Dealers track how many cars they have, what's arriving soon, and how many are in production—that's their supply. They also analyze past and current sales to understand demand. The dealers will adjust prices up if supply is low or demand is high, and will crop their prices if the opposite is true.

When dealers work with CarChamp, they promise to immediately give you the best deal. They don't make you haggle or waste time. You'll get a fair and honest deal if the car you want is hard to find or lots of them are available. With CarChamp dealers, you'll save time and skip the stress because the best value is easy to see.

You can feel confident knowing your price is based on actual supply and demand, not guesswork or negotiating skills. CarChamp dealers are focused on making sure you get the best deal possible every single time.

Dealers partnered with CarChamp are carefully selected based on their high Customer Service Index (CSI) scores. These scores are not based on Yelp or Google reviews but come from comprehensive surveys sent by the manufacturer to past new car buyers. This ensures that feedback reflects genuine experiences with the dealership. CarChamp focuses on partnering with only the top 20% - 25% of dealers for each brand in a market, so you can feel confident knowing you’re working with the best dealers.

Your credit union is in business to provide you with the best possible loan while keeping your best interest in mind. The credit union removes the finance “middle man” in the traditional dealer-controlled purchase model.

You can trade your car to the dealer. Once traded, the dealer intends to resell your trade-in. They will resell it as a used car on their lot or resell it in the wholesale market.

Take the time to get your trade ready. You’ll need to bring the title. It’s possible that if you have a loan on your trade-in the lender has the title in their possession. Vault your trade-in documents in the CarChamp app. You’ll probably need to refer to these documents in the future. Clean your trade-in; wash, vacuum, and take everything out of your glovebox except these 3 things; registration, insurance, warranty/owner’s manual documents.

A cleaned up and cleaned out trade-in tells the dealer you are ready to buy today. The dealer will offer you as much as they can for your trade-in. Keep in mind, the dealer wants to agree to a deal.

Taking delivery means driving your car off the lot and taking it home. Once you agree to a deal and sign the buyers order, your credit union will load the figures onto their loan documents and send them to you sign digitally. The credit union will quickly transfer funds to the dealership, and you’ll be on your way.

1. Get your loan pre-approved with one of our participating credit unions

2. Download the CarChamp iPhone or Android App. It’s free!

3. Vault your documents before arriving at one of our participating dealerships

Vaulting a document is simply scanning the document into the CarChamp app (vault). When your document is vaulted, the dealership can easily capture it digitally instead of taking your document to a copy machine.

Keep in mind, some documents will need to be submit to the dealer when you transact the purchase, like your title.

This is an excellent question with a surprising and logical answer. The captive lender (Toyota has TMCC, Ford has FMCC) offers a low interest rate as an incentive to buy the car or offers a rebate. Usually, the incentive is one or the other: cheaper interest cost or a rebate. The captive lender hopes you take the cheaper interest rate. They want you to take the cheap interest because it takes the entire term of the loan for them to spend down the incentive cost. Data shows that people trade, pay off their cars early, or even wreck them. In any of these cases, the captive lender didn't pay the entire incentive cost because the loan ended early. 

On the other hand, if you take all the available rebates, you start with a lower balance and the captive lender incurs the entire incentive cost when you drive off the lot. The real benefit is starting with a lower car balance by taking the rebate and financing with your credit union. If you pay the balance off early, your pay-off balance is less. For example, would you like a $30,000 or a $25,000 balance if your car gets in a wreck and is totaled? You'd be in far better shape if you took the rebate ($5,000 in this example) instead of the cheap interest rate. Another interesting fact is that people in the car business almost always take all the rebates they can and then find the best loan from a credit union or bank. Starting with a lower balance is the smart way to buy. 

While it's recommended that you make an appointment, it is not necessary. You always have the option to arrive at our contracted dealerships with your loan approval and all your documents vaulted in the CarChamp app. 

Unfortunately, you can’t. However, you can encourage your credit union to join the CarChamp network. You can go to a participating credit union.

Of course, you can purchase your vehicle from any dealer you choose. If that dealer is not a contracted CarChamp dealer, you will not receive the special pricing and skip the finance office.

With CarChamp, the salesperson assists you in determining what other products you may consider. They will offer you products like a vehicle service contract, pre-paid maintenance, or other products. Your credit union has agreed to add these products to your loan if you choose. These are all worthwhile products, and the dealer pricing is legitimate and fair. 

Remote delivery is when a dealer delivers the vehicle to your home or workplace after the documents have been electronically signed and the dealer is funded. CarChamp dealers will accommodate a remote delivery if you like. 

1. Apply for the loan at any locally participating credit union.

2. Once pre-approved, you will receive a PIN (personal identification number) from the credit union.

3. Download the free iPhone/Android app from the Apple Store.

4. Input your PIN to the CarChamp app.

5. Vault your documents… you are ready to go!

Your credit union is your primary contact with lending questions. The dealership will help you through the buying process. You can also email, chat, or call CarChamp. Remember, this is a beta project, and we need your input. As we develop this process, we seek your feedback and feedback from the credit union and the dealership. This is a new process, and your input is valuable to us. 

CarChamp never charges a fee to the car buyer. 

For your friends and family to get the special pricing and skip the finance office, they will need to get pre-approved for a car loan at one of our participating credit unions and buy their vehicle from one of our participating dealerships.