Brutal Truth Motors, Volume 2

Welcome to week two of Brutal Truth Motors. After a successful grand opening last week, Brutal Truth Motors is officially thriving and ready to de-legitimize more thoughts and beliefs about buying cars! If you missed last week’s introduction, Brutal Truth Motors is a full service truth telling operation about buying cars. Keep in mind though; it’s usually not what you want to hear. Its what really happens, not what consumer reports wants you to think happens.

This week’s episode: No, your bank probably can’t get you a better rate than one of our banks!

I bet you love your bank, I know I love mine. In fact, I use a credit union. Everyone loves credit unions, after all they are “owned by the members” right? They wouldn’t ever try to make a penny off me. I am sure that 600 foot tall state of the art building they have downtown was donated by the good will of its members, not forged by their massive profits….

You might want to think again about your bank. If you don’t think they are out to take you for as much money as they can, then you need to come down and have a chat with me. Everyone trusts “their” bank, so they often forget that the banks sole reason for being is to make money. And how does a bank make money? By charging you as high an interest rate as it possibly can. (At the meantime, offering you as low as possible an interest rate on any savings-type accounts you have with it!)

Well, guess what, we are trying to make money too. BUT, we usually can get you a much better rate then your bank can get you! Why? Simple: We are a more valued customer of our banks than you are of yours. How many car loans will you take out with your bank this month? If it’s anything less than 300, we’ve got you beat. When a bank knows we can direct 300 car loans a month to them, or away from them, they’re awful interested in gaining that business. That’s 3,600 loans a year! At $3,000 average profit on a car loan over its term, that’s over $1 million in profits from us each year! Do you represent a million dollars in profit for your bank? If you don’t, which one of us do you think is more likely to get offered a better rate?

And speaking of loans and financing, there’s something else I just have to get off my chest. Please don’t tell me: “I have perfect credit with an 890 fico score, my bank can get me financed.” This is the nonsense “showing off” type speak we hear all the doggone time at the car dealership. People routinely try to impress us with their credit score thinking it will somehow influence the way we work a car deal. They are dead wrong. We don’t care if you have a 900 credit score, or a 300 credit score—neither does the car you’re buying! No matter your credit score, at the end of the day if our lot has one less car in it, and your driveway has one more, we’re happy as clams.

That’s about it for now. I’ll be back next week, brutally honest as ever, and if you missed last week's episode, click here!