topic Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS! in Auto Loans

DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:55:04 GMT

The first thing everyone should do when buying a car.... homework, homework & more homework! Can you afford this loan if you lose your job in a month, 6 month or a year? If possible never shop for a vehicle by monthly payment... you're sure to get screwed without getting a kiss! Know what vehicle & options (average cost w/options) you want before visiting a dealership! Check your credit scores and rates for your scores. Shop for your financing on your own via Credit Unions, local banks etc.! See if the dealer has special financing that can beat your best rate that you have gotten on your own. Know what the max price you are willing to pay for the vehicle including tax, title & license. Neg the sale price before discussing trade! Check on insurance rates for the new vehicle. The MOST IMPORTANT...... NEVER BUY A CAR ON THE WEEKENDS!!! Most LO's don't work on the weekends so your less likely to get a good rate on a Saturday or Sunday! Never drive the car off the lot until all paperwork is signed & financing is secure. Good Luck to all the shoppers out there!

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Schoolbuskid — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:05:32 GMT

Yea i think those pointers would have been good to know, when we were shopping. Thanks goodness everything turned out alright with our situation!

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:08:29 GMT

The MOST IMPORTANT...... NEVER BUY A CAR ON THE WEEKENDS!!! Most LO's don't work on the weekends so your less likely to get a good rate on a Saturday or Sunday! Never drive the car off the lot until all paperwork is signed & financing is secure.

Incorrect advice.

Saturdays are the busiest days for dealerships. So yes there are loan officers and banks open that day. Are they open at night? No. Are they open Sunday? Not many. But... and this is important, in most cases all the banks are not open through the hours the dealership is open MON-FRI. Most banks shut down at 6:00 on weekdays any way.

If your credit is good enough that you autoqualify/qualify by computer it is really no issue to get a car when the banks are closed.

if your credit is bad or questionable where a phone call to the lender would get you financed or help negotiate a lower rate...yep you need to be there when the banks are open.

The majority of people are computer qualified for their loan. So the banks being closed or open has nothing to do with the transaction.

Never drive the car off the lot until all paperwork is signed & financing is secure.

Why? It just means you do not own the car, now the dealership has to worry they did not get a sale.

Do you honestly believe a dealership is going to put you out on a $30,000 vehicle over a weekend, knowing that you think it is yours and knowing that you are going to be driving it showing it to people and putting miles on it and putting risk on it for an accident if they did not have a strong feeling that you were keeping the car?

See if the dealer has special financing that can beat your best rate that you have gotten on your own.

And know that in many cases you forego some rebates for a better interets rate. You need to do the math to see which works for you better.

a $4,000 rebate on a 20.000 car VS a zero percent rate for 36 months might actually be better to keep the rebates.

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Takunda1 — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 06:46:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The MOST IMPORTANT...... NEVER BUY A CAR ON THE WEEKENDS!!! Most LO's don't work on the weekends so your less likely to get a good rate on a Saturday or Sunday! Never drive the car off the lot until all paperwork is signed & financing is secure.

Incorrect advice.

Saturdays are the busiest days for dealerships. So yes there are loan officers and banks open that day. Are they open at night? No. Are they open Sunday? Not many. But... and this is important, in most cases all the banks are not open through the hours the dealership is open MON-FRI. Most banks shut down at 6:00 on weekdays any way.

If your credit is good enough that you autoqualify/qualify by computer it is really no issue to get a car when the banks are closed.

if your credit is bad or questionable where a phone call to the lender would get you financed or help negotiate a lower rate...yep you need to be there when the banks are open.

The majority of people are computer qualified for their loan. So the banks being closed or open has nothing to do with the transaction.

Never drive the car off the lot until all paperwork is signed & financing is secure.

Why? It just means you do not own the car, now the dealership has to worry they did not get a sale.

Do you honestly believe a dealership is going to put you out on a $30,000 vehicle over a weekend, knowing that you think it is yours and knowing that you are going to be driving it showing it to people and putting miles on it and putting risk on it for an accident if they did not have a strong feeling that you were keeping the car?

See if the dealer has special financing that can beat your best rate that you have gotten on your own.

And know that in many cases you forego some rebates for a better interets rate. You need to do the math to see which works for you better.

a $4,000 rebate on a 20.000 car VS a zero percent rate for 36 months might actually be better to keep the rebates.

If your credit is good enough that you autoqualify/qualify by computer it is really no issue to get a car when the banks are closed.-- Not So, computers only pre-approve you. Final approval is done by humans after review of docs and proof of income etc.

