I dont think most who "buy cash" mean actual cash. For me it used to be cashiers check though dealerships dont seem to have an issue taking personal checks these days, they can verify it on the spot.
I understand that just fine. That was part of my point.
Personal checks are pretty insecure and leave this hard record of your account number and personal information laying around for someone to target you for check, wire, or identity fraud. I occasionally use checks as a last resort.
Of course a cashier check or bank wire are probably better cash-like options. But may require some planning up-front to have a cashier check in hand, or make phone calls to authorize a bank wire.
This thread is about car loans being bad for Americans and car prices. My perspective was that credit is the most straightforward way to do a cash-like purchase. One can do a 6-month short-term installment instead of lump sum cash transaction with very little interest penalty. This was my main point. There is a responsible way to use credit.
The vast majority of people buying a car don't think about the loan/debt this way. Instead they try to optimize their monthly payment to be low and take on a long term debt and then eat all the interest that comes along with keeping that loan.
I'm not telling anyone what to do. This is how I bought my last truck, new, in about 6 months with cash I had saved with loan installments of around $6000. The total interest I paid was only a marginal $300. I would be curious what tangible benefit, if any, such as a cash discount are most dealerships offering?
Most of the cars I had bought over my life up to that point were used, with the most up to that point having been $12,000 sticker price. It's a different lower stakes activity to buy a used car with cash than do a lump sum vehicle purchase on a new car for $30-50K. I think it's unnecessarily risky and makes an enticing target for fraud or harassment. That is just my opinion.
Back to the main point. I don't think it's the auto loan by itself inflating the costs. Most people aren't using credit wisely and are taking out long term loans to optimize for the wrong thing, a lower monthly payment. Maybe there is something else going on like easy access to debt like with NINJA loans and housing market. But also our government is just printing infinite money and laundering it through NGOs and foreign aid. That might be a factor. There are probably multiple reasons for high auto prices. If we all could just switch to cash, I don't think it would move the price of autos meaningfully.
. Sorry.
