Acquaintance wants new 2023 RX350. Dealer financing or he pays cash?

Would be interesting to conduct the experiment, one person w/cash, another w/dealer financing. Same car, base model, few options, wonder who would get the better deal?

I have never personally financed any vehicle, instead paying cash. I will never tell them anything about the payment method until the price has been established and we are in the finance office. If you tell them at any point prior that you will finance, they will try to load up the deal any way they can and will only speak to you about monthly costs for your loan. They can mask all kinds of add-ons at high profits into the loan and you have to be a math wizard to figure out the actual cost of stuff. They have all the leverage and they know it so that’s why they prefer that route. If you actually want any of the add-ons, make them price those out separately so you can see if the prices make sense and are acceptable to you. They love to bundle, it obscures the picture and leads people to make bad financial decisions.

Make no mistake, no one at the dealership is going to give you a better deal because you told them you would finance. In fact, it makes it easier to obfuscate the the actual costs to you and pose it as a monthly expenditure that you can afford (they already ran your credit).

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Would show nothing . One sales person might have had a good month and would rather sell the vehicle than beat his brains out . Or the salesman needs to make as much as he can because he has not done well so far. Then the final decision is made by the sales manager and he just might not like the person trying to buy.

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I got $500 OFF the agreed deal for financing, then paid the loan off before 30 days, no pre-payment penalty.

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I always tell the dealer we will talk financing AFTER we settle on a price. The only time I varied from that was when I bought a 2004 PT Cruised with a $5000 rebatet hat required Chrysler Financing that I paid off as soon as the payoff figures were available. I don’t remember what it cost me in interest but it was under $20.

For the 71/2 years I owned it, the depreciation cost me under $900 a year.

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Friend knew of my conjecture that dealers may be more willing to price compromise if the vehicle is financed through the dealer.
He also knows I have never purchased a new car andikely never will.

Yes! That’s the idea! - If one has the funds to immediately pay it off.
If a prepayment penalty and advance paying 99%, would that defeathe prepayment penalty?

I did a similar thing, except I paid off the dealer financing with a new car loan from my credit union that had a much lower interest rate.

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Was there a loan origination or other processing fee bundled into the loan? These can be quite substantial if the buyer has less than stellar credit rating and easily offset any claimed savings by applying for the loan. And they are good at hiding these fees in the down payment or more commonly amortized over the loan period. I have no doubt you are aware of the pitfalls so more for others passing by and might be helpful to understand the “no free lunch” deal with these loans pushed by the dealer and them saying- no problem, just pay it off early. They already got their slice of the pie so no skin off their nose, so to speak.

I am guessing this car doesn’t come from a place like CarMax or CarMart, being so new and a higher end model. We have CarMart in my town and they sell decent used cars but require you use their financing. It seems they cater to those with bad credit. I saw a car I liked there once and looked at it. It seemed highly priced. I don’t remember the exact details but they wouldn’t budge on the price and I think you had to use their financing which was not good as well. I just remember thinking I won’t come back but don’t remember all the crap you had to go through to buy from them.

Most legit dealers can get you financing and then you just pay the thing off after making one payment. I have always heard should should at least make one payment, otherwise the deal could be voided and you lose the incentives promised. Read the fine print and see if there are any pre-payment penalties.

I don’t care if the dealer got some cash, the cost to me remained the bottom line on the sale. Now it might cost me (and other members) a tiny reduction in the interest rate paid on our saving account balance.