nlaad

Hi!

I have gone to 3 dealerships this weekend(BMW of fremont, BMW mountain view, BMW stevens creek). I was planning to buy a 525i with cash. But all these BMW dealers are insisting on running my credit report even though I do not need financing from them.

Why are these car dealers so obsessed with credit. One of them even said I HAVE to take credit or they wont sell the car.... Its like extortion. Every single dealership I go to seems to be more interested in selling me financing than the car itself!

Has any of you gone through this? Anyone know any way out. I really dont want to give my credit information to the car dealership. Dealers wanting to run credit and offering financing forcefully seems a bit fishy for me...

Does anyone know what is their motive in trying to run my credit even though I am paying cash? I told them I was even ready to take the delivery of the vehicle after the checks cleared... but they still insist on running my credit.

I have excellent credit but If I am buying with cash, there is no information my credit report will give the dealer about my bank balances...

I would really appreciate it if anyone could let me know if they had any similar experiences and if they know of any dealership in the N. California region who do not push customers to forcefully buy credit.

The funny thing is that the salespeople want to first negotiate on the interest rate and do not even talk a word about the car.

Your responses will be highly appreciated.
Thanks,

mdreviews

Here's my opinion and experience. I went shopping for a 530i a while back and wanted to pay cash myself. The dealer wanted to persuade me to lease as he offered the advantages. My first guess is they get some sort of benefit from BMWFS. Thus, they want to run a credit check. The other reason is that you will pay cash but unlikely bring $50,000 in cash to the dealer. You will probably write out a check. Since you are using your check, they will release the car to you when you write out a check. The credit check is to make sure you're ok.

I was against doing a credit check too, but they still did it. No way around it. This was done from another N. California you did not mention. Good luck to you.

das

I would arrange to bring in a cashier's check. There is NO REASON for them to run credit under those circumstances, period.

They *might* do this because of something related to reporting requirements for large purchases, and the mechanism via which they may do it might be built into their business process of running a credit check, but that's the only thing I could even remotely think of.

If you're paying with a cashier's check, or offering to wait until your personal check clears, there's no reason they need to run your credit.

das

Yes, but he offered to wait until the check cleared before he even took delivery. There is no reason the dealer needs a credit check under those circumstances. And if he arranges to bring a cashier's check (that the dealer is free to confirm with the issuing bank), there's definitely no reason.

mdreviews

Sorry, I read real quick through the post. You guys do have a good point.

Yes, but he offered to wait until the check cleared before he even took delivery. There is no reason the dealer needs a credit check under those circumstances. And if he arranges to bring a cashier's check (that the dealer is free to confirm with the issuing bank), there's definitely no reason.
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CoolTones

Yes, but he offered to wait until the check cleared before he even took delivery. There is no reason the dealer needs a credit check under those circumstances. And if he arranges to bring a cashier's check (that the dealer is free to confirm with the issuing bank), there's definitely no reason.
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Precisely. Contact Joe Wahler of BMW of Mountain View. Tell him "Tony from Cisco" sent you. He'll give you a real good deal. Give him a chance.

Good Luck!

billysunshine

I approached the sales manager in the same fashion. I wrote him a deposit for the car and told him I was paying cash. He didn't ask for any info, hell, he didn'e even remember my last name when I went to pick up the car. And to top it, he ordered my car with only a $100.00 deposit.

znod

Only problem with the cashier's check idea is that these days they can be as phoney as anything else. I wouldn't take one for a car. I insist on cash. In this regard, the purchaser is welcome to cash a cashier's check at the bank of his choice and then give me the cash.

das

That's why I said the dealer would be free to confirm the validity of the check via the issuing bank. (And yes, I realize that someone could phony up a bank phone number, etc., and have a fake "verification", but you could easily arrange it such that the dealer could contact the financial institution via channels known to be legitimate.)

There are many ways to confirm validity of payment without carrying around $70000 in cash that the dealer should most certainly accept. If you want to go that far, the money itself could be counterfeit. A typical auto dealership probably has less of a capability of detecting counterfeit currency than that of your average grocery store. I'm not saying that the dealer should trust a cashier's check any more than the paper it's printed on: but there are many ways to arrange legitimate verification of the check's validity. Heck, you could even do an electronic funds transfer.

The point is that as long as you're paying for it in one of numerous verifiable ways (including allowing a personal check to clear before taking delivery, as he indicated he was willing to do), there is no reason the dealer needs to run a credit check.

m5lover

I bought a cayene a month ago after looking at it and test driving it and just bought it straight away. No credit checks and they accept checks.

Im pretty sure they(bmw) gain financially through customers financing.My best bet would be that they would receive incentives from the financing companies.I think thats how it works.