Car Dealers Lobbying Congress for Anti-Consumer Protections
The National Automobile Dealers Association is encouraging their members to lobby for the following anti-consumer changes in the law:
Preserving dealer-assisted financing: This refers to the way some dealers take your credit application and send it electronically to several potential lenders to see whether they want to give you a loan.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says this could lead to uneven and discriminatory interest rates, because the size of the dealer reserve — its commission from the loan — can depend upon the interest rate the dealer cites for a customer. The CFPB has not proposed eliminating dealer reserve, but NADA says it wants to limit it to a flat fee rather than a rate that might rise or fall at the dealer’s discretion.
No LIFO repeal: LIFO refers to “last in, first out,” and is a form of inventory accounting that auto dealers like. . .The International Accounting Standards Board does not allow LIFO for financial accounting purposes, and President Barack Obama has said LIFO across all industries cheats the government out of tens of billions of dollars. Rental car recalls: Dealers are attempting to stop a bill that would require rental vehicles to have all manufacturer recalls performed prior to renting a vehicle.
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2013/08/car_dealers_see_congressional.html