Other Special Offer Car Scams To Avoid

As I’ve said before, there are many ongoing scams that dealerships will throw at you in order to bank some extra money from you. I’ve shown you the most popular, but let’s look at some more.

1. Written contract scam: This is basically when the finance manager sits you down and begins to write himself into frenzy, while quickly throwing numbers at you until you are so confused, you end up paying more than you agreed upon.

This may seem impossible for a person to get away with but believe me; it happens all of the time.

The finance manager is counting on you being confused and desperate to get out of there, so assumes you will simply go along with whatever he says. Most of the time, it works.

Avoid it by forcing the guy to slow down, and calculate right along with him to make sure that you are getting a fair deal and that you both come up with the same numbers.

2. Price beating scam: This is when the dealer tells you that they will beat anyone else’s prices or give you $500.

They simply ask you to get the price from another dealer and they’ll beat it. The hard part is that other dealers will not just hand over their information for you to take to someone else.

This deal is almost impossible to get because most dealers sell different makes and models anyway.

Avoid it by not buying into it in the first place.

3. I won’t get paid scam: This is when the dealer tells you that he won’t get paid if you don’t purchase the options package. This is a tug at your heart strings.

To avoid this simply tell them that you refuse to buy something you don’t want just so that they get paid. If it’s that much of a problem they should get another job.

4. No payments until scam: This is when a dealership advertises that you don’t have to pay for 6 months.

Next thing you know, you buy the car and they tell you that it is due for payment in 2 months. Some will not even be applicable at all.

They can claim a typographical error or that the deal was a week ago. It’s an outright lie, and you should get your deposit back.

Avoid this by asking the dealer to put that in writing before you purchase the car and make your deposit by credit card so that you can refute it.

5. The “We’ve Got it scam: This happens when you call a dealership asking for a specific car make, model and color and are told that they have it.

However, when you get there, you are told that they miraculously sold the only one they had before you arrived. Next they will tell you that they have another car similar to it for only $500 more.

Avoid this by leaving.

6. No Cheaper rate scam: This is when a dealership tells you that you can’t find a cheaper price anywhere else on the market.

Get real!

Of course, if you’ve done your research as I told you before, you already know that the prices don’t change on the value of a car.

Avoid this by simply stating that they must be right, and then leave.

7. The Phone call scam: This is when you have successfully negotiated a car, and the salesman suddenly gets a phone call with an offer for the car that is lower than the price you agreed on.

Then he casually lets you hear him state that he will call the man on the phone right back if you opt out of the deal.

Next, he tries to talk you down from your set upon price to compete with the guy on the phone’s offer.

Avoid this by telling the salesman that you will understand if he chooses to take the better offer.

8. Paperwork scam: This generally happens after you have already paid your bank draft for the financing of your car, and the deal has already been set in contract.

Conveniently, the salesman will write down the wrong date on the sales contract.

You are then told that you will have to finance the car through their company for extra fees within 2 days or you will be stuck with a higher financing and interest rates monthly.

To avoid this watch the salesman write your contract and check the dates before you sign them, just to be sure.

9. Factory Holdback scam: Dealerships depend on a buyer’s ignorance so that they can mark up your prices. Holdback is money paid to the dealer for about 2-3% of MSRP.

It is money that is given to the dealer from the factory when the car is sold. This is profit for the dealer for buying the car.

Most dealers will tell you that it costs them money so that they can charge you for it later. Basically, they can get the money twice.

Avoid this by letting the dealer know that you know better and will not pay it.

10. Insurance scam: This is when the dealership tells you that you must get your insurance from them or a company that they work with if you want to avoid paying higher interest rates.

This scam also applies to the dealership forcing you to pay life insurance or extended warranties due to “bad credit.”

Avoid this by leaving. What they are doing is wrong.

11. Turnover scam: This is when the dealership sends over many different salespeople hoping to wear you down and get you to hurry up and buy. This is also called harassment.

Avoid this by threatening to leave if they don’t stop it.

12. Hidden rebates: This is when the dealership advertises that the price of the car is lower than the MSRP.

What you don’t realize is that the fine print says that the prices include rebates. All this means is that the rebate that you were offered doesn’t exist because it was already calculated in the ad.

Avoid this by ignoring it or requesting it in writing that states the rebate is in addition to the price of the car.

13. Deposit scam: This is when the finance manager insists on a deposit before you have signed the purchase contract.

You will be told that the finance manager has to bring in a copy of the contract offer to his boss and he needs a deposit from you just to ensure that the boss will sign off on it.

It’s just to make sure that you are “serious” about getting the car.

Avoid this by refusing to give a deposit before the contract is finished a signed by both parties.

Dealers run this scam so that they can keep you there. Tell them that the fact that you made an offer on the car shows that you are serious.