I figured I'd share my story for anyone interested. Drove my 2002 Toyota Camry into the ground, at ~270k miles it needed an immediate $1k in repairs (timing belt, primarily) with another $2k in repairs likely coming sometime in the next year according to my long time mechanic.
So I bit the bullet and decided I would buy a new used car. I spent $4k cash on my last car so I figured I'd upgrade and spend $5-7k on my new car. Because of some complications with the birth of our new kid, my wife and I recently depleted cash on hand to the point where I didn't want to pay for a car in cash. When I approached a few different financing options, they all wanted to charge me 7%+ APR on the ~$5k I wanted to borrow, which was not something I wanted to deal with.
I'd read online that most dealerships would accept a credit card for some amount of payment, but the details were hazy. Most blogs / forums seemed to have the number pegged around $5k on a card, so I opened a new card with some initial spend bonus points AND a 15 month 0% intro APR (it always shocks me how easy it is to open a card, I have decent credit at about 720 ish, and every time I open a card it's usually around a $10k limit).
The car shopping process was lame, I drove at 6 dealerships, about a dozen total cars over the course of a week. Finally found a super clean, full maintenance records, 2005 Toyota Matrix, 135k miles, $5.2k KBB FPP, listed at $5.9k. Because I was a "cash" buyer I asked to talk out the door price, which started at $6.5k. I immediately refused that and the salesman came back with $6k out the door. I told him he had a deal if I could write a check for $1k and put $5k on my new card.
This is where the theatrics started. He went to his manager and came back and said he could only do 2.5 on the card. I said it was that or I'd walk, so he goes and gets his manager who explains that it's "corporate policy", to which I replied that it was the only way I was interested in completing the purchase. He said he'd go talk to someone who had been at the company longer, and miraculously managed to get approval after about 30 seconds on the phone with this mysterious old timer.
The rest of the purchase went smoothly, and that was that. I know I left a little money on the negotiating table, but it felt close enough to fair for me. Just wanted to share my experience buying a car (mostly) with a credit card in case it was of interest to any of you all.
Submitted September 14, 2018 at 11:38PM by draftylaughs https://ift.tt/2Nd2FI5
