Quote:
Originally Posted by tennisfreak
Guess every dealership is different then.
My last 3 sales have never forced me to get pre approval from front end sales.
Front end sales has jack to do with financing. Sure they want to get that info so they can try and work you over but they DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE IT.
I always tell front end I am here to negotiate the price of the vehicle and nothing else.
Also I've not experienced finance having to "call banks" in years. In fact they put my info in on their computer screen and have instant results.
How do I know?
Cause I've had them show me actual the screen with the rates and banks displayed.
But this is my experience, others mileage may vary. It also helps to know how a dealership really works and know when you are getting a line of bs.
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Interesting. Based on what you've written, it sounds like your dealership just submits to TFS (Toyota Financial Services) and nowhere else, which is all digital. Mine works with local banks and out of state banks. They make calls (and I have sat there and watched our finance guys do it) to push the bank reps into giving our customers better rates if the rates the banks are giving are higher than what we had offered to shoot for at the front end.
The reason my dealership's front end delves a bit into that is because some of the customers are concerned about their monthly payments. For example, with a pre-approval of 3.49% and the price of an FR-S at $28k, payments would be around $500 a month with $0 down. To some people, that's shocking to know, but the banks will never really tell you that because they just say, "approved for 100% MSRP" or some other vague statement. We'd rather be transparent and show the customers what kind of payments they'd be looking at in the front end, whether or not they have a pre-approval, before wasting anyone's time to get them to the back end. I won't even delve into what the customer may think if, with the lack of transparency from them about the pre-approval, the interest rate we offer is either higher or lower than their pre-approval. So, at least for my dealership, hiding the fact you have a pre-approval just hinders the process we created to streamline your purchasing experience.
One page my dealership learned from Scion and implemented for all our customers' purchase experience is this. Scion trains us to make the purchasing experience as quick and easy as possible. That's what the Pure Pricing and Pure Process is all about. No games, no lack of transparency from our side, no hassle.
"This is the build you want? You like the price you see at time of build? Are you paying in full or financing? Financing? Okay. Are you comfortable with the payments? Please sign this build form, this form that I showed you about the cost with DMV fees and the payments you're looking at on this vehicle, accessories form, and extended warranty/maintenance form, saying you don't want any further things from these lists, and we'll get it ordered."
"Here's your build. Everything still good, numbers look good, etc? Awesome. We'll just fill out some forms real quick, then get you through financing. Just FYI, our finance guys will go over the availability of the extended warranty/maintenance with you to ensure you are satisfied with your choices."
You certainly wouldn't want your time wasted and we feel the same way. Not only do we test drive with you, go through the numbers with you (which may take a bit to problem solve our way into reaching the numbers you'd be comfortable with), but we also run around, setting your radio stations, gassing up (full tank) your newly purchased vehicle and having it detailed to near-showroom quality while you're in finance, but we spend another 15-45 minutes (depends on how quick of a learner you are and how familiar you already are with our vehicles) after you get out of finance to show you every little thing about your car, including connecting your phone to the head unit via bluetooth and helping you download Aha and setting that up if necessary. The faster we get you from start to finish, not only the sooner we get to be in front of another customer, but the less time you "waste." After all, we're paid in commission, but for those of us who do care about our customers and want to earn their repeat business, we ensure everything we do not only meets the Scion standards, but keeps the customer satisfied and happy when they leave our lot.