APR

Okay, so don’t buy one if it isn’t worth it to you.

 

Alrighty then. Am I understanding some people implying that they are being made to finance? That’s not happening in my area. My local dealer never marked up any new cars during the last 3 years. You can write a check. I absolutely believe I will just pay sticker for a 24 as I have been told.
Edit. Some dealers did up mark up but not this particular one.

 

@fourfourone @Hogleg918 @CrispyTacoLover Part of the deal is I have to wait five payments before I pay it off or there is about a $1k penalty. I know it sounds bad at first sight, but I'm going to pay 80% of it off on the first payment to minimize interest, then after my fifth payment pay the whole thing off. No way I would keep an interest rate like this. This is my dealership's substitute for "no dealer markups" and I'll play the game. I called dealerships up and down the east coast and really, this was the best I found in a high volume dealer that gets real Toyota allotments.

 

How are they enforcing this penalty? I’m sorry but having worked in dealerships I know about reserve and flats from the lender. If a customer pays off early it doesn’t come back on the customer, the dealer eats it. If it’s a gentleman’s agreement I understand, but I still find it distasteful to reward shitty dealer practices. I’m out of the business now but I would never work for dealers that did that. Did we mark up rate? Absolutely, profit isn’t a bad word. But lying to customers about how it goes down is just not good to me.

 

It’s a common practice. I have never seen a contract clause around the incentive though.

 

Not sure about enforcement, maybe through a prepayment penalty on the loan? It is a gentleman's agreement; I am a handshake kind of guy and the vehicle was pretty hard to get. I'll probably end up paying a few hundred in interest when it's all said and done. I'm using the same dealer to get a '24 Tacoma next year and I'd like him to call me when one gets allocated. Not ideal, but the best I could find for what I bought.

 

Prepayment penalties are legal in most states on car loans. It’s a simple as a feature of the loan, if it’s paid off too early, there’s some form of a fee.

I think dealers are going to do anything they can, with any tools they have to make extra money, if they see the opportunity to do so.

I usually just walk away from all the nonsense, but when you need a vehicle, you need a vehicle and at the end of the day if you’ve researched and that’s the best deal, you can get locally, then I guess you got to go for it.

 

Easy way to make it a win win is just pay the balance down on the first payment to where you have 4 or 5x of monthly payments left. Then just make the monthly payments to satisfy the prepayment agreement and your amount of finance charge will be very little.