Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

I hope I%26#039;ll be lucky enough to have this viewed by a current or past salesman, dealership owner, or anyone in the car sales business. While I can respect everyone%26#039;s input, I%26#039;m just assuming that the %26quot;truth%26quot; will come from someone on the inside. (Truth from a car salesman - I know, funny right?) Just kidding...

But seriously, I don%26#039;t go in assuming every dealership or salesman is evil and out to rob me blind. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. But this is ONE AREA where I%26#039;ve always been suspicious of dealerships%26#039; habits. I%26#039;ve gone to several places to see what they would give me for my trade, and I%26#039;m usually there like 45 minutes or so (if not more). They want your license, want to check your credit (which I always refuse), and insist on getting the Finance company so they can call and get a payoff before they do a d@mn thing. Part of the problem, I know, is that I%26#039;m too nice. I won%26#039;t be rude and just say %26quot;Look. I just want you to evaluate my trade and tell me what you%26#039;ll give

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

Well, salesman are trying to make a sale, so sometimes if they know your payoff, it can actually HELP you since they want a sale! Cars are appraised typically by the used car department manager, so if I know you%26#039;re payoff is $12,000 I will want to tell him in hopes that he will step up.

UCANTCME is obviously not in the car business. Someone else also made a great point about wasting our time! If someone comes into my office and takes up hours of my time and I appraise their trade for $14,500 and find out their payoff is $25,000 I just wasted hours of my time and potentially lost money. If while I was tending to these people, a buyer actually walked in to buy a car, I could have sold them a car rather than waste time with someone who is $11,000 upside down.

There are no games in car sales. Customers are the ones who insist on playing games. The trade is worth what it is, and our prices are in the window. It%26#039;s the customer that wants to start playing games, not the salesman.

So, if I were to stop the line at the grocery store and tell the cashier she is charging too much and I saw these same products somewhere else cheaper...who is the one playing the game??

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

If it bothers you so much why don%26#039;t you just lie and tell them the car is paid off.

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

New cars do not have the huge profit margins they used to, except for a few very popular models. And remember, your payoff will include any unpaid interest up to the day of payoff. The difference between a $9000 payoff just after your last payment or a $9500 payoff because the last two months%26#039; payments were not due or paid yet can make or break whether the dealer walks with any profit.

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

We ask for the payoff on a car to see if you would have any negative equity in the car. If you do it could be a problem trying to get a bank to buy the whole amount financed on the car you want to buy. The car is worth what we would buy it at an auction for, unless it is extremely prestine.

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

Well, since your asking them to buy it from you,im sure it would be important to know..If you owe 20,000.00 on a 10,000.00 car,then you both are wasting time.

These people are working at the dealerships to make a living and not to play childish games with you..If you dont want them to know anything about you then stay away from these dealers..They are privately owned business%26#039; and they are there for one thing only,to sell cars.

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

Ok, UCANTCME is wrong on several counts. 1. it is illegal to falsify the pay-off amount and I have never seen it done in my 8 years in the car business. 2. stealing a trade is nigh impossible. everyone has an idea of what their car is worth thanks to the internet. we make an average of $2000 on every trade we take in and sell. this is before marketing and operating costs which are signifigant.

there is much less profitability per car and much less unsrupulous behavior going on in todays dealerships than the general public thinks. I have never witnessed anything illegal going on in any dealership I have worked at. most people are treated more than fairly.

if the dealership you are dealing with asks for all this info before doing a trade appraisal then just go to another dealership.

one thing more, as a person who works in the sales end of car dealerships I find very few things more frustrating than someone who comes in just to get their vehicle appraised. we arent in the business of doing free appraisals. its time consuming and often a lot of work is involved trying to find a buyer for the vehicle. go to a dealership with the intention of buying a car or looking at a certain model and dont get an appraisal done until you are ready to purchase a vehicle at that dealership. get the appraisal done first and you will not get top dollar for your trade as there is no incentive for the dealership personnell to try and get you more money as there is no car deal to put together for you.

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

As the person at the dealership that does most of the trade in appraisals, I can honestly tell you that I don%26#039;t care what the payoff is, and has no bearing in the value of the trade. However, it is very important when I work the numbers on the new car, as most buyers care about the payments on the new car, and it%26#039;s hard to quote when you don%26#039;t have all the info. If a customer didn%26#039;t care about payments and would consider paying the car off themselves, regardless of the amount, I would just quote them a price on the new car less the trade and would require a title to consummate the deal. This however rarely happens. An interesting aside-most customers think their trade has to be worth atleast the payoff-and there is no logic to this-only ignorance! My answer is %26#039;if you owed nothing, would that make the car worth nothing!, and they usually look at you like whaaat!

