home and throw it in your trash.
As noted above, I gave them the opportunity to take $5000 off the price as an “advertisement fee” and leave it on. They declined.
I’d just make an offer of $20 a month to keep it on. They’d likely decline that, too, but you could then say, “Well if it’s not worth that much to you, why should I do it for you for free?”
Could be worse. I recall some consumer ciomplaint item decades ago where the potential owner declined a car because the dealer had drilled a hole (holes?) to affix the chrome dealer logo. This was about the time that rusting was first becoming a consumer issue, and the manufacturers had started dipping chassis after drilling, instead of drilling into painted parts. Some dealers hadn’t gotten with the times yet.
Logistical/finance question:
We’re likely going to be buying a used car in the next month (for our daughter, who is, we hope, FINALLY gonna get her license)… and will pay “cash” (well, check).
How do they verify that the check is good? I mean, I’m gonna be going in there and writing a check for 15K or whatever.
When we bought the “new” (now 4 years old, 39K miles) car, we’d already arranged financing and didn’t want the dealership to do a hard credit pull. They asked for proof that we had the down payment, I pulled up our banking info on my phone, and showed them the balance which had more than enough to cover the planned down payment. Not sure if that’s typical behavior - I’d never been asked for that before.
Excellent question. My gf just provided her driver’s license and wrote a check.
When I’ve sold pontoon boats, I want cash. I’ve walked away from potential buyers offering a check. No way.
One hopes that car dealerships have ways of verifying! I am visualizing myself walking into one with a nervous expression and a duffle bag full of stained one-dollar bills. When we sold our minivan, back in 2006. the buyer brought cash, which was helpful - but we’re talking 1500 bucks or whatever.
The last three cars I bought I didn’t take delivery until a few days after I had paid.
Before that I had put $2500 or something like that on a credit card, and for the rest I wrote a check if I was driving home in the new car right away.
One of the Elder Ottlet’s friends bought a $40K truck a week ago using a personal check. The dealership verified the check with the bank by phone (he also verified it to prevent the bank from flagging it as a scam).
You do file form 8300, yes?
They can call the bank, they can call your employer, ect, there is also a system that checks checks. 
Nope. I take the cash at the notary’s, sign over the boat, take my plate, and go home.
You have to file that form for any vehicle sales over $10K in cash.