Buying a car can cause completely calm people to forget about common sense. You might disagree with me, but I have been a car dealer for twenty years now and I have seen totally rational people go overboard signing the papers on auto loans they can’t afford.
I used to not care much about the customers that came onto the sales floor looking to purchase a car. Unfortunately, most sales people at dealerships do not care whether someone can pay for their auto loans once the sale is complete; they get paid only when they get a car sold. Over the years all of this collusive activity has given many car salesmen a bad name, and rightly so.
This behavior in recent years has spread into other types of financing, like mortgage companies. This is why it is so important that consumers fully understand all of their loan options before ever setting foot in a dealership or any other place looking for financing. Educating yourself beforehand of all of the available programs can save you from problems like bad credit in the future.
Whether you want to lease, buy a new car, or even a used car, simply understanding what your loan options are ahead of time can help ensure that you will get the best of the available auto loans for you.
Most people come to a car dealership knowing only that they want a specific car and they think they can pay just the current amount. These people are the easiest to up-sell a car that they cannot afford. The ones that come in after they have talked to several banks or places that do auto loans are the ones that we in the business try to spend less time with.
Did you know that some car salesmen can get a kickback or a boost in their commission when they steer a customer into getting in-house financing? In some cases the dealerships can give a customer a better looking deal by adding points to the customer’s auto loans.
When looking at auto loans it can really benefit you to get approval on other auto loans before going to a dealership. But you should let them work up the numbers on the auto loans they can give you and compare them all before committing. Being informed ahead of time can save you hundreds in the long run.