Do you honestly believe a dealership is going to put you out on a $30,000 vehicle over a weekend, knowing that you think it is yours and knowing that you are going to be driving it showing it to people and putting miles on it and putting risk on it for an accident if they did not have a strong feeling that you were keeping the car?--Yes. Many people on here have taken cars home, only to be told that the terms have changed. They let you take the car so when they change the terms on you, you have fallen in love with the vehicle and you may just accept the terms.

Buying on wknds is not a good idea, again, becasue computer approvals are only pre-approvals,, also when there are a lot of people shopping sales people are usually not likely to give good deals.

Message Edited by Takunda1 on 03-07-2009 12:46 AM

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 07:16:04 GMT

Not So, computers only pre-approve you. Final approval is done by humans after review of docs and proof of income etc.

In my experience, if the computer approves you, greenlights you so to speak, you are approved. yes there are stip checks and you must meet stips, but there is a lag time in every financed deal getting the contracts to the actual banks, so where does your limit stop? by the car Monday but do not take it home until 2 weeks later when you are sure that the contract is done finalized and the bank has all the paperwork?

Yes. Many people on here have taken cars home, only to be told that the terms have changed. They let you take the car so when they change the terms on you, you have fallen in love with the vehicle and you may just accept the terms.

Well as someone who worked for a dealership we never tried to let people take a car home unless we were sure the deal would go through as described since getting the car back with hundreds of miles on it that you could not charge them for, or having to start to fight them to get the car back was not worth the trouble.

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Schoolbuskid — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:33:20 GMT

We actually had this to happen to us. The dealer allowed us to take the car home, even when the financing was not secured. We really werent satisfied with the terms of the purchase so we decided to take it back, they wanted us to keep the car, but we said no. We signed some docs, cant remember which ones, i think we were lucky to get off the hook with that car purchase.

heres the thread----May have gotten in a pickle!

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:17:24 GMT

If financing was not secure the deal was not done. You had no obligation unless you wantd to.

Whatever you feel or think, you had no obligation.

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

cabarkeep — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:17:26 GMT

USMC is correct ... some good points on this thread but also some incorrect information .... yes I work for a dealership and make decisions regarding financing ... I would say 95% of the time we know exactly what rate we can get someone based on ALL of the correct information being given by the consumer.

You would not believe how many people cannot do math and cannot come up with a correct monthly income or when they really started their jobs ...etc etc ....

It is a very simple process if the computer approves the person ..however with many variables such as negative equity in trades ... little or no down payment towards the new vehicle.... credit issues ...etc sometimes we do have to make an "educated guess" as to what rate we think as a dealership that we can get for the person at a financial institution based on what information we have.

Yes a weekend is a good time to buy a car ..new cars are regularly found in the newspaper being sold at a loss just to move the inventory ....do customers still think its not enough of a discount?? Of course...but its a great deal and an easy way to buy a car without a bunch of negotiating... its a no brainer ...so its not the color you want ...live with it ..its 2-4k under invoice lol ....

The contract just depends on what states you live in .. I would check the state regs on the state you reside in as to whether you "own" the car or not when you drive off the lot if you have an issue with the purchase.

Normally as long as the dealer can obtain the loan at the terms provided on the contract then yes you usually own the vehicle.... however if for some reason (usually credit issues or income etc) the loan cannot be approved as written the dealer has the right to call the customer back in to offer choices to re-write the contract with new terms or to cancel the transaction.

On most contracts there is a paragraph explaining this.

Anyways sorry for the rant ...long story short ...yes buyer beware ..do your research on pricing, options, etc ... but also at the same time educate yourself on what YOUR CREDIT can buy. With lending institutions tightening up more and more what you could buy back in 2003 and 2004 cannot be done today with the same mediocre 600 credit. This is just reality. It is more about your credit profile and not just the score.

Good luck! Education is a beautiful thing!

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 12:46:03 GMT

My last weekend buying experience involved the famous 0% financing bait and switch. Although my scores were 766-790, I had no auto loan or mortgage before. So I left the dealership on a Saturday afternoon with a $39000 MSRP vehicle of which I had put $7K cash downpayment on. The following Thursday they called me and told me I did not qualify for the 0% blah blah blah but they could get me in at 5.9% I told them I guess they just reduced their selling price to keep the same payment for the same terms. They said they could not do it and to retuirn the vehicle. I told them to call me when they had my $7K cash and I would bring the vehicle back (with 1200 miles on it). Long story short legally I did have to return the vehicle, and yes they had up to 21 days to return my downpayment. What did I learn? Always make sure the financing is actually approved, and use a CC to make your downpayment so you can easily dispute the charge if needed.

