Two contracts, three parties, and one afternoon to read them.
A person at a dealership is usually signing a sale, a credit agreement and a set of optional products at the same desk, in the same hour, presented as one thing.
What is actually being decided.
A person at a dealership is usually signing a sale, a credit agreement and a set of optional products at the same desk, in the same hour, presented as one thing.
What actually goes wrong.
Not a list of villains. A list of places where the record and the relationship come apart, drawn from what the regulators themselves have published.
Fees outside the number
Ontario requires the advertised price to include every fee the dealer intends to collect. Only tax and licensing may sit outside it. The rule exists because the practice did.
What payment do you want
Asked before the price and the term are settled, it moves the conversation off what the vehicle costs. Any payment can be reached by stretching the term.
174 people charged as curbsiders
OMVIC laid 895 charges against 174 alleged curbsiders in 2025 alone, and 2,332 charges in total, drawing $1.9 million in fines.
$1.5 million paid out
Ontario runs a compensation fund for people harmed by dealers. It paid $1.5 million in 2025, with a further $825,552 returned through dealer compensation or refunds.
The same four moments, in this decision.
Every industry on this site gets the same four moments, because the relationship is the thing that repeats. Only the decision changes.
Standing at the desk
The person can see the three numbers that decide what they actually pay: total financed, rate, and term. Everything else on the sheet is arrangement around those three.
Before the credit application goes anywhere
What is in it, where it may be sent, and what the person is agreeing to, shown before they agree rather than after.
As it is submitted
Each submission is recorded as it happens, so the history belongs to the person too. If one lender appears twice, that is shown as an event, not named as an accusation.
When the paperwork differs from the sheet
Only the changes are shown. Term, rate, and what got added. Any one can be legitimate. All three moving at once is worth a question.
Better financial decisions start with better relationships.
The person understands what they are deciding. The firm can show how it was handled. Both of those come out of the same conversation.