[jjtheblunt]

> They just dump money into your bank account and say "please buy a car with this" and you keep the title.

where is this?

you don't have or keep the title until the bank sees you paid off the loan, in every instance i've seen.

[elephanlemon]

An unsecured loan just a straight cash loan. In my experience the interest rates are usually a fair bit higher than a vehicle loan, and I would assume the maximum amount is generally quite a bit lower.

[bitexploder]

In my experience it really depends. You are still contractually and legally obligated to purchase a vehicle in many of these setups, they just don't follow up or enforce it directly in most cases. Loan rates are nothing like unsecured personal loan rates. Probably higher than best auto loan rates. With rates being what they are it may not make as much sense to use an unsecured loan at this point, but when rates are low the cost was negligible and the convenience worth it.

[jjtheblunt]

Ahhh, like if you were to put your new VW on your Visa card entirely.

That might work: you'd have bought the car, from the point of view of VW and your DMV, so the DMV sends you the title, not Visa.

[AndroidKitKat]

In Maryland I received my car's title, but it just shows the lien holder's information on it. I've never bought a car in any other state so my information is limited.

Is this different from what you mean?

[jjtheblunt]

i'm pretty sure that in Arizona, and i think in California, they DMV sends the title updated to show the original holder (like BMW Financial Services, Subaru Financial Services, or whatever) has been payed completely, and the person is then shown as the title holder.