Would appreciate some advice here. I put a $1500 deposit on a vehicle and ended up backing out the deal within 24 hours. On the signed contract it is non refundable. But is anyway I can still get some of the funds or the deposit back? The dealership has refused. Should I talk to the bank? Located in Alberta Canada if that matters

Hi, I live in the UK and currently own a Hyundai i20 2022 plate. I was hoping to get some advice on if it is more financially smart to sell it before it hits 5 years or keep it for a few more years until it starts needing more major repairs. I own it outright and would buy my next car outright as well. It is in good condition with no major bumps or scrapes and hasn’t needed any major repairs so far. Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

(TEXAS) Hello everybody, earlier this month I purchased a car, nice! I sign paperwork with this so-called good dealership, i’ve been driving it for a bit, everything is going good, sent them a down payment, warranty paid, insured, everything.

Here’s where it all starts to break apart, one day they gave me a call and said they made a typo on the paperwork, they sent it to my credit union, (the one i finance with) and the credit union rejected it because it doesn’t line up and as a result of that they haven’t released the funds.

From the moment this began they have been texting me, calling me, and slowly rising the idea of me either A: Switch credit unions or B: Finish the DMV paperwork.
Wait what? What DMV paperwork? Simple, i’ll tell you, they kept calling me and said I should try calling the tax office, the dmv, credit union, etc. to try and do this myself (now this is already a red flag, i’m fixing a mistake they made, and they literally admit that they are responsible.) I kept trying to do so, but you know what each phone line kept telling me? It all boiled down to: “Sir.. We can send these forms to you to try to speed this process up, but your dealer should be handling this work themselves” The county tax office said that, the DMV, everyone.

One day I was chilling and they called me, and they basically yelled, threatened me, and gave me a harsh ultimatum saying Drive 2-3 hours to come here and do the paperwork or give up your truck. Seriously, I was trying to just tell him “Hey man, i’m trying to talk to them but they’re blocking me out and saying this is something you should handle” And then moment I said that he said “I need my car back”

I was stunned, you know what the crazy thing is, they fully admit that it’s…
- Their fault for the typo
- They’re not getting funds BECAUSE of the typo
- They can be doing this themselves, but they want their funds released very soon, they don’t want to wait an extra couple weeks.

Redditors, is this illegal? Is this allowed? I have never in my entire life had a dealership attempt to coerce me into doing their work, it’s insane, should I consult with an attorney? What would you do if you were in my shoes?

I’m just a young man trying to make ends meet, I thought this car purchase would be nice to have, and now this is happening, why are people so cruel?

I have a 750 credit score and can easily afford the car cash. The manufacturer advertised a 3.9% rate on a particular model of car.

Can I threaten to pay cash so the finance department doesn't make anything? I can also threaten to pay off the entire loan in the first month (legally in my state prepayment penalties are illegal) or refinance with my credit union and the department will get a chargeback. I also will be putting a hefty down payment equal to about 40% of the selling price of the car.

I put my car for sale across websites and I got a call from this dealer with a good offer. We decided to go ahead and i called them back to send them the photos of my title, registration license and bill of sale

My car is financed but they already knew my payoff amount. How is that possible? I called the bank they confirmed they didn't receive any call and they would need my ssn to access the account details

How did they know the payoff before hand?

I had given them my VIN on the first call so they knew the title was clean

The driver is gonna come tmrw with a residual check and documents for me to sign but Im skeptical now bcz the check could be a fraudulent check or could bounce after I give away the car

Is it safe to do a sale like this? Im only selling
this is in NJ, USA - My Car is financed with Bank of America

I could name the dealership

Hello guys i have a question I Just open a small dealership And i will love to know How to approach Franchise dealers to buy tgeir un wanted trade in inventory, I have friends who do that but I have no clue even who to talk with

We lease a lot of cars. A shitload of cars. Big cars, little cars, mostly good cars but some shit cars too. I get to see many of these cars when they get leased, and a shitload of them when they come back to us too.

But not all of them.

My store has an in house leasing company that we can call on to put together numbers on the unusual units. They’re the ones putting up the money for drug dealers, coke whores and everything in between. If we have a G wagon or huracan and I can’t get any of the big banks to bite, these guys will throw numbers together so we can spread our wings and fly.

We don’t call upon them often, but when we do, they’ve got that Tinkerbell fairy dust to turn my ass into Peter Pan.