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Watchmann — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:47:31 GMT

No car financing deal is ever truly complete at the time of sale, which is why they have you sign the contingent financing piece of paper which is tucked in the stack of papers you end up signing. The safest thing is to push the piece of paper back to them and tell them they can keep the car until financing is 100% complete. They won't like that, but driving a car off the lot without knowing if fiancing can be obtained is dangerous today. Previously, in the free wheeling credit days, most people could get approved. Today, it is more difficult. Protect yourself and don't drive it until you know the whole deal is approved.

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:58:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My last weekend buying experience involved the famous 0% financing bait and switch. Although my scores were 766-790, I had no auto loan or mortgage before. So I left the dealership on a Saturday afternoon with a $39000 MSRP vehicle of which I had put $7K cash downpayment on. The following Thursday they called me and told me I did not qualify for the 0% blah blah blah but they could get me in at 5.9% I told them I guess they just reduced their selling price to keep the same payment for the same terms. They said they could not do it and to retuirn the vehicle. I told them to call me when they had my $7K cash and I would bring the vehicle back (with 1200 miles on it). Long story short legally I did have to return the vehicle, and yes they had up to 21 days to return my downpayment. What did I learn? Always make sure the financing is actually approved, and use a CC to make your downpayment so you can easily dispute the charge if needed.

The information I have given I stand by. I have no idea where you are buying your cars from. We can sit here and prove, that dealership do this willingly with individual cases, but the question I ask is this...HOW MANY PEOPLE HAS THIS HAPPENED TO IN COMPARISON TO THE HUGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER?

Again, it makes no sense to a dealership, from a business standpoint, to willingly put someone out on a car they will be driving to intentionally "bait and switch" them. You took the car back, the dealership made no money off you and you probably cost the dealership about $500 in effort and costs.

What were the reasons you were denied the APR? They had to tell you. What were your short comings that caused you not to get the deal?

You call it bait and switch, but there was a 0% APR that did exist, you just did not qualify.

I mean the pickle story listed above was the classic story tha proved my point: people with average to good credit have nothing to worry about, in SBK's story he had a sub prime credit score, large amount of negative equity, and the dealership was so questionable about if the deal would go down, they did not even temp tag the vehicle but used a dealer tag.

Oh and most dealerships will NOT accept over a token amount on credit cards. They will not enter into a deal with 7K on a credit card from the standpoint of dealing with a possible dispute later on that amount and paying the percentage on the amount in fees. 2% on 7K is a $140 loss that the dealership has no reason to want to pay.

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

cabarkeep — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:30:01 GMT

There are a few reasons the 0% could not be obtained ... again without knowing the whole story or the structure of the loan we will not know ...

If there was a lot of negative equity (with 7k down I would hope not but people with 15k in neg equity are not that hard to find) .... the 0% usually will not extend to cover a huge amount of negative equity

If the person thought their scores were 766-790 and these were "Plus or Fako" Scores then they did not mean anything as far as the bureaus that their manufacturer pulls and could be the difference.

You could also legitimately have that high of a Fico Score but have a lot of Credit Debt or Multiple mortgages / Self Employed or a number of other reasons that might make your lender consider you to be a high risk.

There are plenty of people with well over 700 Fico scores that really do not qualify to buy a large purchase right now because of Debt to Income issues and high credit card balances.

USMC is right the dealer definitely does not want to take the car back for sure ... it costs them money to do so .. puts miles on the car .... harder to sell to the next buyer explaining the 1200 miles on a "new" car sold as "used" on the contract (at least in CA) ..... if they took the deposit on credit card then they may have to pay charges on processing the card etc .... long story short no dealer wants to roll back a new car purchase ...

Oh just an example of how picky some credit unions are becoming ... I had a customer with a legitimate 816 Exp Fico trying to purchase a vehicle financing about 30k .. income good 6000/mo...retired...everything looked in line ...of course he was approved but guess what ...the Credit Union wanted PROOF OF INCOME as part of their approval!!

This is almost unheard of 800+ getting asked for proof of income and his income was only 6k/month? Not self employed or some amount that would sound unreasonable ... just a sign of the times. We went to another credit union who did not ask for the proof as just a matter of principle since the customer felt slapped in the face by his own credit union asking for this proof on his 3rd car loan with them in 10 years!

I am curious also as to why the poster did not qualify for the 0% with a large amount of cash down? What manufacturer was it? How long of a term?

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:47:00 GMT

The scores were pulled from this site (766, 778, 790). There was no trade-in at all. Credit length 14 yrs, no baddies whatsoever, zero debts with 2 open CC (both only 1000 limit), 82K gross. The salesman and the finance person were both "certain" I would qualify for 0% for 60 months on a 2009 VW Passat. The reason they referenced was a lack of "recent" credit activity as I bought my last vehicle in cash and plan on giving it to my son in a couple months. So yes there is 0% available, unfortunately I did not qualify.

