Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client, May 7 (Fu Yumei, Yan Shuxin) "Why does the sales face change when I hear that I want to buy a full car?" On a social platform, some netizens raised questions, and many car buyers also said that The same experience.
In fact, 4S shops are more enthusiastic about recommending consumers to choose loan methods than buying a car in full. While providing interest-free solutions, they are often bundled with corresponding handling fees.
The industry "hidden rules" behind buying a car loan
Recently, the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client visited a number of 4S stores in Beijing as a consumer to investigate the above phenomenon reported by consumers.
During the visit, the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client made an inquiry with a car worth about 140,000 yuan. A Geely 4S store in Chaoyang District, Beijing recommended a down payment of 60,000 yuan, interest-free for two years, and a loan amount of nearly 80,000 yuan. .
Excluding the purchase tax, insurance and other expenses on the budget, there is a "loan handling fee" of 3,000 yuan.
When asked to whom and why the fee was charged, the salesperson stated that it was for 4S shops and said that "the industry is like this", but he frankly said that he would get more than 10% rebate from it.
When the reporter changed his words and said that he considered buying a car in full because of the high handling fee, the sales only expressed respect for the customer's choice, but emphasized that the interest-free program was just launched this year and the manufacturer subsidized, so it is very cost-effective.
In a Dongfeng Honda 4S store, for a plug-in hybrid SUV with a full price of about 250,000 yuan, the sales company provided reporters with a three-year interest-free loan to buy a car program, with a handling fee of 4,000 yuan.
The car purchase budget provided by BYD’s 4S shop also includes a loan handling fee of 4,000 yuan.
In the SAIC Volkswagen 4S store, sales said that in addition to the new energy vehicles promoted by several manufacturers, if the fuel vehicle is purchased using the loan program, a certain handling fee will also be charged.
New Jingwei Fu Yumei in the relevant car purchase budget table
A salesperson at the BYD New Energy 4S store tried to discourage the reporter when he was interested in buying a car in full, and asked, “Why are you spending all the money here? You can use it for financial management?” “There is no need to pay in full, the loan has no interest. There is no pressure to repay," "Most of us here take loans, so you can rest assured" and other rhetoric, and even put forward a plan that "the handling fee can be discounted by another 1,000 yuan".
In addition to sales verbal recommendations, 4S stores' promotion of buying a car with loans is almost everywhere: eye-catching banners are posted on the walls, brochures are placed at the front desk, and a slogan is also posted on the negotiation table of a 4S store, " Dear, are you sure about the full payment? There is no interest on the loan!"
The new latitude and longitude in the slogan picture of the 4S shop photo by Fu Yumei
"I was wondering why the sales had been encouraging us to take a loan when I bought a car last year. After I bought the full amount, the sales told me reluctantly that they didn't make much money for the full amount." Recently, a consumer posted on Weibo.
The aforementioned Geely 4S store sales also made it clear, "We make more money to buy a car with a loan."
Chen Xing (pseudonym), a car dealer with 13 years of work experience in the field of automobile distribution, told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that the handling fee is already a “hidden rule” in the industry, and it is generally charged at N% of the loan amount or a fixed amount. Will become the profit of the 4S shop.
Chen Xing also revealed that in addition to the handling fee itself, financial institutions will give a certain rebate according to the loan amount of the 4S shop, which is usually a few thousandths, and the rebate varies among financial institutions.
In addition, in order to attract consumer loans, 4S stores often launch the corresponding "X-year interest-free" car purchase program, focusing on zero interest rates.
“This situation occurs mainly because you don’t make money by selling cars now.” Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association, said in an interview with the Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client. As the car purchase process becomes more transparent and standardized, dealers’ Profit margins are also very low.
"In addition, when the stores launched low-priced cars and car purchase discounts, they had also considered that selling cars would not make money, so they were all based on the presupposition that customers bought cars with loans, and the financial insurance charges generated by this were for them. Very important income."