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

They don%26#039;t want to waste time with someone who owes thousands and thousands of dollars more on thier car than its worth. Your car is worth what it%26#039;s worth, nothing can change that, but knowing the payoff helps the salesman know how to handle the situation to not waste the whole day with some one who wants to trade in thier car with no money down and lower thier payments. By the way, who cares what it%26#039;s worth if your not buying?

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

It%26#039;s called qualifying. We need to qualify you to move forward. If you ask me to appraise a 2005 Ford Focus and i find out you owe 30k on it, well, we are not going much further without discussing payments and money down. It%26#039;s not that i don%26#039;t want to work with you, it%26#039;s just that i don%26#039;t want to waste your time or mine. It also shows us that you are actually intending to get a new car, and not just seeing how much your car is worth, again, a time thing.

These tactics are not used by me or my type of dealers, but are very common on the jap or American market. If you are going into the dealer serious about getting a new car, you should have absolutly no problem telling them how much you owe, the dealer doesn%26#039;t really care.

P.S. Do not place any credence into what %26quot;UCANTCME%26quot; stated. Just about everything he said is total B.S. He gives the business a bad name for no good reason.

Unfortunately my answer didn%26#039;t touch on credit inquiries. I myself find it very insulting to the client to ask to run credit or even ask how it is. Granted, when i worked for dodge, that was just about in my opening line: %26quot;how%26#039;s your credit%26quot;, %26quot;ever been late%26quot;. Now, i wouldn%26#039;t even think of it. DO NOT allow any dealer to run your bureau. Just tell them you are a 718. Actually, instead, go to: http://www.creditunion.coop/cu_locator/i... find a credit union near you, go in with the loan ready and you can take advantage of any rebates rather than low financing.

Back to your trade again. Go in, tell them i got xxx for my trade at honda, what will you give me? Go ahead and tell them your payoff. It doesn%26#039;t matter.

I hope some of this helps, i know it%26#039;s long winded. Feel free to email me for more, or detailed info.

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

Hi tiger, it%26#039;s me, Escher. It looks like you got some good advice. I wanted to let you know, when I bought my vehicles, I got advice from %26quot;Consumer Reports%26quot; They will also send you a printout on the vehicle you want to buy. I told the dealer both times what I was going to pay for my car and van and that is what I paid. Also, w/ my car, I finalized the deal, THEN told him I wanted to trade in my truck. He was pissed because he kept asking if I was going to trade it in. The second time I sold the car myself, which was recommended to me, and I did get more money for it.

Anyway, check out the print out, you have to buy it but it is really worth it.

Good luck!

Why do car dealerships insist on knowing the full payoff before evaluating your trade-in?

Many dealers make huge profits by %26quot;stealing the trade%26quot;. These dealers try tricks such as false appraisal values, exaggerating the cost to repair damages, etc... to get you to accept less than your trade%26#039;s true (wholesale) value.

They know your car is worth more money. They are trying to get you to accept less so that they can make larger profits. Hence, the term %26quot;stealing the trade%26quot;.

Consider selling your vehicle yourself. If you trade the vehicle in, most dealers will only allow you wholesale value. However, if you sell the vehicle yourself you can ask retail. This can mean several hundred or possibly thousands of additional dollars in your pocket.

Have the vehicle thoroughly cleaned, washed and waxed, get the motor cleaned, check and fill fluids, etc... Clean vehicles attract buyers while dirty vehicles scare potential buyers away.

If the vehicle is worth more than $1000 take it to a professional detail shop (Yellow Pages). Complete detailing costs less than $100 but can increase the retail value by several hundred dollars.

Never trade in a car without first calling your lender to verify the loan balance (if any). Unscrupulous dealers can steal hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of your money by using a false loan payoff balance. This can done by several methods.

One way is telling you that your loan payoff is higher than it really is (dealer pockets the difference of up to several thousand dollars of your money) .

Another way to take your money is for the dealer to confuse the buyer into believing that the payoff is same as the total of the remaining payments (The actual payoff may be much lower, because the payments include interest that you are not required to pay if you payoff the loan early).

The easiest way is to get you to sign a blank payoff authorization form (which he later fills in with whatever numbers he wants).

There are two very easy things you can do to avoid getting ripped off. First, call the lender and verify the exact balance owed for the date that you wish to trade the car in.

The second is to read the %26quot;payoff authorization form%26quot; and verify the payoff is correct. Never sign a blank form.