I am planning to buy a new car soon and was referred to an Aggie salesman who I have been working with. I am planning to finance the car, and I wondered, is the salesman affected by whether or not I finance at the dealership or independently? Or do they not care how I pay for the car as long as they make the sale? If I financed with the dealership initially but then refinanced with a bank or credit union, does that screw the salesman in some way? If I can secure a lower rate outside of the dealership and present that to them, any chance they will match it? I obviously want to do whatever is in my best interest financially, but I also want to make sure I'm not being discourteous to a fellow Aggie who has been very helpful.

the salesman will not care, the finance manager will

Salesman just gets paid based on selling you the car. Finance manager gets credit for finance office stuff.

One tip I have:

Make the finance manager draw the paperwork up the old fashioned way on paper before you sign anything. And throw a fit if the payment is off by more than a penny with what you come up with with a finance calculator on what was agreed on with the salesman.

What they like to do is have you sign with a stylus on peripheral device without you seeing the document first. They'll just say "this document just means this, sign. This document means this, sign. Etc.". They'll sneak add ons, protection packages, warranties, etc. into the agreement this way.

I had a finance manager stick an extended warranty onto my finance agreement and extended the loan by 3 months in an attempt to hide it. They payment was only a few dollars different. Luckily I caught it when I got home and came back a few days later and made him remove the warranty. He begrudgingly agreed.

Like others have said, it won't screw the salesman, but if you refi within a certain period it will screw the finance manager as their bonus will get called back. They typically want you to wait 90 days but the term can vary.

They will treat self financing as a cash deal. These days cash doesn't mean squat, as they stand to make more off a financed sale and the funds settle faster than a personal check. I've noticed that many advertised deals are predicated on financing with the dealer.

I would be prepared to self finance (i.e., bank check, etc.) and also be flexible enough to offer financing with the dealer if it benefits you.

I walked in to my last purchase with financing in hand from a credit union. I spent 3 minutes with the finance guy signing paperwork and he didn't say a word to me. It was glorious. Not sure I'll ever walk in to a dealer without a credit union check in hand again.

I was pre-approved when I went in to buy my current vehicle. The dealership actually got me a lower rate through Capitol One.

Kbeauty63 said:

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I was pre-approved when I went in to buy my current vehicle. The dealership actually got me a lower rate through Capitol One.

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If you tell them your pre-approved rate, when they go looking for other financing it will almost always come back just under what you're pre-approved for (assuming good credit). They'll come in just under whatever you've shown them you have to get the loan. I had the same experience as you in Dec 202, I was pre-approved for 2.5%, they came back with 2.37%. Good to get it a bit less, but what would the rates have been if they didn't have any info on my pre-approved rate? Not sure if I would have gotten a better rate or not if I didn't tell them ahead of time.

kb2001 said:

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Kbeauty63 said:

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I was pre-approved when I went in to buy my current vehicle. The dealership actually got me a lower rate through Capitol One.

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If you tell them your pre-approved rate, when they go looking for other financing it will almost always come back just under what you're pre-approved for (assuming good credit). They'll come in just under whatever you've shown them you have to get the loan. I had the same experience as you in Dec 202, I was pre-approved for 2.5%, they came back with 2.37%. Good to get it a bit less, but what would the rates have been if they didn't have any info on my pre-approved rate? Not sure if I would have gotten a better rate or not if I didn't tell them ahead of time.

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TBH I don't remember if I told them the rate I had - and the CO rate was significantly lower that my pre-approval rate.

After you agree on a price, if they still have room in the deal they can buy down the rate to beat what you bring in. So them beating a good rate usually just means you left something on the table with the deal.

So what's recommended….

Negotiate the final price first? Then deal with rates?

Used car purchase any diff?