I have been a Finance Manager at franchise car dealerships for most of my working career and let me tell you, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that still hasn't been told.
Even with all the knowledge of the Internet and undercover camera shows there are still things that most of the public are not aware of.
As corrupt as some car dealerships can be, even the most reputable ones will take advantage of a customer with less than perfect credit.
As a matter of fact, sub-prime buyers are some of our most profitable customers.
I thinkthat statement will surprise a lot of people.
I'm going to try and answer the most common questions that people ask but we never answer.

• Why do I only get to look at certain vehicles? If you've ever been car shopping with bad credit, the salesmen are likely to show you just 1 or 2 cars.
  The cars they are showing you are the ones they will make the most profit on.
  Any car dealership that advertises for bad credit has some kind of computer software or program that once the finance manager plugs in the rate, terms, and down payment will list the inventory in order of profit.
  The secret is they tell the salesmen to show you 1 or 2 cars that are at the top of their list for profit.
  The salesman will say things like "This is what the bank has approved you for" or "This is in the banks guidelines" so you get excited because you know you can get approved on this car! The truth is, there are many other cars that work for your approval we just don't make as much money on them.
  This computer software is very sophisticated and allows for maximum profit.
  That's why bad credit customers are so profitable for the dealer.
  You wouldn't see us dare try to show a customer with an 800 beacon score the cars we want them to buy.
  We are relying on the fact that you're so excited to be purchasing a car, that you will ignore our tactics.
  Select a vehicle yourself that fits your needs and your price range.
  Which leads me to my next tip.
  

• What's the price of the car? As a finance manager I will instruct the salesman not to answer that so my software program that selected the car for you can set the selling price.
  Remember, the computer program I told you about earlier? Well another thing it will tell us is how much we can sell the car for, based on how much the bank will loan.
  The price we want to sell you the car for may be several hundreds, if not thousands over what we have the car really priced for.
  A customer with excellent credit would have been quoted the price off the salesman's list.
  The salesman will say anything at the time to get you to drive the car without letting you know how much it is.
  A favorite line my salesmen have used is "The bank will set the price" that's true up to a certain point.
  The bank will set a maximum they will finance on the car, and we want to make sure we get every penny of it.
  Don't think they are watching out for you, they need our business, the more the bank will loan on a vehicle the more business we will give them.
  So most banks are pretty generous and will loan quite a bit over the book value of the vehicle.
  

• Whats my trade-in worth? If we didn't tell you the selling price, you trade is worth whatever you want it to be worth.
  Another good reason for not telling you the selling price of the car is I can show anything for your trade in, and not lose a penny.
  Actually even at this point if your salesman did tell you the price, I can still make extra money on your trade in.
  I'll tell you how this works both ways.
  If you don't know the selling price yet, and you tellyour salesman you want at least $1000.
  00 for your trade and all were really appraising it for is $500 all I have to do is raise the selling price by $500.
  I can show you what you want and never give you any real discount.
  If you know the selling price and we are still putting the $500 value on your trade, I can also just tell you your vehicle is worth $400 and keep the other hundred for more profit.
  I am using low numbers here to keep it simple but "under-allowing" as it is called, can keep several hundred dollars on trades worth thousands as is normally the case.
  More money out of your pocket.
  

• Is that the best interest rate I could get? I'm going to ask you a question at this point.
  Do you know your credit? If not then I'm going to take advantage of that.
  I am still shocked at what kind of finance charges are involved in a bad credit, high interest loan.
  Oftentimes I see people pay a much higher interest rate than they had to.
  Finance charges on an auto loan with a high interest rate can run up to $15,000 dollars.
  There are simple things people can do themselves to raise their credit score that would have saved them thousands of dollars with very little time and money.
  I'm never going to tell you that in my office, because I want you to buy a car, not go home and fix your credit.
  A rate 2-3 points higher than it should be will literally cost you thousands of extra money over the 5 to 6 year period most cars are financed for.
  If you think its worth it to have a car a few days faster then go ahead, if not, then do the research and take the time to work on your credit and raise your credit score.