Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Automotive
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 01-06-2019, 02:34 PM
 
Location: Florida
2,026 posts, read 2,760,180 times
Reputation: 1382

Advertisements

How does cash rebate work?
For example with Ford.
Let's say there is a car available for $20k, with $1k factory rebate.
Do I make a payment for $19k when picking up the car, or I make $20k payment and receive a check for $1000? Do I receive the check right away, or later in the mail?
Can this rebate be tied to taking financing? One car sales guy told me I cannot take the rebate if I pay in full with cash, only if I do financing. Did he lie?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 01-06-2019, 02:44 PM
 
8,272 posts, read 10,933,271 times
Reputation: 8909
There are many different kinds of rebates and incentives.

If this is a normal $1,000 manufactures rebate - the $1,000 is taken off the final negotiated price. But salespeople may play all sorts of games with rebates.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-06-2019, 05:34 PM
 
Location: South Louisiana
701 posts, read 689,831 times
Reputation: 1632
When I bought a new car, my salesman, a good friend and fellow musician of mine, told me there was a $2,000 rebate incentive going on if I financed through GM. I wasn't going to finance as I had a trade in and had the cash for the difference. He told me to finance the balance anyway, get the rebate, make a couple of payments and pay the loan off, which I did. The rebate was deducted from the price I paid for the car. Got the rebate and only paid interest for a couple of months. I came out ahead on that one.


If I am not mistaken, all rebates are deducted from the price of the vehicle before the taxes are calculated. So I also saved 9% sales tax on the $2.000 rebate.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-06-2019, 06:57 PM
 
Location: Lee County, NC
3,317 posts, read 2,321,141 times
Reputation: 4382
It's a discount. They sometimes call it a rebate, incentive, bonus cash, etc. It's all just a rebate, they aren't giving you a check back.

When I bought my F-150 in 2016 there was an extra incentive for financing with Ford Credit. It was $1,500.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-07-2019, 11:07 AM
 
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
16,501 posts, read 19,575,896 times
Reputation: 13226
Quote:
Originally Posted by buenos View Post
Can this rebate be tied to taking financing? One car sales guy told me I cannot take the rebate if I pay in full with cash, only if I do financing. Did he lie?

And to answer your second question, since everyone seems to have missed it.
No, he did not lie. Most car companies do this. Here's how it works.


Jeep Cherokee is $34,000. Dealer tells me I can get $4,000 off IF I take dealer financing @ 3.9%.

-OR- they can give me 0% and $750 New Year Bonus Cash (or whatever incentive they offer now).

Not making this up. This was an actual offer to me.


Here's the thing: they offer you a huge discount, but sign you up for a loan where you are going to pay... wait for it.... $3,000 in interest over the life of it IF you make minimum payments. So you're not REALLY saving that money unless you make much larger payments.



I know what you're thinking next... or should be: "Couldn't I take their loan with the big discount, make a payment or 2 and pay it off?"
Yes. Yes you can. Just make sure there is no early pay off penalty.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-07-2019, 11:13 AM
 
Location: On the Chesapeake
45,113 posts, read 60,214,676 times
Reputation: 60714
A clarification about sales tax. Not all states apply the sales tax to the rebated price. My state of Maryland is one that does not. I bought a 2014 F150 that had a MSRP of around $34K but had a total of $9K worth of various rebates for my price of $25K. The sales tax was calculated on $34K for that one. That's been the case for every vehicle we've bought here that had rebates.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-07-2019, 01:31 PM
 
Location: Lee County, NC
3,317 posts, read 2,321,141 times
Reputation: 4382
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peregrine View Post
And to answer your second question, since everyone seems to have missed it.
I addressed it, as did the poster above me.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-07-2019, 01:54 PM
 
Location: Raleigh
13,661 posts, read 12,341,234 times
Reputation: 20109
Quote:
Originally Posted by buenos View Post
How does cash rebate work?
For example with Ford.
Let's say there is a car available for $20k, with $1k factory rebate.
Do I make a payment for $19k when picking up the car, or I make $20k payment and receive a check for $1000? Do I receive the check right away, or later in the mail?
When I worked at a Toyota dealer, they could send you a rebate in the mail (I think you had to mail something off to claim it) but 99% of the time there was a form you would sign and it would be lopped off the purchase price and sent from the manufacturer to the dealer. I remember maybe one person that took it in the form of a check sent to him.

Quote:
Originally Posted by buenos View Post
Can this rebate be tied to taking financing? One car sales guy told me I cannot take the rebate if I pay in full with cash, only if I do financing. Did he lie?
It can be. It isn't always. Sometimes its an "Either/or" where you take 0% financing, and I've seen it "$1000 rebate when you finance with Ford Financial Services" advertised too.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-07-2019, 02:51 PM
 
955 posts, read 2,012,165 times
Reputation: 1415
Quote:
Originally Posted by North Beach Person View Post
A clarification about sales tax. Not all states apply the sales tax to the rebated price. My state of Maryland is one that does not. I bought a 2014 F150 that had a MSRP of around $34K but had a total of $9K worth of various rebates for my price of $25K. The sales tax was calculated on $34K for that one. That's been the case for every vehicle we've bought here that had rebates.



Yes to this. Last I checked a little more than half of the states treat manufacturer rebates as cash back off of the sales price, so you pay sales tax on the rebate amount if it is a manufacturer rebate and not a selling discount. The other 20 or so you did not pay sales tax on the rebate amount, so it is definitely "vary by state" thing.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-07-2019, 05:50 PM
 
Location: Florida
2,026 posts, read 2,760,180 times
Reputation: 1382
Why does Ford insist for its customers to take financing?
I mean that the rebate is tied to taking financing.
That they would take the hit of a no-sale, while trying to force people to buy not with cash but with financing.
The ford website says the rebate is a prepaid debit card, but it does not say whether it can be spent on or cashed out...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Automotive

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:46 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top