Car Sales & Financing | Issues

Learn how to secure a fair deal when buying and financing a car at

NCLC's Working Cars for Working Families

A car is often essential for working families. The family car can be the key to a better job or any job at all, access to health care, and the ability to find affordable housing with access to child care and a reasonable commute. All too often abuses in the sale and financing of cars hinder the efforts of families to buy and keep a safe, reliable car at reasonable terms. Families are maneuvered into buying cars with defects known by the dealer but not disclosed to the consumer. Financing arranged by the dealer is designed not to help the consumer get the best deal, but instead to line the dealer’s pockets through unfair practices such as loan packing and dealer mark-ups. High pressure sales tactics, fraud, and abusive practices such as yo-yo sales, are used to put families in cars and loans that trap families with negative equity, high payments, and unreliable cars.

NCLC and a number of other organizations are engaged in an effort to change both policy and practice to ensure that working families get a fair deal when buying a car. More information about that effort will be available soon.

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Policy Analysis

Comments, Letters and Issue Briefs

Issue Brief: New Ways to Understand the Impact of Auto Finance on Low-Income Families, May 2016
Advocates' letter to the U.S. Senate opposing riders to the 2017 appropriation bill that would obstruct the CFPB's ability to protect consumers against discriminatory and unfair auto lending, May 16, 2016
Group comments to the FTC re: auto buyers consumer survey, Mar. 7, 2016
Group comments and related survey to the FTC re: sale of certified used cars with unrepaired safety recalls, February 29, 2016
Group comments urging the FTC to retain and strengthen the Holder Rule, Feb. 12, 2016
Group letter to U.S. House of Representatives opposing H.R. 1737, the Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act, June 10, 2015
Policy Brief: Racial Disparities in Auto Loan Markups: State-by-State Data, June 2015
Comments to the FTC re: Used Car Regulatory Review, March 17, 2015
Group comments to the CFPB re: defining larger participants in auto financing, Dec. 8, 2014
Group letter to the FTC petitioning enforcement action against CarMax for deceptive ads and sales practices, June 23, 2014.
Group comments to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration re: its 2014-2018 strategic plan (odometer fraud), February 24, 2014.
Group comments to the FTC on the Used Car rule, March 12, 2013
Letter to California Gov. Jerry Brown urging enactment of CA AB 1447 to increase consumer protections on "Buy Here, Pay Here" car dealer sales, Sept. 4, 2012
Group comments to the Federal Trade Commission on the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act Review on auto warranties a and defects. October 24, 2011
Comments on Credit Risk Retention by National Consumer Law Center and National Association of Consumer Advocates to the U.S. Department of Treasury, August 1, 2011
Issue Brief: State-by-State Racial Disparities in Auto Lending by Auto Dealers, May 2010
Letter: Consumer Groups Concerned over Auto Dealer Exemption in CFPA, October 6, 2009
Comments regarding Cooling-Off Rule Regulatory Review, September 25, 2009
Comments on the Federal Trade Commission’s Used Car Rule, November 18, 2008

Testimony

Testimony of John W. Van Alst on "Consumer Protection in the Used and Subprime Car Market" before the Subcommittee on Commerce Trade and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Energy and Commerce United States House of Representatives, March 5, 2009
Testimony Before House Financial Services Committee on the Need for Race, Age and Sex Data on Non-Mortgage Lending, July 16, 2008

Reports and Press Releases