Momnesia

Buying a Car

I hate car dealerships, and it's not for the reason you might think. It's because they're dishonest.

Oh, maybe that is the reason you think.

My husband and I sat at a table trying to negotiate the purchase of a certified pre-owned vehicle with a warranty. But the guy just refused to talk price. All he'd talk was monthly payments.

Let me tell you - for those who don't know - how financing a car works:

The dealership gets a lump payment from the financing institution. The bank gets the payments over time. So the dealership wants to keep the total price as high as they can. Because they're not dealing with you over time. They don't get your interest. The bank does.

They will pressure you to put more money down. They'll stretch out the payments until you're old and grey. But they will never lower the price of the car.

Grrrr. A trade-in, for which they probably gave $5,000 at most, they want to price at $15,533. Just $2,000 under the price of the car when it was new. But don't bother to call them out on it, because they'd rather wait for a sucker to come along. They wouldn't budge.

That's cool. Someone else will actually negotiate terms, instead of playing some bullcorn financing game. In the meantime, you've lost our business for good. Thanks for wasting two hours of our time last night.

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