There is a lawsuit pending against Ford Motor Company, which alleges that the company has been overcharging and cheating black customers at certain Ford, Jaguar, Mazda and Land Rover dealerships. There are always undisclosed mark-ups in the loans dealers give you when you do financing at the dealership. It’s typically about 2 to 2.5 percent higher than the offer they get from the actual lender. But Vanderbilt University found that black customers were charged $862 more for a loan, while white customers had only a $475 mark-up. Vanderbilt also found that blacks were uncharged two-thirds of the time, while whites were charged more one-fourth of the time. Ford claims that it had no idea this was going on. But it did happen. Avoid mark-ups all together by financing with your bank or credit union instead of the dealership. You can’t get taken if you don’t do business with these people. If you think the car dealership can beat the offer you get from your credit union, offer it up. Maybe the dealership can beat it. But make sure you have an offer when you go in. Never conduct business the other way around.