Comments on: Beware The Monthly Payment Math Trick

By: Mrs. Accountability

Mrs. Accountability — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:25:12 +0000

This hard pressure sales for buying a car just makes me sick. The last vehicle I bought we went through our credit union. The first guy I got was trying to sell me a car based on the amount I was willing to spend! He tried to talk me into buying a convertible! Next he tried to push one of those tiny station wagons onto me which my then 12 year old son could barely squeeze into and he’s grown about 8 inches since then. It was a horrible; I told him straight out I wasn’t interested. Then I tried a different guy at the credit union – I’m not sure why I didn’t just forget about them altogether. Anyway, this guy was much better. He started looking for what *I* wanted, which was a Nissan Pathfinder. I had researched and found that we needed a larger vehicle as we have to haul our own water where we live, which can’t be done with a small vehicle. The car is fantastic and I still have it with 258,000 miles and counting.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:34:32 +0000

They pulled that with my co-worker a couple months ago when she was in a market for a new car. She kept them on point by focusing on the car price. She got a great deal.

By: Ben Rasmusen

Ben Rasmusen — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:23:13 +0000

I actually fell prey to this with the first home we purchased and it nearly got us into some hot water before we were able to sell it. It’s tough because I know this stuff already, but in the moment it’s hard to keep your head straight and think rationally.

Recently my wife and I were shopping for a used car and they used this trick along with every other one in the book. It was hard fending them off, fortunately we were able to stay strong this time.

Thanks for the great post, I need reminding of this all the time!

By: Ken Montville

Ken Montville — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:08:41 +0000

It’s not only cars, it’s everything. The variation on this is the “close to the ridiculous” as in, “Mr. Buyer, if you get this newer model it’s only another $25/month. Heck, that’s what’d you pay at Starbucks in a month!”

Or for houses (my niche), “Hey, Mr. Buyer, for every $10,000 it really only means about $60/month. Do you want to let this great house slip through your fingers for $60?”

Of course, as in all things, cars or houses, if the buyer really, really likes it and they really, really want it using Monthly Payment Math Trick means they want to, er, buy into it.

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:56:53 +0000

So true. I think that people assume they’ll have a car loan anyway so they might as well stretch it out. But there’s something to be said for paying it off quickly besides the money saved in interest. My parents have probably always had a loan out on one of their two cars. However, they had the good fortune to have just paid off one when the other (already paid-for) one died. Because of the timing, they were never paying on BOTH cars at once. The loan time made a very handy difference there.

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:42:04 +0000

You can just imagine the grin on a car dealer’s face when an uneducated buyer walks through the door and says “I can afford $300 a month.” Car & Driver ran a great article a few months back that highlighted all the common tricks a dealer uses (I think there were 12 in their article – including the one you cite here). Getting buyers into ‘payment mentality’ is absolutely KEY for dealers… Once you’re in that mindset, its a downhill slope for the dealer to sell you tons of things you don’t need, for money you don’t have.