Dealer versus Direct Financing

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Drake

Well-Known Member
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The wife and I are looking at purchasing a vehicle with third row seating, currently leaning towards a newish Honda Pilot or a Highlander. My question for the ladies and gents of Hondaswap what should we be looking at with financing? Neither of us have ever taken out a loan for a major purchase before. Anyone have any thoughts on either the Pilot or Highlander? Thanks
 
My Brother-in-law and his Wife just picked up a 2012 Tundra and Highlander. The highlander was pretty close to loaded with leather and 3rd row, blue tooth etc.... It was very roomy. It was the AWD SE 3.5V6. I really like and it's comfortable to ride in.
 
GO with the best rate. Remember the dealership marks up the loan a little to make $$$$. Search credit unions and local banks for their rates. When I bought my trucks I had my uncle who worked at a dealership ask his finance guy who had the best rate going and went there. Most dealerships won't tell you since its taking money out of their pockets.
 
Pilot is a better vehicle than the Highlander because I was on the team for that car. Really though, both are great choices. The Yota will have a bit more punch but the Pilot will drive a whole lot better. The interior is a little nicer on the Pilot as well IIRC. I took a loaded down Pilot through the back roads of WV on a whitewater rafting trip. I was surprised how composed it was in the corners. Can't go wrong with either.
 
See above. Shop around a bit, and then see what the dealer can offer. My wife's car is through GMAC and my S2K was through USAA. Just best rate at the time.
 
Thanks for the input gents. We ended up picking up a '06 Pilot this afternoon. We got a pretty damn good rate for our credit not being the best. The wife really dug it and that's who will be driving it the most. Turned out that the dealer did a pretty damn good job of digging up a competitive rate for what we where working with.
 
Great man. Saw the pic, good looking rig!
 
Even though it's too late, I've always got the best rates from local credit unions, as appose to going through the dealer or corparte banks. They are non-profit organizations so they can usually beat the rates of most well known banks (BB&T, BoA, etc). I'd look into it if you have any in your area. The only downside is that they are not nationwide and have very few ATMs. But you don't need an ATM for car/personal loans they can all be paid online.

Congrats on the new purchase !
 
I got a certified pre-owned Toyota from the dealership for 2.9%. It was better than I could get at any credit union around me.
 
Dealer's are generally going to have better financing, lor rates because their cost of capital is going to be much much lower and they're looking at the yield over the term of the loan in a whole different capacity than private financing.

They provide financing to support the dealership.
 
dealers generally offer lower rates for new cars, or for the certified pre-owned because there is a higher markup
for your typical used car purchase you can usually shop around and find better rates elsewhere
i prefer to walk into a dealer with my own financing, so they're not trying to fluff any numbers somewhere along the line to offer me a lower sticker price
i have found credit unions to offer the best used car rates, but the dealers can make some killer deals when they are motivated to move things off the lot.

shop around for a rate and then shop around for a vehicle price without throwing financing into the mix. once you agree on a price, then see if they can beat the best rate you found already.
 
dealers generally offer lower rates for new cars, or for the certified pre-owned because there is a higher markup
for your typical used car purchase you can usually shop around and find better rates elsewhere
i prefer to walk into a dealer with my own financing, so they're not trying to fluff any numbers somewhere along the line to offer me a lower sticker price
i have found credit unions to offer the best used car rates, but the dealers can make some killer deals when they are motivated to move things off the lot.

shop around for a rate and then shop around for a vehicle price without throwing financing into the mix. once you agree on a price, then see if they can beat the best rate you found already.
I do this too. But usually end up with 0.9% from the dealer on new or CPO.
 
Even though it's too late, I've always got the best rates from local credit unions, as appose to going through the dealer or corparte banks. They are non-profit organizations so they can usually beat the rates of most well known banks (BB&T, BoA, etc). I'd look into it if you have any in your area. The only downside is that they are not nationwide and have very few ATMs. But you don't need an ATM for car/personal loans they can all be paid online.

Congrats on the new purchase !


It isn't too late. When we purchased both my Impala and my wifes Trailblazer from two different dealers we were in the market for a new car but had not had a chance to finalize loan papers with our credit unions (we still have seperate accounts). We ended up both buying a car on a weekend without planning on it simply because the were great deals and our CU's weren't open. We did the deal at the dealer then the following week completed our CU paper work and the CU bought out the loan. Credit unions LOVE doing this. You may have a great deal on an interest rate but don't think you cannot go to a bank/CU with a better rate down the road. A majority of them will bend over backwards to get your business even if that means taking it from a dealer.
 
buy with whatever the dealer rakes up for ease of purchase on site
transfer to my credit union the next month for .9 for new, 2.9 for used.
make no payments for 3 months :)
 
those are some good options of vehicle. Of course I'm biased to the Pilot since to me they have proved slightly more reliable and less problamatic with little nit picky shit.

In regards to financing just use Honda financing if you have good credit. As long as you qualify for the advertised rate youre good.
Dealerships CANNOT markup the incentivized rate. It works off of a tier level so if you don't qualify for tier 1 (best) than yes they could mark it up by no more than 2 percentage points if they wanted to....at least here in FL you can't do more than 2 points.

based one experience only tyndell federal credit union and USAA have been able to match the rates and in many cases Tyndell beats the manufacturer's rates.

good luck!!!
 
what is super aggravating to me is that my CU wont even talk to me about a loan. i have an overdraft balance at a bank i belonged to until i got out of the service of about 40 bucks that i need to pay. however i cannot for the life of me get them to take my money... so until then my CU will never give me a loan.
 
Don't finance at all. Pay cash. Even if all you can afford is a piece of crap. That will all change soon enough if you pay cash for everything. Fuck finance rip off companies.
 
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