I saw this 60 Minutes piece.

As much as I loathe car dealers, I thought the guy speaking for car dealers had
a point: People are free to arrange their own car financing. He has no
obligation to do the research for consumers. He's trying to make a living.

His comment that "the best deal" available was the "deal on which all parties
agreed" was slippery. Yet, only if people do not read and take their budgets
seriously would they go into a car dealership thinking the car dealer was trying
to give them a break.

As far as targeting minorities: This comes up with home loans, too. I don't
think it's entirely clear that minorities are paying higher rates because of
their skin color or because they simply do have lower credit worthiness, based
on income, past credit history, etc.

The "60 Minutes" piece didn't carry as much weight as I think its producers
hoped it would. At most, it was a "Consumer Reports" worthy report. Which is
saying a lot, actually. Just no legal scandal, IMO.

"Roadie Roger" <roadierogerbugsplat@earthlink.net> wrote
> Anyone catch the 60 Minutes piece on Dealer Financing? The Finance
> guy can add 1 - 3 percentage points (or more) to your loan and get a
> check (dealer reserve) from the finance company for the extra profit.
> 3% could be a couple thousand dollars extra on a $20,000 car financed
> for 60 months. I assume this is mostly done with people who don't
> qualify for factory financing. Or maybe don't know they qualify for
> factory financing. People with mediocre credit might qualify for
> 14.9% financing but be written up for 17.9%. One ex-employee said
> they would bump people as much as they could. One lady got taken for
> $7,000.
>
> The finance guy would tell the customer he was getting the "best
> possible" financing. The dealer they interviewed smiled a lot and
> said customers know that everything is negotiable (again and again).
> If they didn't get a better deal somewhere else then that was the
> "best possible" deal there were going to get there. Not telling the
> customer about the additional charge seemed quite ethical to him.
>
> This has nothing to do with Honda dealers specifically, but you have
> to be careful everywhere.