Why are my elderly friends bullied into credit deal?

Blackavar

My friends who are in their 70's have decided to buy a new car and moving from mondeo are looking at at a ford focus. They recently visited a ford showroom and just wanted the price of a car as they wanted to pay cash with the hope of discount on this.
They were told this was not possible and they must enter into a credit agreement ( I've seen the printout they came away with).
This is madness - they state clearly they want to buy a car for cash but nobody is interested - this is a main ford dealer.
They are bewildered that they can't just get a price for a car without being forced to sit down with a sales guy who wants to talk them through a credit arrangement ( you can cancel after a week and pay the balance).
Not personally having bought a new car, is this normal?

Ames

Yes, it's normal. The sales person gets a commission for selling finance. Your friends can ask for a discount because of taking out finance and then, as suggested, cancel the next day.

Strider590

Cash is not king, the dealer stands to make money from the finance deal, so they only tend to discount customers who can't afford to pay cash.

Richard53

Blackavar wrote: »

They are bewildered that they can't just get a price for a car without being forced to sit down with a sales guy who wants to talk them through a credit arrangement ( you can cancel after a week and pay the balance).
Not personally having bought a new car, is this normal?

As said above, it's in the salesman's interest to sell a finance deal along with the car, but it's not a legal requirement. Your friends will just have to insist on cash and walk away if the salesman won't listen.


You'd need to check the T&Cs of the finance, but I believe some have a penalty (for the buyer and the salesman) if the finance is 'cancelled' subsequently. I believe the term to use is 'early settlement', so as not to frighten the horses, if you're going down that route.

bigjl

And let's not ignore that part of the discount is due to manufacturer contributions aswell.

So quite often the Dealer can't get the best deal unless they use this kind of workaround.

If you do a few price checks on DrivetheDeal you will see that often part of the discounted price is only available if you finance using certain Manufacturer backed financial products.

Biketrials08

If they are buying new new, then send them over to https://www.drivethedeal.com
It is true that the best deals are achieved by taking out the finance and then settling the next day or so, this happens, ignore those who say you cannot.

bugslet

Of course it's possible to just buy a car. The dealer gives them a price and either they think it's worth it or not. As everyone else has said, they make the money on the finance, but that doesn't mean they can't just buy a car for cash. I suggest they go to another dealer.

agrinnall

The buyer will get the best deal without inordinate amounts of haggling by taking out the finance in order to get the appropriate discount then cancelling it. If your friends don't want to do this then it's likely that they will pay more. I doubt if any dealer would refuse point blank to take cash.

hollie.weimeraner

Biketrials08 wrote: »

If they are buying new new, then send them over to https://www.drivethedeal.com ignore those who say you cannot.

It depends on the deal.

I bought a Focus and had a large discount with 12 months finance. I had to pay 6 months worth of payments before I could pay it off but it was well worth the finance package

neilmcl

Blackavar wrote: »

My friends who are in their 70's have decided to buy a new car and moving from mondeo are looking at at a ford focus. They recently visited a ford showroom and just wanted the price of a car as they wanted to pay cash with the hope of discount on this.
They were told this was not possible and they must enter into a credit agreement ( I've seen the printout they came away with).
This is madness - they state clearly they want to buy a car for cash but nobody is interested - this is a main ford dealer.
They are bewildered that they can't just get a price for a car without being forced to sit down with a sales guy who wants to talk them through a credit arrangement ( you can cancel after a week and pay the balance).
Not personally having bought a new car, is this normal?

I believe you, or your friends have misunderstood what was said. I don't believe that the salesman said they have no choice but to take out finance for the new rather simply if they want the discount then that is dependant on them taking out the finance deal.

I'm pretty sure if they pressed for a cash price they would have got one.

Try some online brokers if they want a deal, such as drivethedeal.com or carwow.co.uk

gilbert_and_sullivan

They could look at it another way, let them be guided into a finance deal but make sure they don't sign on the dotted line, but bring home the paperwork which you can then scrutinise to make sure the finance can be paid off in short order without incurring penalties.
That way they get the deal and pay it off lump sum pronto, cake and eat it.