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Love this comment because you actually read the article, unlike some other commenters…
My jaw dropped when I got to that part too! That’s a 4x value payment on a 5/yr loan! Beyond disgusting tactics needed to get someone to in go for that. It’s absolutely predatory.
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You may be more savvy than the average customer, or haven’t met a truly cunning salesperson. I’d guess if you’re able to articulate that, you’re probably not the target customer.
You’d be so surprised at how often people just look at the payments.
Aaand it’s gone. The whole comment. It’s gone.
He quoted the part of the article that stated a customer unknowingly purchased a Jaguar with 75% APR.
I’ll line up with everyone else who wants to tar and feather most car salesmen as scam artists, but surely there should have been red flags
Thanks!
This article pisses me off. Back in late 2020 I went to a dealership to buy a new car, very high credit score, 1/3 cash down, and qualified for a 0% interest deal that was going on at the time.
The dealership came at me with the most bullshit offers, tried to get me to take dealership financing at 4%, then 3.5, then 3% at a longer loan duration and acted like they were doing me a favor the whole time. Finance guy was being such a dickhead about it even the sales guy started getting pissed at him.
Took nearly 6 freaking hours to close the deal. Finally got my 0% offer and expected financing/cost because it was 20 minutes to closing time and I was like “fuck it, I’ll go check out your competitors tomorrow,” keys in hand, walking out the door. Sales guy literally chased after me and stopped me at the car to say the finance dude finally caved.
Fucking scumbag stuff. Dealership changed their name a year later and I don’t wonder why.
0% interest rate is usually given in lieu of a cash back offer. So, you could get like $2500 cash back and a 4% interest rate or a 0% interest rate with no cash back.
My strategy would be to take the cash back, take the dealer loan to reduce friction, and then refinance immediately when you get home at a lower rate.
0% was a brand-wide deal (manufacturer, not dealership) to get rid of previous year stock, there was no cash back option on it. Plus, there’s no lower rate than zero, and best I could get with a different loan was 2.5%. Though I did reference said pre-qualification during negotiation when they made the crap offers. Made it clear I wasn’t walking out with a dealer loan.
How do you refinance? I was always curious about that. I’ve checked banks and my credit union but they always came in significantly higher than dealer loans, even if I chose the cash back
And then you kept walking because fuck those guys?
Nah, I bought it because there wasn’t going to be a better deal, I did my research for weeks and months prior and that 0% popped up in the middle of reviewing options.
I think they tried the push because it was the last day I could get it before the deal expired. The zero % financing was via the manufacturer, not dealership.
And they make less money on that than the dealer financing options. No surprise they were being pushy about it.
I mean, I was already preapproved for a 2.5% loan and qualified for the 0% offer, made that clear. I was very up front there would be no dealer loan.
I made it dirt easy, like “I’m qualified for this zero interest deal, I’m willing to pay up to $10k in cash up front. Make it happen for $300 a month or less with those terms and you have a sale.”
They still fucked around so hard. I really was ready to walk out empty handed, they made the deal literally with me unlocking my old car to leave.
I admire your patience. I would have walked out an hour in.
I had really specific requirements on the car in terms of capability and price since I was moving to a rural area and my old car was a 14 year old Hyundai Accent with bad suspension. Didn’t want a truck or anything too large, but needed a car that could handle some off-road and country roads, and had around 7" or better clearance, and couldn’t have a dual clutch transmission (either traditional or CVT with no dual only). Basically it came down to the Honda CRV, Kia Sportage, and Toyota RAV4.
CRV was my first choice, but its front bumper rides low, reducing it’s clearance below the frame height, it can’t even get over low objects. RAV4 was ideal, but like… $8k more expensive than the sportage, at the time the sportage was just under $24k new (crazy, since I was seeing used ones with up to 45k miles going for $27-28k).
So, I was sold on the Kia and just considered it kind of around my hourly rate. Even if it took all day, I was saving minimal $8k compared to my next best alternative and my hourly rate at the time for work was like $42. Even if the prices were the same, just factoring the 0% finance deal when my best pre-approved loan rate was 2.5% would save me well over $1k on the life of the loan, and around $400 in just the first year, so I figured it was totally worth a few hours of haggling and stalling on them.
When I moved I bought some nice all-terrain tires (Nitto Nomad Grapplers) for a few hundred bucks and it’s been solid. No complaints, decent performance, and I don’t get stuck in the mud at all. :)
All Carsalesmen Are Bastards.
Defund the dealerships.
No fan of Musk, but this kind of shit and other scams are driving me towards companies like Tesla that are using a direct sale model.
Subaru dealers lied to me about the engine I was getting, said the head gasket issue was fixed. Turns out it was fixed, just not for the model of engine that was in the specific car they were selling me.
Then a different dealer did the head gasket job, thousands of dollars, and now they’re telling me it needs to be done again four years later for another 5k.
