Whatever you do, :
1. DO NOT BUY from CARMAX
2.
DO NOT BUY from any dealership that advertises No Credit Check, No Credit Required, Bad Credit Okay, No Down Payment and BUY HERE PAY HERE In House Financing.
3. Never, Never take the car off the lot until you have signed something in writing stipulating the exact price of the car, the terms of your car loan (duration in months, your exact monthly payment, your interest rate), what is added on or not added on to the price of the car.
If they say your credit is approved, here's the key and you drive off without signing anything or seeing anything in writing, you are in trouble.
That's called Spot Delivery:
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/l...very/422771109
4. If you have a car you are thinking of trading in or selling it used, whenever you go to a car dealer, any dealer, DO NOT and I mean DO NOT give them the keys.
A dishonest dealer will keep your keys and hold it hostage until you agree to buy something.
Don't believe that's possible? It's been done many times before.
Or you leave the key, go for a test drive, come back and they tell you your car is already sold. It's gone!
https://axleaddict.com/auto-sales/Av...ealership-Scam
https://www.quora.com/I-had-my-car-k...ch-a-situation
https://www.quora.com/If-a-car-deale...the-dealership
5. Also if you do plan on doing several test drives at different dealerships, make several copies of your driver's license and then write on each one: dealer is not authorized to run a credit check.
Hand that copy to the dealer when they ask for your driver's license before they let you take a test drive.
If they refuse to accept it and want your actual physical driver's license, go to another dealership.
NEVER NEVER give them anything of yours they can hold hostage like the keys to your own vehicle or your driver's license.
6. Remember: just because you took a test drive, you are not obligated to buy anything.
Say thank you and leave. Some dealers want to intimidate you by making you feel guilty that you took their time to take a test drive, you now have to buy or go into their office so they can see what kind of prices they can do for you.
NEVER NEVER go into any offices. Once they got you into one, it will be very difficult for you to leave unless you are a sharp negotiator.
7. NEVER NEVER SIGN anything. If they want you to sign something before even discuss prices with you or show you a car or letting you test drive a car, LEAVE!!
8. FINALLY, this is also very important. If you go to a dealer and they don't have a price on the windows of the vehicles on the lot. LEAVE!! Do not even talk to them even if there is a car that caught your attention.
They tried to do that to me at Grapevine Toyota. Went there with a friend to look at used cars. None of the cars had prices on it. She saw a car she liked, this salesman came out to the parking lot, we asked him how much was that car.
He answwered by asking who is buying. She said she was. He said well it depends on her credit and financials. I asked him what he meant by that. He said she will have to go into the office to fill out some paperwork and he will have to run her credit and based on that information, he, NOT HER, will decide how much car she can afford and what the price of that car she was inquiring about was.
Is that crooked and dishonest or not?