more on car

[forgotten_aria]

Was ready to give up on car buying, dealer comes back with new trade in offer.
Go to get estimate from another place, they say "no one wants m5" gives me a low offer.
Waffle and discuss, decide to go in for the lower dealer trade-in offer.
About to put down a deposit, dealer says, "oh, btw, that includes the $1000 financing incentive, so you can't pay cash, but there is no early payment penalty. You just do about 3 months of payments." That enough risk to kill the already only barely ok deal.

Then I get a spark, could I just put down a HUGE down payment. I ask, and it's "well, yes and no, you have to finance at least $7500 of the car." So a mull over this for a bit, but my gut is telling me no.

This is gaming the system. Even if this doesn't come back to bite me, it's ethically unsound.

So I've said no, again. This time I think it might be the final no.

Comments

[jadia.livejournal.com]

What a rollercoaster! I'm bad at finances - what is the risk of financing?

[jered]

It sounds like she has ethical qualms about taking the $1k financing incentive and then not making it "worth it" to the financing company.

If that's the case, I would disagree with looking at it this way. You're specifically allowed to do that because there is no early payment penalty, and the financing company may get benefits that you're not aware of (for example, the ability to claim a larger quarterly revenue, or a lower default rate) for offering the credit and having it paid.

Don't fall for a reciprocity trap. You're not obligated to donate to the charity that sends you free return address labels, and you're not obligated to pay $1k in interest to the vendor that gives you a $1k incentive to finance.

[forgotten-aria.livejournal.com]

It's partly qualms and partly "they waited this long to tell me that I couldn't get that price by paying cash (because of a miscommunication) what else are they not telling me that might mean that if I do this little 'trick' I won't get burned by it." As I calculate it, the trick will cost me a few hundred dollars even if it goes perfectly. If there's something that I miss when signing the papers, it could cost me as much as $1200 (what I would lose by being trapped in the financing.)

[jadia.livejournal.com]

Oo good point.

[jered]

Ah; that's fair. Car dealers really are the masters of last minute surprises and intentional misdirection. It's incredibly frustrating.

[trysha.livejournal.com]

My mother was convinced to do something similar by a dealer.

She financed the entire amount and got incentives, and then payed it off in its entirety later that month. The dealer had suggested that she do this.

The finance company flipped out at her, they tried to she had paid interest first. Then they tried to claim she had to pay a certain amount of interest, they harassed her for a while. She had to get attorneys involved before they left her alone and sent the title.

My lesson is that the dealer doesn't care if they screw over the finance company, because the finance company will be after you - not the dealer.

[forgotten-aria.livejournal.com]

I didn't see your post before we agreed after seeing a copy of part of the contract and doing some research. I think if I had, I would have stayed a no.

[blk]

Ugh, I so hate back and forth negotiating like this. That sounds very stressful.