Especially as an Internet Manager I frequently got a phone call regarding the "$XXX a month" lease or purchase specials. These can be seen on television or in the newspaper ads frequently. I can assure you that if it sounds like an incredible deal, it's probably been hyped up the best it can while covering their legal asses.
In almost any of these circumstances these payments are contingent on some criteria conveniently listed in tiny print at the bottom of a newspaper ad, quickly flashed at the end of a commercial, or very quickly read by a narrator. This is the part they don't actually want you to read or hear. It's a marketing strategy, simply put. Is it wrong? We'll call it misleading. They just want that payment to jump out at you enough for you to stop down at the dealership, where they just schmooze you through the rest of it from there.
No fine print you say!? Can this happen? It has and I have seen it happen. It is very easy for a dealership to dismiss it as a typo (as in the case I saw it truly was) and apologize. In the case I witnessed the girl threw a fit in the middle of the showroom and walked out shouting she was going to sue. Well, car dealerships get sued on a regular basis and usually have a pretty fantastic legal team. Blow it off and take your business elsewhere if this should happen to you. Otherwise, it just won't be worth your trouble in the end.
In most all cases if it looks like a great payment or lease special the terms listed to get to that payment will almost always include some sort of theoretical amount of money as a down payment, excludes tax, and your credit is impeccable. This is not to say that the special is not good by no means though. They're just painting a scenario to get to that payment. A scenario most people can't do. The reality is most consumers do not want to pay any out of pocket at signing. While it is a very smart thing to do, it just isn't any fun and it kind of takes that "good deal" feeling away from the whole process to most people I think.
The lesson? There is nothing magical in the car business that let's you buy $20K plus cars for $200 a month without some hitch. Look for those terms! Make a call to the dealership if you need them clarified. The last thing you need is going for a ride in a car you decided you love, to only find out that you need to cough up $5000 to get the payment you thought you would.
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