What issues are worth noting?
When it comes to the controversy caused by car loan-related expenses, many people will think of the "Xi'an Benz Women's Rights Protection Incident" that caused a national sensation two years ago.
In this incident, the 4S shop allowed female car owners to use Mercedes-Benz Finance to buy a car, and only after the down payment was completed did they propose to charge a "financial service fee" of more than 15,000 yuan.
During the visit, the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client found that in the paper loan program provided by the aforementioned 4S store, the loan fee items were all described as "loan handling fees", and part of the sales were still called "financial" in the process of oral presentation. Service charge".
Meng Bo, a lawyer from Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, pointed out to the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that there is no legal basis for 4S stores or dealers to charge financial service fees, and there are a lot of violations.
Automotive industry analyst Zhang Xiang told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client: “The so-called financial service fee has long been an unreasonable fee and belongs to a gray area, but why is it difficult to ban it? Because only selling cars, most 4S stores All are at a loss, or it is difficult to make a profit, especially for niche brands. If this fee is completely cut off, the sales revenue will also be greatly affected. This is a default situation in the industry, and there is currently no good situation. Solution."
Huang Chengwei, founder and CEO of Car Cafe, an automobile financial leasing management consulting company, introduced to the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that financial service fees are a general concept, including financial service fees, financial management fees, handling fees, consulting service fees, etc.
The loan handling fee is a charge item in the loan business.
"However, the loan service fee mentioned by the 4S shop is essentially the same as the previous financial service fee."
"Under the influence of the'Mercedes-Benz rights defense' incident, the term'financial service fees' appears to be very negative, and everyone will deliberately avoid it now, so there are fewer and fewer writings like this. Both in terms of rationality and customer acceptance. , The wording of loan handling fees will be more appropriate than financial service fees.” Huang Chengwei said.
Cui Dongshu also told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that the use of the term "loan handling fee" is to avoid risks and make it more acceptable to consumers, but in fact it is "changing the soup without changing the medicine."
4S shop loan introduction data picture, photo by Fu Yumei, new Jingwei
Asked about the charge, the aforementioned Geely 4S store sales told the Zhongxin Jingwei client: "Why the'Benz rights protection' incident caused such a big controversy, that is, the customer did not tell the customer in advance that they would collect the money, and then add it later, this is not correct. Although We are still collecting handling fees, but we will definitely not conceal customers and do our duty to inform, and the industry generally charges them now."
It is understood that besides banks, financial companies owned by manufacturers provide loans to consumers.
A manager surnamed Zhang of Industrial Yafei Automobile Service Co., Ltd. told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client: “The manufacturer finance will not charge any fees. When the customer pays the service fee for the manufacturer’s financing, it will become the profit of the 4S shop.”
The manager surnamed Zhang also mentioned, “If a customer needs to buy a car in installments, the dealer is very happy. The dealer can not only charge a not low fee for using the installment business of the auto finance company, but also automatically defaults that the customer needs to buy the whole car. For customers, they have to face a longer insurance bundling period."
In response to insurance issues, Chen Xing also told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client: "Financial institutions will require consumers to purchase certain insurance types to protect their assets. If you buy a car in full, consumers can theoretically choose freely. And because the loan term is generally 1-5 years, relatively speaking, the insurance rate of commercial insurance in the following years will be much higher than that of full-priced car owners."
At the same time, Chen Xing also emphasized: "The most important point of sales encouragement loans is to use down payment to guide consumers to make advance purchases, such as buying higher-configuration and higher-level models, which will increase consumers' original car purchases. Budget, after all, cars with higher prices are more profitable."
Zhang Xiang suggested that in the case of 4S stores trying to guide loans to buy a car, consumers still have a clear concept, that is, the service fee is not necessary to pay, and can be replaced if they are able to buy the car in full. Consult with several stores to avoid falling into the "trap" of buying a car with a loan.
(Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
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