That's Bill's opinion. You can dispute with the Credit Reporting Agencies without going to the creditor first.... Plus it may save you time.
SEAN - does the same thing apply with a Saturn dealership - I do not want a Saturn - just know they supposedly have fixed prices. ??? c ya dogman
Dog- Financing is pretty much the same across the board....as far as another source if revenue that is. Dealer morals will vary...but they are there to make a profit. There are always in's and's outs's. You will from time to time see offers's like 2.9% financing or 1.9% financing (this is NOT the current special..the 0% is a totally different situation). These low interest offer's, if you look closely, are not really that good of a deal. The low interest rates are almost always in lieu of the rebate...you get your choice, 1500.00 rebate (or whatever) or 2.9% (again, an arbitrary number). If you do the math, over the course of the loan, the two amounts will come out equal. This difference is, instead of getting the profit from financing over time, you get it up front with the forfeited rebate. In this situation, you are better off taking the reabte. The 1500.00 (or whatever) will come off the principle from day one. If you pay your loan faster, you will pay less interest anyway. If you choose the low rate, paying your loan off faster will only penalize you. Anyway, the point is 'yes', most dealers work the same way. If they give the car away up front, they are going to try to make more on the back end. As always, go in informed and you will do fine. Always mention your 'credit union', even if you don't have one, that will get the gears spinning right off the bat. I used to get pissed as soon as I heard that as I figured I was going to have to give a low rate, maybe 'buy' rate, to get the deal. Plus, if you have already shopped rate you already know your payment, so it's going to be harder for me to 'squeeze' in a warranty or insurance. We wouldn't let the salesmen quote payment, and if we did, we would try to have them raise it buy 20-25 dollars (unless we had to lowball them to get them into the finance office). Why did we do this? Well, say your actual payment was going to be $250.00. We would say that it would be around $275.00. Now when you came in thinking $275, I could say you can get a warranty AND insurance for only $280.00 a month. You are going to think, WOW, only 5 dollars more, when in reality, it could have been $30.00 less. Anyway, just one thing to think about. Don't think all dealers are bad....that's not the case. It is a business, though, and they are going to try and make a profit. Just do your homework before you go in.....know the invoice of the car (not that you are going to buy it for that, but know what he paid), know the holdbacks/rebates/incentives (how much past invoice does he get back), know the current interest rates (dealers CAN usually get you better rates than a bank- credit unions are their biggest competition), know what a warranty should cost (they aren't bad things, it's just bad to pay too much for them). And most of all, if you are happy with the deal, then it's a good deal. Let the dealer know you are educated, but don't be a jerk about it. You want him to be on your side when you come back in for service, to buy another car, etc...... Hope this helps. Shawn
If you pay off the loan soon you lose both the rebate and the low instrest rate> You end up paying trhe full price when you could have gotten it for that price less the rebate. Another important thing to consider is the time value of money on the rebate!