I am certain the dealer did not want the deal to fall through for the reasons you have mentioned, however I had already negotiated a deal including the sale price and the monthly payment. I believe I was well within reason to urge the dealer to subsidize the difference if they still wanted me to go through with the deal. Unfortunately they decided to take in a new used vehicle and will lose anyways.

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Anonymous — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:38:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The scores were pulled from this site (766, 778, 790). There was no trade-in at all. Credit length 14 yrs, no baddies whatsoever, zero debts with 2 open CC (both only 1000 limit), 82K gross. The salesman and the finance person were both "certain" I would qualify for 0% for 60 months on a 2009 VW Passat. The reason they referenced was a lack of "recent" credit activity as I bought my last vehicle in cash and plan on giving it to my son in a couple months. So yes there is 0% available, unfortunately I did not qualify.
I am certain the dealer did not want the deal to fall through for the reasons you have mentioned, however I had already negotiated a deal including the sale price and the monthly payment. I believe I was well within reason to urge the dealer to subsidize the difference if they still wanted me to go through with the deal. Unfortunately they decided to take in a new used vehicle and will lose anyways.

Your story is a prime example of what I have been saying.

1- You credit score is not the end all be all of the transaction, maybe for a credit card, but not for a car or house. Your Credit Profile, of which your score is only one part makes the deal. So many people feel that their score and their score alone is enough to suffice and it is not. The fact that you did not have a "current" credit history killed you on the loan.

YOU DID NOT WHEN GOING INTO THE TRANSACTION HAVE AVERAAGE CREDIT. YOU HAD A GOOD CREDIT SCORE BUT BY YOUR OWN ADMISION DID NOT HAVE AVERAGE CREDIT.

2- You wanted the dealership to pay down your interest rate to get you to Zero. They declined you seem salty about it.

OK lets look at numbers.

$39,000 vehicle. Add lets say 7 Percent sales tax ($2730), just for instructional purposes,and another $500 for fees, we have a financed amount of $35,230 ($42,230)

Take 5.9% over 60 months, you basically wanted the dealership to pay out about what $5,400 to buy your business. Yeah I can see why they declined that offer.

I doubt that was a $5,000 profit generating deal for the salesman or even the dealership in any way.

There really is not that huge a mark up in the general automobile new car market.

Message Edited by usmc58555 on 03-08-2009 04:38 PM

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:09:58 GMT

Not salty about it at all. I am actually a very reasonable person and understand that everyone needs their "piece of the pie". I do not expect a dealer to sell a vehicle for a loss, and I understand that when a manufacturer does 0%, usually the dealer is already subsidizing some of that. Part of the reason I was going to finance was to get some more recent credit transactions going on. I still have the option of buying with cash as well. If I was salty, I would go back and offer $3K less in a cash deal for the same vehicle, now that it is used.

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

PayingTheBills — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:38:55 GMT

Dealerships pull that crap all the time. They'll approve the terms, give you the car, and and then call you three days later saying the terms are "slightly" different, but only by an increase of 1% or, they "only" need another $1,000 down payment.

Chase tried this when I bought my Subaru. Called me saying they couldn't give me the 4.9% rate I was promised at the dealership, and that I either had to accept the 7.xx% or bring the car back. I said, I bought the car in Jacksonville, FL and live in Tallahassee, so if they want the car, they could come 180 miles and get it. They started calling my job 3 times a day, asking my boss how much I made, etc (after I had provided pay stubs), so I sent them a certified letter to stop the harrassment or I would sue.

Calls stopped the next day. Terms stayed the same.

Also, if you have some time, check out this article. It's long, but worth it IMO.

Confessions of a Salesman

Message Edited by PayingTheBills on 03-09-2009 07:38 PM

Re: DON'T BUY A CAR ON WEEKENDS!

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:57:08 GMT

while that may be your case, most dealerships (particularly right now with the credit problems) simply are not doing this. there is way too much risk out there and they can not afford it. In alot of the cases it comes down to an overzealous salesman and a buyer who is too eager to drive away. Both parties tend to ignore it when the finance manager gives you the line about the deal being dependant upon approving the financing. Then everyone wants to blame the finance guy down the road. Don;t get me wrong, there are shady dealers an finance guys out there, but alot of the times it comes down to the buyer not really reading all the contracts and listening to the finance guy, or it comes down to the buyer maybe exaggerating income or personal info that later needs to be cleared up.