Top Dealer Financing Tricks
If you are considering buying a new car, now is the time. Car lots are covered with inventory that hasn’t moved in months and dealers are getting desperate to make their quotas and commissions, meaning you can actually negotiate a sweet deal for your self. A celebratory dance may be well earned if you manage to get a great price on a new car and manage to avoid top dealer financing tricks that can easily suck up all the savings you scored on your price.
One of the oldest top dealer financing tricks of the trade is the old bait and switch routine. Car manufactures spend billions of dollars advertising incentive deals including 0% or discount financing on new car purchases. Those promotional deals tend to only be offered to those who credit ratings are outstanding. If your credit is only so-so, the interest rate offered by the car dealer will not be the cream of the crop. Make sure to order and review your credit report before going to the dealer so you can know exactly what kind of financing incentive offers you can expect.
Other top dealer financing tricks are offers that sound great on paper, but in actuality aren’t great at all. Make sure to research all the aspects of a dealer-financing offer before committing. Dealer can offer you low monthly payments, but the loan could last for more than 6 years. Maybe you qualify for 0% financing but the down payment and short term for repaying the loan doesn’t work for you. Perhaps you are offered a great interest rate but have to make an exorbitant final payment to completely pay off the loan.
The best way to avoid falling for any dealer-financing trick is to secure your own auto loan before walking into the dealership, thus giving you all the auto loan negotiation power. By getting a loan before approaching a dealer you can take the time to make comparisons and get the best rate available based on your credit history. You can always then take the time to sit down with the dealership-financing officer and see if they can come up with a better deal than you already secured, if not it is still cool as you came in already prepared.
