Most dealers write out the financial terms of the vehicle purchase transaction on a form called the Four Square. See Checklists, Listings and Forms and Four Square Form.

Structure of the Form

The top of form usually includes the buyers name and address, the sales person’s name, a description of the vehicle being purchased e.g. mileage, VIN, year, make and model.

The Body of the Four Square form is divided into four parts. 

Top Right Section - Describes the price of the new vehicle.

Top Left Section - Describes the financial aspects of the used vehicle trade-in, if    applicable. 

Lower Left Section - Describes the cash down payment the buyer is making to purchase the vehicle. 

Lower Right Section – Describes the amount of the buyer’s monthly payment.

General Tips regarding the Four Square Form

Buyer Tip:  The Four Square form has been designed to maximize the profit on every vehicle sale for the dealership.

The sales person will try to move quickly through the form, by section, in the order shown above. The sales person will also try not to return to any section once completed.  The reasons will become readily apparent as you read through each section.

Dealership Trick:  The sales person will try to combine the prices of the vehicles, new and trade-in, and the loan together as one transaction.  This gives the sales person the ability to give the buyer a favorable offer in one area while taking it away in another area.

Buyer Tip: Buying a vehicle is not one transaction … it is four transactions.  Three of the transactions show up on the Four Square form i.e. Net Price paid for the New Vehicle, Value Received for your Trade-in, Cost of Financing the New Vehicle.  Sale of add-ons by the Business Finance office will be covered in the Business Finance Office-Add-ons section.

Buyer Tip: Treat each one of the above transactions separately.  Be careful when the sales person tries to lump everything together i.e. new vehicle, trade-in and financing by focusing on the monthly payment. These three items drive the monthly payment not vice versa.

Dealership Trick: Everything written on the Four Square form by the sales person will be in large bold writing.  The buyer’s counter offers will be written in small non descript writing.  This is the sales person’s way of trying to take charge of the negotiations.

Buyer Tip:  Taking the Buyer Information Folder to the dealership will help the buyer stay focused on each part of the negotiations.

Classic Dealership Sales Manager one-liners.

“Your salesperson is only going to make $100 on this deal.”

“If we can’t pay our sales people how will you buy your next vehicle?”

The above statements are often used during the negotiating to make the buyer “think” they are getting a good deal and to stop the buyer from negotiating further.  Whether the statements are true or not is unimportant.

Buyer thought and/or response might be …

“When did the structure of the dealership’s salesperson compensation program become my problem?”

“Maybe it is time, after 100 years, for dealerships to change their business model.”

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