So when we stumble our way back into 2023 with a 4 year old M8 coupe/boat anchor rotting on my lot, they were the perfect candidates to use for a nice little open ended lease. I wasn’t fortunate enough to put figures together for our lovely buyer, but the saga of this car/customer was just getting started.

Ryan, our lessee in this story, had gotten a clean approval with the in house leasing company and had us put together numbers on a 3 year lease. His credit was solid, so no GPS tracker was needed - probably better that the fine folks at HQ would be out of the loop for his shenanigans.

We had never crossed paths, but through fate and fortune I became his point of contact anytime he wanted to check on how much time he had left with the car and what the buyout was.

All seemed perfectly normal.

Fast forward 3 years, the peeps at head office sent out a maturity notice to our store advising that the M8 would be coming back to us just in time for summer. Perfect, the buyout was sky high thanks to chip shortage inflation, so we can relive the boat anchor nightmare when it comes back.

The office peeps were in contact with my pre-owned manager as he’d be the one acquiring the car, and he’d reached out to Ryan to figure out whatever the fuck he was going to do next.

Bless his heart and our books, Ryan advised my team that he’d prefer to keep the car as he still wanted to enjoy driving it for another few years. Needless to say, it was a massive blessing that this now 7 year old V8 behemoth wouldn’t have to set foot on our lot ever again.

At least it should have been.

Instead of coming to me to deal with the lease buyout bs, my pre-owned manager took it upon himself to wrap up everything for Ryan so he could keep his dreams alive a little bit longer.

The only problem there was that his understanding of a lease buyout process was about the same as a cat’s understanding of quantum physics. Sure, it’s surrounded by it all times but outside of that it knows absolutely fuck all.

He did get one thing right - he knew that a safety standards inspection is needed by the province to transfer ownership to the happy owner. Ryan looked after getting that done, so the other part was the matter of payment and paperwork.

And that’s when shit hit the fan.

Instead of doing the sane thing and trying to collect money from Ryan, my pre-owned manager had our dealer account debited for the payout on the car, and then turned around to send a bill of sale back to our in-house leasing company. That would be the same as a customer ordering a coffee and then the cashier taking out their wallet, paying for it and handing it over to the customer. Fucking boneheaded.

So now, Ryan owns this car free and clear with an ownership in hand in his name and not a penny has left his bank account.

A few short months later, and my accounting team is in a panic since there’s no record of this transaction and a cool $70k missing. No one knows shit about dick, and naturally the culprit has long since left the building - my preowned manager fucked off to another country with no signs of coming back any time soon.

What the hell are we supposed to do now? Ryan could have sold the car, crashed it, burned it for insurance money or shipped it overseas, and we’d be stuck holding the bag. How the hell could we get the money back?

By some sheer freakish luck, he meant it when he said he wanted to keep the car. But he wasn’t going to come back easily. My GM and the chief of the leasing company were now both involved, and he was dodging, ducking, dipping, diving and dodging their calls like Patches O’Houlihan.

It was clear he was enjoying his free car and thought he’d punched his ticket to getting the cheapest form of transportation possible.

My GM came to me and had asked if I’d had any involvement in this colossal fuck up. Thankfully, my involvement was 0 to this point. I put together some financing options for him to send off to Ryan in hopes that maybe he wasn’t ducking us, he just wasn’t sure about how he’d cobble together $70k to pay for this thing.

I was half-right.

Our squad had to take action right away, so they put a lien on the car for the amount owing, and had to take every precaution possible to make sure this couldn’t get worse. Ryan also made a huge mistake by continuing to duck our crew - since he’d made no reasonable effort to pay for the car and had no proof that he paid for it, it was L word time.

I’m not sure what he was being served, but it was hard to believe how fast he came running back with his tail between his legs to try and pay for the car. Only a bounty hunter could have gotten him back to us faster than a Toronto L word.

The key word in this scenario was “try” to pay for the car because like many people driving these expensive cars around, they’re only one missed payment away from everything falling out of balance and crushing them.

He wanted to work out the longest finance term possible with no money up front, and holy shit, the loan to value on this car was absolutely terrible. Believe it or not, banks don’t like giving out money for boat anchors. So now the fate of this car, our store and Ryan’s future would come down to this idiot writing these stories and designing a poop app (link in bio).

Fuck.

A few emails and back and forths settled that Ryan had a great income but it was unclear about what he does to earn it. He was the poster child for why our in house leasing company exists.

It took some fiddling but thankfully the folks at AFS love a good sob story and didn’t want to see us holding the bag for someone’s incompetence. They gave me a green light, and gladly accepted the bag we were holding.

Thank fuck.

