new york car buying

[troytime]

My brother in law (not an american) is buying his first car.
Both him and his wife are resident doctors, but neither have much for credit history (first year in USA)

They're buying a toyota rav4, the dealer is giving them 8.4 APR on a 6 year loan, and the dealer is also forcing them to buy Lojack AND get there insurance through the dealership (star toyota bayside)

Can they really force lojack and their own insurance?
He called me asking for advice, but I suck at buying cars too

 

[isekii]

Tell him to go to a different dealership.

LoJack is optional anti-theft deterrant device.

Im not too sure on insurance, but it shouldn't be required..
The only issue that might be is the lack of credit.

 

[paulxcook]

Of course not.

He should just go to another dealer.

 

[BigJ]

What's their official status in the US?

I may be wrong, but this does not look like it is simply a case of buying a car in NY.

That being said, LoJack is definitely not required. When I bought my first car with almost no credit history, I was able to use State Farm and Geico, none of this dealer bullshit. Yes, in NY.

 

[brtspears2]

Do they not have auto insurance? Usually when you finance, they ask for your current insurance.

 

[isekii]

Originally posted by: brtspears2
Do they not have auto insurance? Usually when you finance, they ask for your current insurance.

I don't think he's talking about auto insurance

 

[IceBergSLiM]

The sales contract can included whatever they want. He doesn't have to buy the car there.

 

[Gibson486]

go to a different dealership

 

[ElFenix]

that's a pretty bad rate.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: brtspears2
Do they not have auto insurance? Usually when you finance, they ask for your current insurance.

I don't think he's talking about auto insurance

I think he might mean those extended warranties available only at that particular dealership. Those things are more of a scam than BestBuy's protection plans.

OP, no, such things are not legally required. They CAN refuse the sale if they want, but your BIL CAN give them the finger and go somewhere else....in fact he should do that anyway.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
that's a pretty bad rate.

with no history? that is what you would expect when you do not shop around.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
that's a pretty bad rate.

8.4% is an excellent rate on a car for a first year resident with no credit history. I had a manager from South Africa who was paying like 16% interest on his toyota corolla just to build credit.

 

[isekii]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: ElFenix
that's a pretty bad rate.

8.4% is an excellent rate on a car for a first year resident with no credit history. I had a manager from South Africa who was paying like 16% interest on his toyota corolla just to build credit.

I have to agree, unless there is a special financing promotion on a certain brand or model,

it's anywhere from like 5-7% for people with good credit.

 

[krunchykrome]

Tell them to take their business elseware.

 

[troytime]

They both have some sort of immigrant visa and are contracted to work for 5 years at their current hospital.

They don't currently have any auto insurance, because they currently don't own a car.

Should they go to their bank first to see if they can get financed there first?

Thanks to everyone for the great advice so far!

 

[Baked]

Tell the car dealer to fuck off and take the business else where. The hospital they work at should have a credit union. Tell your cousin to open an acct there and apply for an auto loan. Then call around reputable car insurance agencies, or get quotes online. Once you got those 2 setup, use edmunds.com to get a general ballpark on how much they should pay for the car they want, then shop around stealerships to find deals that's closes to what you see on edmunds.com. The only thing a dealership should sell you is the car and the car only, fuck the extended warranty, insurance, and accessories.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: troytime
They both have some sort of immigrant visa and are contracted to work for 5 years at their current hospital.

They don't currently have any auto insurance, because they currently don't own a car.

Should they go to their bank first to see if they can get financed there first?

Thanks to everyone for the great advice so far!

If that is the exact car they want, do the following:

get approved for the amount they want to pay plus taxes and title. Get insurance provider (you may have to do this after you make a deal). What will happen is that they will send this packet to the dealer so they can verify the car info.

Go to dealership and negotiate price. If they do not take away their own insurance and the lojack, just walk away. Chances are that when you guys reach the door, teh salesman will come after you and negotiate even more. If he still does not take that stuff off, just keep walking. They will eventually take it off and if they do not, go to another dealership.

That dealership is banking on the fact they really want that car, so they use that as leverage and add tyings to the package that you may not want. What you have to bank on and what they do not want you to realize is that they really want to sell the car, so they may have to that extra stuff off the package.

 

[Capt Caveman]

They should shop around for both an auto loan and auto insurance. Screw this dealership.

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: ElFenix
that's a pretty bad rate.

8.4% is an excellent rate on a car for a first year resident with no credit history. I had a manager from South Africa who was paying like 16% interest on his toyota corolla just to build credit.

I have to agree, unless there is a special financing promotion on a certain brand or model,

it's anywhere from like 5-7% for people with good credit.

Financing specials come around so often I don't recommend anyone buy a car for those kind of rates.

I have 0% APR on my loan.

And VW has been offering 2.9% APR lately

Plus a lot of GM cars have been hovering super-low lately as well.

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: TruePaige


Financing specials come around so often I don't recommend anyone buy a car for those kind of rates.

I have 0% APR on my loan.

And VW has been offering 2.9% APR lately

Plus a lot of GM cars have been hovering super-low lately as well.

If you read the fine print those awesome 0% APR deals only apply to people w/ seriously good credit scores, which the OP's bro doesn't qualify for. What your credit score?

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: Baked

Originally posted by: TruePaige


Financing specials come around so often I don't recommend anyone buy a car for those kind of rates.

I have 0% APR on my loan.

And VW has been offering 2.9% APR lately

Plus a lot of GM cars have been hovering super-low lately as well.

If you read the fine print those awesome 0% APR deals only apply to people w/ seriously good credit scores, which the OP's bro doesn't qualify for. What your credit score?

I did not qualify for 0% APR for my Mazda (good score, not enough history).....I began to walk away and boom....I got a 0.9% rate. I did not even know that they had interest rates like that. I tried again at a different dealer and the same thing happened, but with a 1.9% interest rate. I took the 0.9%....low enough i guess.

 

[venkman]

Maybe they should consider leasing until their residencies are up and they are making real doctor wages.

 

[d0ofy]

I've been to that dealership and a lot of their cars come equipped with Lo-jack on the showroom floor. I bet your brother-in-law was trying to buy a car that the dealer didn't have in stock without Lo-jack.

 

[torpid]

Yes, they can do that, because you are financing the car through them. They "own" the car that way, and can tell you to do whatever they want, within reason.

 

[sswingle]

Ive heard of a used car place here that puts a device on the car that you need to enter a code each month when you pay your bill. No code = car wont start

Maybe its that and not lo jack.