[CaliforniaTitan]

4-Square deal sheets...

This is probably the most aggrevating thing IMO a dealership can present to a customer. While understanding the 'concept' to show people what the bottom line is going to be in the deal, I have often found this just another part of the game that dealers play in order to increase the profit margin.

To start with, the 'original' numbers are always inflated on the dealers side (Full retail price of the vehicle, Interest rate, Down Payment (Normally seen as 1/3 down) etc) and deflated on the customers side (Trade-in value).

Then the act is to 'bump' your trade in up while bumping one of the other things on the dealer side to compensate..thereby making it look like they are doing you a favor by paying off your trade.

You will also note a lot of 'fixation' on the 'Payment' - in other words....they try to get you to think in terms of I can afford that per month without seriously looking at the numbers underneath.

My most recent experience when seeing this was when shopping for the Titan (another dealership). When I proved to them on the spot that what they were showing was not at a comparable 4.9% with my credit union but more like 9.9% they got all pissed off.

Chris