OT: sportwagen

[dmitrik4]

Originally Posted by rice rocket

I had the misfortune of having to replace my daily last month.

Things I've found out that have changed in the past 15 years since I've been in front of a dealer salesman:

#1, they're all owned by 3 or 4 companies nowadays (Autonation, Lithia, Penske?), or tied to some smaller conglomerate or PE firm
#2, they will upsell you on ANYTHING. $1000 lifetime battery contract? $1000 in lifetime oil changes? I get it's inconvenient when it happens, but I'm not pre-paying 10 years worth of batteries, rolled into my 7 year loan that I pay 100% interest and zero principal on up front
#3, they no longer just check financing at several lending institutions to get the best rate for you, they are all banks themselves and have no fiduciary duty to help anybody but themselves and will quietly sell you a loan, at twice the market rate without blinking (I was given 8.25% for 36 months with 50% down, versus 3.99% at a bank/CU)


Fleecing everybody is the name of the game nowadays. It's a total race to the bottom in the stealership world, especially now that they can sell their own **** loans.


Okay, soapbox over.

Get the options, they are fun. The heated steering wheel, the automatic cooled/heated seats, the auto open/close tailgate, they are little pleasures make this world tolerable.

Every manufacturer has a captive finance division; it would be foolish to let a bank make that interest revenue when they can keep it for themselves. Flip side is that you often can get a better sales price if you finance through the manufacturer. I’ve done that before to get a discount/incentive, then a few months later refi’d through my CU at a much lower rate.