Quote Originally Posted by Foolishopher View Post
Hi I'm new to this forum! I joined because I wanted to ask many questions regarding cars specifically the Ford Fiesta. We're planning to own a car perhaps this year or next year. As I've checked through specifications of low-priced cars such as this one, I was blown away by the looks of the Ford 1.4L 5DR Hatch, compared to Suzuki cars, Vios and Honda. Honda's price has daunted me. Suzuki's size, on the other hand, bothered me. Needless to say, VIOS popularity as taxi's brand of choice is a big turn off. Altho I have heard good things about Toyota, I'm also much concern by how the car would look on the road. So I've decided, the Ford Fiesta is the car I'm going to root for.


But when I asked about the pricing of monthly payment and down payment. I was surprised that the 99K isn't really 99K but 110K. According to the dealer, the Acts of God is included which is 10k or so. I asked him, what if I don't want that. He said, it's part of the deal. (I thought that the banner was misleading cos it says "lowest 99K down payment"). The price of this particular car is 695K PHP. So the next thing I asked him was how much would a five year monthly fee cost, he said about 13K++ a month. So that's times 60months... Then I was surprised at how much money the car would cost me 780,000+ plus the 110K down payment. Sorry, this is my first time that I considered to buy a new car. My first car was a second hand so I didn't worry much about having to pay monthly for it. I have no idea about auto loans. I initially don't want to consider buying a used car again, because the last car I had cost me a lot from maintenance and it's incessant problem with the computer box etc. So my question are: Was I quoted the right price for this car? Can I get a much lower monthly fee for five years? What should I be cautious about when dealing with Ford car dealers? Any tips and suggestion would be much appreciated!

i used to be a sales agent for one of the brands you have mentioned and the 99k dp is a "come on" strategy. now im doing freelance car broker service for every brand while working for US autoparts as well. sometimes it will appear as a 15% dp which most if not none gets to have an approval of. the logic is... if its low dp then your monthly ammortization rises. if you have the capacity to pay a large amount in a monthly basis then why would you only spare a small amount for dp? so its a paradox on its own. dealerships will ask for you to apply for a financing deal for 15% dp and then youll be surprised that they will tell you that you cant get approved for 15% dp... but the good news is you are approved for a 20%- 30% dp. though a financing approval isnt a commitment, it does fuels your desire to get it done. the low dp that most of the time is advertised is just the low dp for the unit itself, although sometimes they advertise it as an "all-in" package, but then again as you have calculated, you will still be paying for these inclusions in the long run. theres nothing wrong with it since you are actually borrowing money from a financing institution and since its a business it must come with a price.... but then again theres a "work around" it.