New car dealer financing - legit??
 

Question for anybody with experience:

3.5 years ago I financed a CPO through Honda Financial on a 5 year term, paid it off in full last month. I called HF to confirm the car is mine, and to see if I could get pre-approved for a new car, trading the current one in. They said because I paid off the car more than 6 months in advance, it would have to be done at dealership.

Today, I walked into a Honda dealership. Test drove, sat down, negotiated, shook hands. Salesman takes me into Finance Manager's office, and she is already aware I get -1% interest due to Honda Loyalty thing. She takes my info, income, loan amount, prints out a page, and then immediately says you're approved. It's around 7pm at this point.

She sets up an appointment 2 days later for delivery of car (car was in compound, all the detailers had gone home, etc. and tomorrow is fully booked), and to sign financing papers.

I did nothing except put a $1000 deposit down, and sign credit application.

Am I good to go? The internets is filled with horror stories about people getting called back into dealerships weeks after they were supposedly "pre-approved", resign, etc. Apparently this is illegal in Canada?

So, am I legitimately approved? Or is this a scam-tactic?
FWIW, total cost of car with taxes/fees is 31000. I'll be financing 23000 before interest.

tl;dr - went to buy new car, was approved for financing in minutes, told to come back 2 days later. Safe?

it is possible to get preapproved that quick if they have their inhouse finance department.
In another word, you are definitely good to go if it is a inhouse finance department within the dealership.

are you getting the -1% on the purchase agreement?

seems pretty normal so far, I would've made them write refundable deposit on the purchase agreement just incase.

All deposits are refundable. If you don't sign a bill of sale, simply call the VSA- your deposit will be returned promptly.

What makes you think it's a scam tactic? You bought a car, calm down.

Yeah, Honda dealership, financing through Honda Financial Services. I'm assuming the lady I sat down with is the "inhouse finance department".

Deposit is refundable indeed.

lol, because again, google is FILLED with "spot deliveries" and "yoyo financing", most of which seem to be prevalent in the US. Was just wondering if anybody has had shit like this.

It's not like Canadian car dealers are saints (richmond subaru, etc.)

I am calm, but also pretty damn excited.

It's extremely difficult to spot deliver a car in Canada- also, an approval can take between 30 seconds and 3 days with Honda Financial services- basically it can be auto approved by a computer, or require 3 days of work, or not approved at all.

Point being relax! When you go to take delivery read over everything carefully- mostly the interest rate, payment, etc etc and ensure it matches what you signed.

I think you'll be fine. Only issue I can think of off the top of my head is the car not being ready in 2 days but that could be due to miscommunication between employees.

They might have sped you through the process because you had your head on your shoulders and / or your credit history is very good. But yeah if you're feeling leery at any point, just back out before signing anything. People have kicked themselves later on by letting excitement cloud their judgement.

I work at a Honda dealership (not in sales or finance) and nothing out of the ordinary has happened so far.

We've had a customer come in once and he was approved within the hour. Might have helped that he's bought a few cars from our dealership before.