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Are You Unknowingly Upsetting the Car Salesman At the Dealership? You Might Be Costing Yourself Big Time

"God forbid they do their job."

Here’s Why What You’re Doing Might Cost You

Photo by: Unsplash.com

Steve Ecker

By: Steve Ecker

Oct 28, 2025 at 8:00am ET

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The car buying process can be tricky, in part because it's always best to do research before inking a deal—but the sheer number of vehicles on the market makes it next to impossible to be knowledgeable about every model and trim level. Navigating these negotiations can be challenging, particularly without proper preparation or support from a friend.

Just like any business trying to make money, the dealership will always try to land a favorable deal, as will the workers, who are paid by commission.

In a video, Toyota salesperson Ramzi Gildeh (@ramzisellscars) portrays the common reaction when a car salesman brings a cash offer to the finance manager.

Are You Angry At Me?

In the TikTok, the dynamic between the finance manager and car salesman is playfully mimicked with a Key and Peele skit. The skit is “Meegan and Andre Break Up” from the hit comedy series.

Gildeh uses the skit to represent an interaction between a car salesman and a finance manager. The car salesman is Andre, while the finance manager is represented by Meegan.

“POV: Handing my finance manager the 3rd cash deal of the day,” the onscreen caption reads.

“I can’t tell if you are angry or not,” Andre begins.

“I’m not. Totally not angry,” Meegan replies.

“You sound pretty angry,” Andre responds.

“I’m not angry,” Meegan insists.

Andre looks at Meegan with dismay; he clearly doesn’t totally believe her.

“I’m not angry. I’m fine. I love it,” she reaffirms.

The skit ends with palpable tension between the two. It resonated with people who have experience working in car sales. Several grumbled about how entitled finance managers get when salespeople bring cash offers.

“God forbid they do their job,” one said.

“‘You always bring me loser deals’—finance manager that makes minimum $20k per month,” another mocked.

“Tell that dude to suck it up and write it up,” a third shared.

Do Finance Managers Hate It When Customers Pay Cash?

When a finance manager hears the customer is paying cash, they certainly don’t love it. It's nothing personal; it's just business. They make less money when a customer pays cash.

“Most finance managers make a bulk of their money from finance deals,” Auto Finance Sense reports.

So when a car salesperson comes to them with a cash offer, they're losing money. That's why some will try to sell additional services as part of the final transaction.

“First they will generate income from the reserve also known as yield spread which is the difference between buy rate and sell rate. But the biggest reason is the opportunity to present and sell additional optional products to you in terms of payment is lost,” Auto Finance Sense explains.

The finance manager will often subtly try to sell services to get a higher number when signing the contract. Each of these additional optional services can translate into commissions.

The finance manager will also usually try to pitch financing to get the opportunity to sell additional services.

Gallery: 2026 Toyota RAV4 First Drive Review

2026 Toyota RAV4 First Drive Review

Source: Jeff Perez / Motor1

What Else Do Finance Managers Hate?

According to Auto Finance Sense, here are five additional things finance managers hate hearing:

Phone a Friend: Typically, the person being called will say to deny any add-on services unless they’ve had a positive experience with one themselves.
Large Down Payment: The more you finance, the more money the finance manager makes. So, the more money a customer puts down upfront, the less money the finance manager makes.
“I’m Already Approved”: Already being approved by a credit union outside of the dealership gives the impression that the buyer is savvy and on top of financing. The dealership wants to be the party that buyers finance through and will try to sway the buyer into switching by matching the rate or even going lower.
“I’ll Take My Time”: The finance manager needs you for their pay plan and wants to do business with you. Taking your time stalls the whole buying process and messes with their money.
“I Want To Cancel”: If you cancel your products within a certain time period, the manager loses their cut.

How Does the Finance Manager Impact the Customer?

All roads will lead to the financial manager in the final stages of buying a car. Now, since financial managers are paid based on how much you spend, they often pitch dealership services, financing, and GAP insurance. The customer's payment plan strategy wan impact their relationship with the financial manager.

Because it's how they make money, it's only natural that financial managers prefer to deal with customers who are looking to finance instead of paying with cash. The add-ons financial managers suggests to people financing their purchase aren’t necessarily bad services—though they may be marked up.

“If you have a complicated deal with a trade-in, manufacturer financing and extra products, there are thousands of dollars at stake. But if you have a little bit of knowledge and some preparation, an unscrupulous auto finance manager won't be able to hurt you,” per Edmunds.

Knowing that these services are marked up gives you extra ammunition to negotiate. However, some believe that if you expose your interest in the services too early in the negotiation process, the financial manager may not budge.

“If you're interested in the products, you're giving the finance manager more reasons and leverage to hold their price instead of discounting anyways,” one Reddit user opined.

The potential drawback of fully trusting the financial manager is that you may get taken advantage of.

Financial managers will employ different strategies to keep racking up the loan amount so they can earn more commission. Some dealerships celebrate ripping off customers to make more money.

What do you think?

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“There was this one guy they called the ‘Shredder,’ who took a couple's trade-in as a down payment on a lease. He said he was giving them an $8,000 credit for their trade-in but really only gave them $2,000. At that Saturday's sales meeting, they treated the ‘Shredder’ like a hero for making so much money,” a former financial manager told Edmunds.

Motor1 has contacted Ramzi Gildeh via Instagram and TikTok direct messages. This story will be updated if he replies.

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