How to avoid common dealer tricks in the finance & insurance (F&I) office.
1. Know your credit score before negotiating with dealers.
2. Shop around first for car loans and rates at credit unions, banks and online lenders.
3. Limit the term of the loan to 60 months (max.) or 48 months (better). If you can’t afford the car without increasing the term, you can’t afford the car. Make a bigger down payment or find a cheaper car.
4. “Payment buyers” are usually overcharged using these tricks: higher interest rates, overpriced or unwanted extras, even the price of the car.
5. Always negotiate the price of the car, NOT the monthly payment.

In the “spot delivery” scam, the dealer tells the customer that the financing didn’t go through and they have to return to the dealership to execute another contract with a higher monthly payment. Of course, this is always done after the customer has traded in their old car and driven the new one home. When the customer tells the dealer to return their old car and cancel the transaction, the dealer says they can’t because their old car has already been sold. According to the Washington State Attorney General’s office, this practice is illegal. If a dealer wants to cancel a transaction, it must be done within 4 days and the trade-in must be returned to the customer. If a dealer tries this trick on you, tell them to return your old car (with any money you paid) and cancel the transaction. If they won’t, tell them the deal is final and you are NOT signing another contract. Then tell them your attorney is going to sue their pants off if they keep bothering you.

Here’s a short video based on the undercover work of a car expert in California. Covers the following new car buying scams: Stealing the Trade, Payment Packing, The Switch (from buying to leasing) and other common tricks that are taught to new salespeople.

A variation of this trick is when a customer is having second thoughts about buying, so another salesperson (or manager) calls that salesperson in the presence of the customer, pretending to have another customer who wants to buy that car today. (Of course, its the only one available in that color.) The real customer is then tricked into buying immediately rather than losing the car to the other (fake) customer. If a salesperson tries this trick on you, just get up and leave. As you’re walking out, say “Let the other guy have it, I don’t want it.” (Note: If you still want the car, call back one or two days later and ask a different saleperson if they still have that car.)