A local Chevy dealer was screwing over their employees with wage theft by agreeing to give raises and then quietly taking them away later.
Fuck them all to hell, small business my ass. If you have to spend millions lobbying your state government to make direct sales illegal, I’m going to do everything I can to avoid giving you my money.
Preapprove loan in the range you want from your bank.
Agree in writing on car price.
Get loan from bank.
Pay for car
Pay back bank.Edit: to be clear, when i say Bank I only mean Credit Union.
You say that as if banks are on your side.
Banks aren’t credit unions.
True. The banks are at least marginally more on your side than car dealerships though.
I’ve only ever banked at credit unions.
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I’m looking to buy a new car, went to the bank for a loan, they said they’d only do a car loan if I bought a car that was less than 3 years old. Are you kidding me? My current car is from 2004, I’m hoping for an ~$8k 2012 or something…
My last car purchase I was thinking similarly, I ended up with a '14 with 80000km on it. Bank said “we can’t give you a loan for that, but we can up your line of credit and you can use that” …
Yeah, good credit history is vital here, but in a similar case, my credit union wouldn’t write a car loan, but approved a “signature loan” for similar interest rate
Given the anecdotes in the article, I have credit cards with lower interest rates, so that would be tempting. I mean, I’d never do that since it’s a stupid idea but it would be better
Additionally, if you can get your down payment/trade-in to get your car off the lot with equity then you’ll get a lower interest rate. When my ex and I bought her new car a few years ago we incidentally did that (total value between the down payment and trade in was something like 10k on a 23k purchase) and we were pleasantly surprised to see a full percentage point lower on the loan.
I recommend that anyone buying a car that they’ll have to finance bring in a laptop with an amortization schedule up and ready to go to the dealership. Dealers don’t want to talk about the total cost of the car. They only want to talk in monthly payments. They’ll sometimes offer cashback in order to get you to agree to a higher interest rate. If you don’t have an amortization schedule handy, you’re not going to be able to do that math and figure out if you’re getting a good deal or getting scammed.
If you don’t know what an amortization schedule is, then Google it and play around with one before you go in to buy a car. You only need to plug in a few variables - purchase price, number of months for the loan, and interest rate. That will allow you to see your monthly payment and what you’re paying in interest.
If you can’t do that simple thing, then don’t finance a car.
you don’t even need a laptop for that nowadays; you can pull up such a thing directly on your phone.
True, but in my experience a laptop forced you to take your time a bit and see the bigger picture. Also it lets the dealer know that you are not fucking around.
I knew this big clunky ass gaming laptop would come in handy someday. The RGB lights really communicate that I’m no man to be trifled with
Hell yeah. You see a man with RGB and you know he means business.
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Probably the most valuable thing I learned in school was how to build amortization schedules. I’ve used it on vehicles, student debt, and mortgage. It’s really helped me win the “stop paying unnecessary interest to others” game.
Same here. I’ve forgotten probably 90% of what I learned in school, but amortization schedules have stuck with me because they’re such a necessary part of life.
In response to an article about how poor people are trapped by loans… you recommend that? Really?
Absolutely. Did you read the article? The people interviewed explicitly say that they don’t know anything about interest rates and how financing works. One guy had a 75% interest rate because he apparently had no idea what that meant he would be paying , which is several times the price of the car.
If you’re going to finance a car, you need to arm yourself with the tools to figure out what that is going to cost you. Go in prepared. Don’t count on the dealer telling you the numbers, because they are not on your side. They are trying to hide that information from you to get you to agree to something for their benefit.
Poor uneducated people are being oppressed by corporate shills… Best you got it "learn the rules of the game: basically?
You’re oddly hostile for a post where I offered advice. Obviously we’d be better off if there were strong protections in place. No one is arguing otherwise. I offered practical advice that you and your loved ones should follow to protect yourselves and you act like I’m saying the system is perfect and nothing should change.
If you posted an article about people were dying in car crashes and I said to make sure you wear a seatbelt, you’re acting as if I said we shouldn’t continue to try to make travel safer. Wear a seatbelt! And make sure you know how finance works before taking out a loan.
Educating people is a lot easier than fixing the system. No reason we can’t try to do both.
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I think the advice is really “at least google it before signing a contract”.
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Well I don’t disagree but if those protections aren’t in place then it’s up to the consumer to protect themself.
That’s something the gov’t is supposed to mandate because businesses don’t give a shit. They’re only there to make money for the corporate bosses and investors.
Caveat emptor is not a universal mantra everyone knows or understands.
And what would be better recommendations for the poor individuals trapped by loans?
Regulatory reform? Not “just go buy a laptop and study amortization before you buy”.
Yeah, that sounds reasonable in the long run (years), while the laptop plan is more immediately useful.
Yes, telling poor people to buy laptops is so practical
The rise of
Reading the article, it sounds like the exact scam that was parodied in GTA V almost 15 years ago. I imagine this is not a new problem. Maybe the rising interest rates made it even worse?