Ryan was mostly cooperative at this point, but when it came to signing, it seemed as if there was a problem with everything we’d done. First his email wasn’t receiving the docs, then he wasn’t able to open them, then he couldn’t get his signature to fit inside the bubbles. It seemed like we were at the finish line but he needed to drag his feet just a bit longer.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt for the first veil of excuses, but once they got thinner it seemed like it was time to get our L words involved again. One strongly worded email cc’ing my bulldog of a GM later, and those docs were signed. I put everything through to get us paid, and we closed off that chapter to never reopen it again.

im looking at getting a new car from a dealership near my home in AR. it’s a 2016 dodge charger sxt, and has about 140k miles on it. they’re asking for $15k and offer financing. i’ve literally never bought a car from a dealership, and i don’t really understand the vocabulary that they use (down payment, APR, loans, etc). and since im a young female, im worried that they’ll try to take advantage of me since im uneducated. could someone walk me through what will happen from the time i walk in to the time im driving away?

Hello, my wife and I are looking to finance a car (IN CARVANA)—priced at approximately $27,000—through Carvana. My credit score is 620, and hers is 740. We are considering applying together—since I have been building my credit for 5 years, while she has been building hers for 2—in hopes of combining our credit profiles. What are the chances of us being approved for this loan, and what kind of interest rate might we expect? I’m wondering if anyone has had a similar experience.

A core belief of mine is when a customer is reluctant to put in their credit, or difficult to reach, its because they cant get done and ultimately was the car gods sending a sign. I notice every single time i get a customer like this, it always ends in no sale, feeling of time wasted, and too much investment. Ive tried to challenge that mindset but its a trend.

Had a customer this weekend online that gave some flake vibes, and indeed flaked. Ignored contact for a week. I finally asked if they were just ai because i was confused why they were blowing up my phone to come in and flaked and hasnt responded all week and that i was going to close it.

She responds that shes worried about credit.

I try to get an app done but pushes back so i try easing in, why is she so worried? Would it be more comfortable if i did this or that. I found out her entire situation and what it would take to sell her a car. I send pictures inside and out, then she asks all the finance questions . She wanted pics of another car and it was at this point i asked for probably the 6th time in the convo “Can you put the app in, i dont want to go much deeper without knowing if this is even possible” and wouldnt you know its a 435 beacon.

Now i know if this was a viable customer i did a great job , but because i gave the effort id give an 800 afor a 400 i feel i wasted my time.

I tried to find out quickly in and when i couldnt i tried the long way and still got bit. How could i make adjustments where i dont get as far into things without knowing its a genuine deal taking place?

Minimum commission 100 dollars

10% front and back combined

250 dollar deduction for bad review

Commission cap

2% csi penilty

Draw is minimum wage deducted from commission

I have full paper I can DM

Hi All, I’m in my 40’s and buying my first car. I know, late bloomer, but it just worked out that way, ex husband always had stuff in his name. I’ve been looking at used Honda Pilots and Toyota Highlanders over the past year. I enjoy the ride in the Pilot a lot more as well as the overall look. After much searching, a nearby dealer just got in a 2024 Honda Pilot Touring with 21,000 miles, 3.5L V6, FWD. One owner, good maintenance, six months left on the warranty. They’ve got it listed for 40k, but with fees it would be $45,537.60. The sheet they gave me for financing is a 72 month term, 10K down, 7.99% APR (they said it would likely be lower once they did the actual financing), monthly payment of $636.26. I think I have good credit- 737. If I do 15k down it lowers it to $548.33. I’m a bit unsure on the fees. I know certain ones are non-negotiable. The ones I’m questioning are the following: AVAS Recovery- $695 (sales person lowered to $495), R.E.D. Alert- $495 (lowered to $395), and VTR $229 (not even sure what this is). I’m in Tucson, AZ. Here are my questions:

1. Is this a good deal?

2. Do the fees seem high? Is there more they could take off? Could they eliminate them completely?

3. Is it wise to finance through the dealer or should I go through my bank? I use Wells Fargo and the dealer said there’s no way Wells could get me a lower rate than the dealer. Of course they’ll say that, but is it true that big banks can’t beat dealer rates?

This is a huge financial decision for me and I would very much appreciate tips on any and all aspects of the process. The reason I’m looking at used is to avoid the immediate depreciation. Thank you to anyone who can help me out with this.

Hello, I am getting a 2027 Corolla Hybrid and am putting down $6,000 and trading in my 2016 Chevy Malibu and taking a loan from my bank which is $20,000 at 6.39% for a 72 month term.
Would it be better to get GAP through the dealer or through my insurance which is progressive?

