QUESTION: Buying from a sales lot with "cash"

Licorice cough drops not available. Oh, that’s right. I remember reading some years ago they can cause heart rate irregularities in a few people or something like that.

“Licorice cough drops not available”.
@irlandes–That’s interesting because at one time Smith Brothers Licorice cough drops were recommended by 9 out of 10 New York doctors. Of course, these were doctors of divinity.
A friend sent me a 20 boxes of these cough drops about three years ago. I think they are still available on the internet.

This was more an issue in the old days, when checks had to be mailed/delivered to the bank, and it took several days for the money to clear.

These days, personal checks are instantly debited electronically from your account. The dealership just inputs the routing/account numbers, the amount, and it gets sent to your bank immediately, and your bank delivers the funds immediately. So, if it’s gonna bounce, it’s gonna bounce before you get out of the dealership.

@shadowfax I recently bought a used car with a personal check. It took several days for that check to clear. But they ran my credit while I was haggling over the price.

I have purchased several cars. Looked them over, told the dealer I was interested and wanted to have my mechanic look at them first. Arranged for the inspection (abt $100) and went back to make a deal. I knew the asking price and made a cash offer below what I was willing to pay. We came to a meeting of the minds, I got what I wanted and he was happy with the deal. We wrote up a bill of sale, I drove off with the vehicle and took him a check the following day.

Have been very fortunate - did that three times over the last several years and have had no problems outside of normal maintenance, wear/tear on any of those vehicles.

If they won’t write out a contract B4 you leave the lot don’t do business with them. MOST IMPORTANTLY, have a known to you, trusted mechanic look the vehicle over BEFORE you finalize the deal. The ‘extra’ $100 is well worth it.

Here’s a little trick that sometimes works. Decide what you want to pay, something that is a fair price, that the dealer can make a profit, but maybe a bit on the low side compared to what the average selling price might be. Have the check in your pocket, fully written, even before you start negotiations. And bring in the most recent month of your checking account statement from your bank. (Best done w/a personal check rather than a cashiers check.) Then when the negotiation is getting down to your price compared to two hundred dollars more the dealer wants, pull out your check and show it to the dealer. It’s already written. Then show him your statement, proving you have enough money inthe account to cover the check.

Say: “Hey, this could be very simple. The check’s already written. Agree to this price and it’s a done deal.”

Sometimes this can be very effective.

Car dealers often make money on financing. So is cash an incentive? NO

I inspected a car for a friend, the asking price was $7,500. Everything looked good so I called the bank and found the loan value was $6,500+ and advised her to carry 65 $100 bills to the office and tell the owner she was buying a car for that amount ASAP. She was out the door in less than 30 minutes but she was to understand that the owner was losing money and didn’t know where he was going to make it up. He was apparently very entertaining.

going to make it up on the next sucker that walked through the door that didn’t do any research