An auto loan is a financial product: something that you effectively buy. The dealer not only sells cars, but financial products. They make more money if they sell you a car
and one or more financial products, than if they just sell you a car.
Also, auto loans give them steady income averaged over time, which smooths out their cash flow. If they only sold cars for cash, they would have more pronounced boom and bust cycles in their revenue.
If the rate of their loans is low, it's because the car is overpriced to make up for it. Do the reverse math. Call your bank and ask them what the interest would be for a line of credit equivalent to the loan amount for that car, over the same period. Use the bank's interest part of their loan to deduce what the cash value of the car must be. E.g. say the bank offers you $30,000 over five years at 3%. You're going to pay about $2300 in interest which is 7.6% of the principal amount. OK, so if the car dealer were to offer you close to 0% interest for five years, it means they inflated the car's price by 7.6% (if not more) so that they make at least the same money on the loan as the bank would. You should therefore pay 7.6% less for the car in cash, than what they are asking for under the too-good-to-be-true loan.
Also, auto loans give them steady income averaged over time, which smooths out their cash flow. If they only sold cars for cash, they would have more pronounced boom and bust cycles in their revenue.
If the rate of their loans is low, it's because the car is overpriced to make up for it. Do the reverse math. Call your bank and ask them what the interest would be for a line of credit equivalent to the loan amount for that car, over the same period. Use the bank's interest part of their loan to deduce what the cash value of the car must be. E.g. say the bank offers you $30,000 over five years at 3%. You're going to pay about $2300 in interest which is 7.6% of the principal amount. OK, so if the car dealer were to offer you close to 0% interest for five years, it means they inflated the car's price by 7.6% (if not more) so that they make at least the same money on the loan as the bank would. You should therefore pay 7.6% less for the car in cash, than what they are asking for under the too-good-to-be-true loan.