Anyone have any pro-tips or experiences on financing a used car if you're on an employment pass?
I had my first used car buying "experience" today. Despite every ad and everything I've seen online, the sales manager was insisting that foreigners "almost always need to put 20% down". Sorry, but I didn't really feel like putting down 20% on a 4-yr old $89k fracking Honda Civic. (an amount that would almost buy two of them outright back home... but anyway).
After some haggling, the sales manager had a "solution". He would raise the price of the car ~15% on paper. I would tell the bank the car cost his new price, and then when approved he would give me the original advertised payments based off the old price. Essentially lie to the bank I had paid the difference as a down payment. Oh, and I would have to pay him the GST on the difference between the two prices separately and up front.
So how "normal" is this? Should I expect the same treatment from all used car dealers, or was this one particularly shady? Is it possible to go to the bank here and get a loan approved up-front for a specific amount, and THEN go car shopping with the approval? Everything I've seen seems to indicate I need to put the specific car down on the loan application... A process that seems rather inefficient. (How does one buy a used car from a private party with such a system?)