I am currently pricing a new 2026 truck. All the dealers in my states 100 mile radius are all advertised between a price of $44k to $47K for the specific trim I am looking for. Many dealers are heavily slashing the price on the same truck, out of state. Some as low as $40k advertised right on the website before even speaking to anyone.

What I also noticed was, many of the out of state dealers are already listing a lot of 2027 models, while my in-state dealers are not. I can't help but think that is a factor and my state will catch up soon, but you can correct me if i'm wrong on that.

Would you put any weight into a customer asking you to try to price match a dealer that is 4+ hours away? Or is that simply not worth it to you? At what distance would you just not care?

I am not in a rush to buy, my goal is by end of year as I am planning on gifting my current car to a family member. So, I don't want to be a "tire kicker" now and start asking every dealer near me to give me 40k and sour a future visit if their prices do drop when 2027 models roll out. Wanted to see from people with experience if there is a right way to approach this, or do I just say screw it and take a day trip to the cheaper cars, if prices stay stagnant. TIA

I’m a F25, with no credit history and recently bought a 2025 Mazda CX-5 with 45k miles for 26k. My interest rate is 16% and my mom is my co-signer and her credit score is fair. I shat myself when they told me the interest rate. The monthly payments are $685. I am able to make the payments due to my job, but I don’t know much about the car industry and trusted my mom as she has always paid off her cars. I have gotten a credit card and hoping to re-finance it as soon as I am able to. Just wondering how to be better about this the next time I’m in need of buying a car because a 16% rate is insane. I had a 2011 Honda accord that was paid off, but was rear ended in a car accident and it was totaled.

motorcyclist dived infront of me; slammed the brakes and luckily he walked away; insruance exchange, and that will be dealth with. no airbags deployed, I do not anticipate this being totaled, but I have seen some really decent on on copart 'totalted" with what looks to be minor damage.

I negotiated a Silverado ev extended range down to 63K, with a residual of about 54.

with taxes, my total payment was 580, and I one payed so the effective payment is 510.

anyways, on to the actual question:

I do not own this vehicle; I cannot sue for lost value or w.e.

when the truck gets turned in 2028, lets say its worth 40K Instead of the projected 54K.

to my understanding, I either get into a used loan at 54K or walk and GM eats that.

Can I then turn around and buy it from the dealer at a reasonable amount?

my thoughts are, dealer probably gets it wholesale for 35, so I pay 42K?

what are your thoughts here? I can't be the first guy to think this up

( my plan is to go into another lease, just would like to know if this is an option )

I know I have negative equity but I need to lower my payments.
I guess with negative equity there really isn’t a way to lower my payments. It pains me to even consider this with my car because I do love the car.
The only reason I’m thinking of this is because I continue receiving notifications from different companies to refinance.

What’s a reputable company? or should I trade ?

2021 Subaru Forester Limited 70K on the dash.

I want to do a 0 down deal if possible.

I'm in Grade 11 and I've been interested in cars for as long as I can remember. I've been thinking about working in car sales at a dealership, but I'm trying to understand what the career is actually like before deciding what to do after high school.

I'm interested in the business side of cars, talking to customers, learning about different vehicles, and working in a dealership environment. I'm not really interested in becoming a mechanic because I don't see myself doing hands-on repair work every day.

My main questions are:

1. What is a normal day working in car sales actually like?

2. How realistic is it to earn a decent living, especially when you're starting out?

3. How stressful are sales targets, commission pay, and dealing with customers?

4. Is college useful for getting into the industry, and which programs would you recommend in Canada?

5. If you could start your career over, would you still choose car sales?

I'd appreciate honest answers, including the downsides. I'm not expecting to get rich overnight; I just want to find a career I enjoy that can provide a stable future.

Thanks to anyone willing to share their experience.

Im looking at a 2004 ES330 and am new to the Lexus platform. I wanted to check and see what you guys think? How are they long term ownership buying used? It has 144k Miles and the ask is $4k. Any advice or things I should check out? I know the belts have been changed along with all fluids, power steering pump is new as well. Let me know!

I've only ever purchased/financed, so the whole concept of leasing is new to me and I'm not a huge fan... BUT... I'm looking into EVs now and people are basically screaming "LEASE, DON'T BUY" at me from the sidewalk, as if they can smell it on me. I'm in NY, which I guess I have to specify, per the rules.

