Wife and I were looking for a vehicle back in 2000. We weren't sure what our credit situation was, so we went to our credit union and told them we were in the market for a car, wanted to see our options.
They ran our credit, and gave us a voucher for $25K, said when we found a vehicle, write in the VIN, price, and sign it. If we used the full amount, our payments would be $450/month for 72 months. Easy-peasy.
We actually went to a local Dodge dealer because we wanted a 2001 Ram 1500, V8, stick, with cruise control.
We look at some trucks and the stickers, and go sit down with a salesman. I say "Give us an out the door price." He says he has to run our credit. I say, "Nope." He says, "Why not?" I say, "You give us a price, I write down the price and info on this voucher, sign it and that truck is ours."
He asks to see the voucher, and walks out of the room with it. Wife and I are dumbfounded. Salesman comes back with a bunch of papers, sets them on the desk, and walks out again.
Wife rifles through the papers, finds our voucher, and puts it in her purse. Salesman comes back in a couple minutes later, rifles through the papers as if looking for something. He NEVER SAYS A WORD, walks back out. Wife and I are looking at each other like, "WTF?" We end up leaving and going to the local Saturn dealer and getting something there, because we figured we needed not to use almost the full amount.
That was a whole 'nother experience, but not because of the voucher.
I absolutdly despise the dealer games.
