Car Financing &
Insurance (The
F&I Department)
It’s been a bit of a long negotiating
process at the car dealership, but you’ve finally settled on a car and a price
for that car… so all is good and your done… right?
WRONG!
That is if you are about to be
accompanied in to meet the car dealer’s F&I (finance & insurance) manager to
sign everything and wrap it up.
Just a mere formality?
Hardly.
A car dealer never stops looking for
an opportunity to sell you something an therefore make some
additional profit.
The F&I guy/gal is no exception.
In fact, the
manager and ownership of the car dealer expect… no … demand of the
F&I person that they hold up their end of the
automobile sales process and generate sales for the dealership.
In fact, be
advised that if you work hard on the front end of the deal to get not only the
price you wanted for the new car, but your trade in as well, I can assure you
that the dealership will be looking to the F&I person to re-maximize the profit
for the dealer.
In fact, in most cases, much of the
front end negotiating and haggling over the car and the trade in has been done
mostly with handshake agreements. In the F&I department, the ‘deal’ gets put in
writing in the form of a legal document or contract. So now is not the time to
lose your tenacity or your focus.
Some dealers may give you the
impression that in order for the deal to go through you have to arrange for the
financing through their F&I department.
This is simply not true.
If you are a
student of this website you already know what financing terms you qualify for
and it’s a matter for the dealership to try to do better than what you already
know you have.
Even though you may be tired from the
days car negotiations, don’t take for granted that all you expect to be in the
deal is going to make it to the F&I department. In other words, read the papers
you are about to sign.
Be sure to understand the length of
your contract as it relates to your payments. Remember, car salespeople will
stretch the length of your contract as far out as they can in order to make your
monthly payments seem much more attractive. This will cost you money.
If you happen to be considering an
extended warranty (a service agreement that kicks in once the manufacturer’s
warranty expires), keep a few points in mind.
First of all, there is nothing that
mandates that you must purchase one at all.
Know what the original warranty
covers… and more importantly what it does not cover. Most go for 3 years and
36,000 miles. Look for the manufacturer’s extended warranty before an
aftermarket or 3rd party warranty.
The manufacturer’s extended
warranty will be good throughout the country. A dealer offered or 3rd
party warranty may have stipulations that you use only specific dealers for your
repairs.
If you are looking a 3rd party warranty, make sure you
understand the terms of their
extended warranty coverage.
Next
let’s look at a couple more
products in the car dealer's Finance & Insurance salesperson’s sales bag and what you can expect.
- Shop, Save and Switch to GEICO today!
- Instant online quotes
|
|
