I’ve only had one dealer try that. They wouldn’t even give a cash price on the vehicle, so I had them run the financing numbers. What they came back with was… well, ballsy. The way they did “simple interest” was to take the APR, multiply it by 5 (60-month term), and add that quintupled percentage to the principal of a 0% loan with no ability to save interest costs by making principal-only payments. That right there was shady enough to turn the deal down without even looking at the interest rate that dealer wanted.
But since my mind was already made up I looked if for no reason other than to see what the vehicle price was (they still wouldn’t say). As it turned out, it was a $12,000 car (that I might’ve gone as high as $7,500 on) at 19% APR for a total price of $23,400 regardless of whether I paid $390/month or made larger payments.
After that, my policy is that if I can’t get a price up-front then the question isn’t whether I want to buy there or not, but whether I leave nicely or tell them to fuck themselves on my way out the door.
@kritiper That is why I love private sales.