I was reading a “Hot Button Bulletin” from the Better Business Bureau in
“Guaranteed Credit? We doubt it! Advertising in the Auto Trader, Auto Mart, Newspapers etc have contained phrases like “Everyone Approved”, “No One Turned Down”, “Bad Credit, Bankruptcy, Repossessions, Etc. Waived”, “ Bad Credit, No Credit, We’ll Get You Financed!”
Arizona Attorney General Ad Guidelines say:
CREDIT AVAILABILITY: A dealer should not use claims such as “everyone financed”, “no credit rejected”, “we finance everyone”, or similar statements unless the dealer can and is willing to extend such credit to any individual, under any circumstances.
The BBB code of advertising addresses the issue in the same manner:
“NO CREDIT REJECTED” The words “no credit rejected” or similar terms should not be used unless true, since they imply that consumer credit will be extended to anyone regardless of the person’s credit worthiness or financial ability to pay.
In other words ads that use these terms say that you will extend credit to the homeless guy who lives under the bridge, to the student with no job or income, the person with no down payment. There cannot be any stipulations!!
These terms are used to draw customers to toe lot thinking they will be able to get a car when the chances are stacked against them getting one unless they do meet certain qualifications.
At Consolidated Auto Sales we do approve a good percentage of the customers who come in. We do also reject a few because they do not meet the criteria we want in a customer. It could be time on the job, time at the address, down payment, credit or a lot of other things. But obviously we are in the business of selling cars, so telling a customer they can’t have the car they want does cut into our income. The other side of that coin is “ I would rather look at a car on our sales lot, rather than looking for it because the customer isn’t making the payments!”
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