Post #303832 by TikiJosh on Thu, May 3, 2007 2:06 PM

Ha! Awesome story! When my wife got her new car, the salesman conned her into leasing it, telling her that she couldn't afford to buy a car. She came home (I wasn't with her) and I was so mad, I could've spit. We went to our credit union like the very next day and got a pre-approval for a car loan with a 4.9 or something like that. Then we went back to the car dealer, and I asked the guy something like "What gives with telling her to lease the car when she wants to buy one? We want to buy the lease out." He tells us the same crap, that we don't qualify for any less than an 8% APR or something lame, and I pull out my letter that says 4.9% on it. Well, now he's got egg on his face, and he says-- "well we just can't do that for you." And I said "Fine. You'll get a check in the mail for the payoff amount." Then we walk out the door.
We really wound up paying through the nose for this car though. The guy leased it at a price that's probably higher than the value of the car. I mean, it's got a lot of extras on it, but it's not worth what we paid for it. Still gets my blood boiling. Well, live and learn. Like you said Vampiress-- you gotta do a lot of research to know what you're getting into, otherwise you get what sounds like a good deal, and then you get screwed.
I always say that you should call your own bank or something to see what type of interest rate you qualify for before shopping for a car, that way you know whether the dealer's offer is reasonable. When I bought my truck almost 9 years ago, had to have my Dad put it in his name cause his credit was so good and mine was so bad. Well, he'd gotten a nice APR from his credit union, and when the dealer found out about it, they offered to beat it by just a little, rather than lose out on all the interest. I mean, why wouldn't they want the practically free money that they earn in interest?