RCK

The law that applies to cash transactions (the green stuff) is the bank secrecy act. In short any cash transactions over $10k are reported to the IRS with a currency trasaction report to track any possible money laundering. Even under $10k amounts can still be reported if they appear suspicious. All you could ever want to know and more can be found here:

http://www.occ.treas.gov/handbook/bsa.pdf

One possible thing that a dealer might be entitled to do is to check to see if you are on the OFAC list (Office of Foreign Asset Control). This is now done anytime someone opens a financial account somewhere that cash is regularly exchanged to determine if they are a possible terrorist.

g60racer

When I bought my wife's pathfinder and my R32, I paid cash (via check) for both of them. Both times the dealers wanted me to fill out credit apps, because that's simply part of their process for selling a car.

I refused.

They came back with, but what if we can spread the payments out over a long time and give you zero interest financing?

And I replied that if I needed financing, I would not have written a check for the full amount.

The VW dealer took the hint, said ok and let me just buy the car.

The Nissan dealer made me go talk to the finance manager to explain why I didn't want to run my credit (was in process of shopping for a house, didn't want to ding my credit score with an inquiry), and after 20 minutes of back and forth about how they could offer me all these different options like extended warranties but only if I financed through them, I got up to leave. I said, should I rip up this check, and go across town to another Nissan dealer who might actually want to make a sale? Or do you think the owner of your dealership would like to explain to me why his employees don't want to accept legally tendered US currency to purchase a car he wants to sell? You have 10 seconds to decide.

Suddenly, they didn't need my credit app, and I bought the car.

gomarlins3

Unfortunately, this will NEVER be a problem for me.

Spartikus

Unless you're already 65 years old, there's no reason to believe that you cannot change your financial position for the better.

gomarlins3

I am a teacher. I don't see a whole lot of money coming my way anytime soon.

IheartS2ks

You should move to so cal then. Teachers make pretty decent money here.

gomarlins3

I already taught in CA. Man am I happy I left. As I found out, it's not all about the money.

Incubus

Damn, teachers should make WAY more money than they do. That's one of life's injustices.

Humanatek

Exactly. This is just a dealer ploy to see if you are serious. I experienced this same tactic as early as the mid 90's. They blamed the necessity on something else, but it is the same ploy with a new wrapper. They probably get allot of people with the "Patriot Act" statement because it scares the crap out of allot of people and people don't want to look like they have something to hide from the "Patriots". Bottom line is that if you pay cash for a car, you will have to fill out some paperwork, but NOT a credit app. If they try to force it upon you, take your business to another dealer.

J3ffro

Nicely done