Scams to Look For When Purchasing a New Car

Buying a new vehicle is already hard enough without a car salesman putting pressure on you while you are browsing. We all know that almost every car dealer can be negotiated down on the sale price of a car. The thing is that to watch out for the scams so that you can maximize your hard earned cash. In this article I am going to share a few sales tactics that you may want to be on the lookout for the next time you purchase a new car.

1. This scam deals with etching the vehicle’s VIN# on the window. There are dealerships that will try to charge for this added feature, saying it is a requirement by a lender. It’s not! No lender will require you to pay for any extra options that you don’t need. The truth is they only care about is whether or not you pay your instalments on time.

2. This is a scam for those with poor credit. The are dealership that may quote the “subject to loan approval” phrase found in many loan proposals as a way to get as much as an extra $1000 and $50 per month out of you. A way to avoid this is to get you funding from a bank or other lender.

3. The credit score scam is very common nowadays. This involves the car dealer telling you that your credit score is lower than it really is and attempting to charge a higher interest rate. When purchasing a new car it’s a good idea to bring along your credit report to dispute any claims that they could make.

4. Next is the forced warranty scam where the auto dealership will insist that in order to qualify for the car loan you will need to purchase a $2000, 2 or 3 year warranty. This is total rubbish and the truth is you don’t need the warranty.

5. This is the Dealer prep scam. A dealer will slap an additional $500 charge on the vehicle for work that is not required, because cars are ready to to be driven of the lot when they are received. Try to find a dealership that doesn’t charge this ridiculous fee.

6. Another fake fee is the ‘dealer mark-up’. This has no purpose other than to increase profits. You can usually see this fee on an orange sticker attached to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.

As common as these scams are, there are also quite a few reputable dealerships out there. Dealerships that will give you a good service and sell you a car at a fair price. You just have to look carefully for them.