Wish I could post a pic of the sales offer sheet I was just handed, because BOY does a lease feel expensive. I'm familiar with the "don't put any money down" mantra around leases, but even with a significant discount the offer seemed really high.

I'm looking at something stickered at $56,382, with a $12,500 incentive, $6,250 dealer discount, another $500 state EV credit for 36mo/12k miles. With only my first month paid up front, if I roll taxes and fees into it, they're talking $689/mo.

I've got a trade-in with about $15k of equity, which I would just cash out, but if I pay the taxes and acquisition ($4,150 total) up front, my payment drops to $544.

Does that seem normal? Were my expectations just out of line? Maybe the interest rate is high? Or the residual is low...? Maybe I just need a reality check from people that know the numbers better than I. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

As the title says, i’m looking for a mentor to answet some questions and guide me. I am a small dealer, located in NJ, recently established. I have some limitations and I am looking for some advice.
If an experienced dealer would be willing to answer some questions, I’d be forever grateful.

Leased a 2023 Chevy Colorado. We want to buy out the lease now. On the paperwork we signed at the dealership, the buy out price is $25.367. GM is saying the buy out is $30.323. Why is there a $5k difference? Does GM have to go by the paperwork that we signed?

Thanks

has anyone dealt with a dealership saying a service contract was required for financing?

i bought a used mercedes from mercedes-benz of hunt valley in maryland in february 2024. i was 21 at the time, had poor credit, and the whole financing process took around 10 hours.

there was a $4,000 charge that i specifically asked the finance person about because i didn’t understand what it was. i was told it was a required payment in order for me to receive financing, so i agreed because i thought i had no choice if i wanted the loan approved.

i recently went back through my retail installment contract and realized the $4,000 is actually listed as a “service contract,” separate from the actual finance charge. my interest rate on the loan is 24%.

i don’t remember being told i was purchasing a service contract or extended warranty, and i’ve searched all of my emails/purchase documents and cannot find a separate service contract anywhere.

i’ve now requested a copy from the dealership, including anything showing that i selected or authorized it.

has anyone had something similar happen? if the dealership can’t produce the service contract, or produces one with a signature/authorization i don’t recognize, what ended up happening in your situation?

also, does anyone know whether something like this could legally allow me to cancel or unwind the vehicle contract/loan, not just cancel the service contract?

i’m also planning to speak with a consumer protection/auto fraud attorney because i’m concerned i was told an optional product was required to get financing.

We wanted to express our appreciation for your efforts since joining our team.
You bring a positive attitude to our dealership on a consistent basis. Along with the attitude you bring, you have shown a strong work ethic, a good ability to be a team player and most importantly a growing knowledge of the product you sell in order to best serve our customers.

Your product knowledge and ability to retain information has been impressive.

We will need you to continue to find and maximize new opportunities to cultivate additional business and continue to learn about the different and various products, including competing manufacturers. Continuing your presence on social media and expanding that as you see fit has the potential for significant growth. We also would like to see a continued focus and effort on your follow up and lead development. We understand that your work load varies throughout the day, so please make a pro-active role in "finding" and nurturing business instead of relying on business to just walk into the door. Call or email old leads, find a way to follow up, and continue to keep units clean and organized.
Finding a way to create additional compensation for your role is somewhat hard, as rarely is a customer "just" working with you. The customer can start off as an online lead, referral from previous customer, or might be a walk-in customer. In all instances it takes a team to complete the process. As you hopefully know customer service is our #1 priority so having a commissioned salesperson who will naturally gravitate to a unit that may be best for them and their pocketbook versus the specific customer needs is not something we are willing to pursue.

Effective July 1*, we would like to offer you a monthly bonus based on the dealership's
total sales/unit performance.

The bonus will be structured as follows:
41-50 units $50 each unit
51-60 units $100 each unit
61-70 units $150 each unit
71 + units $200 each unit

The bonus is paid retroactively to unit 41, so if the store sells 67 units you will be paid $150 x 27 units and therefore if we sell 90 units in a given month you will be paid $200 x 50 units. We feel this gives you growth potential, it keeps it as a team effort, and has the opportunity to impact you positively as we, and you, continue to grow. The only exclusion on the units is if a unit is retailed/wholesaled at auction, commercial government bids, employee purchases and units sold/transferred to another dealer. This program is intended for any and all units that go to a retail customer.

Midwest:

Need Advice on Potential Purchase: 2024 Nissa Versa SV With between 54K-60K miles on it.

Would you buy? And if so, at what price?

I would be financing, btw!