The whole car.

From Mercedes, Lexus, Porsche, Ferrari, Acura, Ford, BMW, and Maserati...All where paid in full with a personal check...AND only ONE company ran a credit check and that was Ford...Go figure...

The checks were for full purchase price. Porsche let me put $1,000 on my Visa card, and Mercedes let me put $10,000 on my American Express (so I could get the points).

Well there you go!

I sit, corrected!

:)

Re: Personal Cheque or not, it seems to be based on the type of car. Paradoxically, the higher the price of the car, the less it needs to be a bank or certified cheque!

My Hondas: certified cheques all
My Lexuses and Porsche: personal cheques

:cool:

For my first Lexus purchase, the Lexus dealer actually scoffed at the suggestion of me providing a certified cheque.

I sold a 911 for $70K plus yesterday. Payment by bank transfer and cashier's check.

Bruce - in a rental transaction, I just had a tenant stop payment on a Suntrust certified bank check 2 DAYS AFTER it was supposed to have cleared. With all the fraudulent checks these days, those things are treated like a normal check and are only as good.

There is a difference between a Cashier's check and a certified check. In the case of the Cashier's check, the bank withdraws funds from your account and is obligated to honor that check with ITS FUNDS. If you don't actually use the check, you can redeposit it in your account.

In a certified check, all the bank is doing is certifying that you have the funds in your account at the time of certification. There is NO GUARANTEE to the payee that you will have the funds there when the check is presented back to the bank.

In CA, if you have a REAL cashier's check in your hands, I know of no way the bank can wiggle from honoring it.

According to the following, I was wrong above!


Check:
A payment order drawn on a bank, payable upon presentation. The parties to a check are the Drawer or Maker, the bank, and the Beneficiary (Payee, Bearer, or the Drawer himself). A check is a NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENT meaning that it can be signed over (endorsed) to a third party.

A Cashier's Check is one drawn on the bank's own account and is considered as good as cash. When a Cashier's Check is issued at the request of a bank client, the funds are drawn from the client's account and credited to the bank's account before the check is drawn.

A Certified Check is a check written by the Maker where the Maker's bank stamps the check itself certifying that the signature on the check is genuine and that the stated funds are available. Payment of a Certified Check is the responsibility of the bank, which draws the stated funds from the Maker's account upon certification. The funds are placed in an escrow-type account, awaiting presentation of the Certified Check for payment.

I paid the car by cash. Yes, I brought a big bag of Japanese Yen and dropped it off the dealer, seriously.

Personal check is basically not common here in Japan, and all transactions buying a car are done either by bank transfer or cash. Of course I took the cash path because I wanted the car so badly and wanted to drive it home that day, haha.

Bruce maybe you should open a branch here :D

I would love to see Japan. Always been interested in the culture and martial arts.

Hmmm. I find the "bags of cash" to be intriguing....

Contact the State Attorney General's office via letter and tell your story without any drama and only with the facts, it may help.