When you are buying a car with bad credit, negotiating the price of the car can be very difficult if you don't know what to do.
As you know, this is what typically happens...
You drive in, get out of your car and take a look around. A salesman comes out, introduces himself and asks you questions about what you're looking for. He tries to "land you on a car". Once you pick out the vehicle that you like, he encourages you to take a test drive (he wants to get you emotionally involved with the car). During the test drive, he asks you about work and where you live (this is to get you to take "mental ownership" of the car). You get back to the dealership and he encourages you to come inside the dealership to review figures.
You get inside the dealership and are presented with a down payment, payments, the price of the car and the amount allowed for your trade in (if you have one). You then negotiate and once numbers are agreed upon, the salesman begins to fill out a credit application.
Once your credit report is pulled, the tables turn.
If you have blemishes on your credit report, the dealer wants to put you in a position to where they have a total advantage. They want you to feel like you're lucky to just get approved. Typically, you're told that you can't get approved for the vehicle that you just test drove and will need to look at something else. They then "work you" for a down payment and tell you that your payments will be higher than you had expected.
That is the typical scenario when buying a car with bad credit. The negotiation power is in the hands of the one that can get you approved, or not.
Oh, really?
Did you know that dealers won't tell you that you can easily get approved outside of a car dealership and that you don't have to use their finance department? They won't tell you this because they want the power to remain in their hands as it allows them to make more money when people think that car dealers have the final say so on car deals.
You can get your own car loan approved online. You don't have to use a car dealership when buying a car with bad credit.
