Happens every day. In my case, I didn't know better. Story time. I was a young 20 year old with a brand new baby and a decent job. My prior car was a beater an

Happens every day. In my case, I didn't know better. Story time. I was a young 20 year old with a brand new baby and a decent job. My prior car was a beater and constantly broke down. I went to a 'dealership' thinking I'd get a better car, and hey, it's 'buy here pay here'! I was looking at a really good condition crown victoria. It was a family sedan, had one prior owner (a winter texan), who had kept all the paperwork for every oil change and service done. The down payment? 4500. The bi-weekly payments? 250. So, 4500 down, 500/mo for I believe 6 years. The kelly blue book value of the crown vic? 4500 in mint condition. So not only had I paid them the full value of the car, as a down payment, but they were getting me for ~6 years of payments, so had I paid the minimum and let the loan ride the full 6 years, I would have ended up paying ~$36k US for a $4500 car. When I met someone who knew cars and prices, he informed me how badly I was being ripped off and to pay off the principal asap to get out from under the loan. Of course this was made complicated when they sold my loan. If the company I bought the car from was bad, the company they sold my note to was the Devil himself. Constantly threatening repossession, beyond rude, calling friends and family ('just references not co-signer, it would be illegal to contact them abiut financial matters!'-more bullshit. So, it's a combination of desperation, ignorance, and youth I guess, and neither my ex-wife nor I having people to turn to for advice back then. As an aside there were no smart phones yet, so it wasn't as though I could search this stuff while on-site. I just couldn't have imagined as a young man that someone could be so incredibly unscrupulous. All of the above is especially true during tax season when they make 99‰ of their money. Edit to add- want some weekend fun? Grab the KBB app (wrapper sucks actual website is better), head to the poor side of town to buy here pay here's, and check the vehicle's down payments against the KBB max value =)