Walser Burnsville Mazda

At the time I was looking, Mazda was offering 2.9% financing to "Qualified Buyers" through Mazda finance. So I saw the car I liked and then applied for the loan. The finance manager came back after 15 mins and said that I didn't qualify (for the 2.9%) and the best rate he could find for me was 6.5% through a private bank. I didn't end up buying the car that day and told him that I'd think about it. I know my credit is "excellent" and I'm not sure why I didn't qualify. My brother told me he had this same experience with another Walser dealer (Nissan) they pulled the same thing on him. He told me to go online and apply directly to mazda finance and choose a different dealership. Well what do you know! I qualified after all. (Keep in mind that dealers do not make a lot of money on new cars) There must have been an obvious motive for them to get me a higher interest rate. I'll let the readers figure that one out. So as I waited a few days to visit that other Mazda Dealer, long behold I get a phone call from the salesman at Walser asking if I'm still interested in the car. I said yes but if I can't get good financing then what's the point. I told him that I've decided to go with another dealer because they would offer me the 2.9% and that I qualified myself online. All of a sudden they were becoming my best friends saying that I should stop in and they'll see what they can do for me. HMM! I went back to the dealer that week and then had a different finance manager doing the paperwork for me. "Congratulations you do qualify, I'm not sure what happened the first time but we can get you that rate and give you an extra $500 off that car." Long story short, I ended up buying the car because they were closer to my house and they had the car that I wanted. Needless to say I didn't call them out on the spot but told many people to watch out for this. Qualify on your own before you go to any dealership because it does not seem like its in their best interest to help you get the best interest rates. I'm glad to hear that other people feel that they had a good experience but this is just what happened to me. For everyone, please keep an open mind because I'm sure it happens at other dealerships to.