Car Dealers Charge White Customers Less Than Everyone Else, Study Finds

Things that are okay for a car dealer to do: charge a buyer seeking financing a different rate based on his or her credit history. Things that are completely not okay for a car dealer to do: charge a buyer seeking financing a different rate based on his or her race. And yet they just keep doing it anyway.

Car dealers have a nasty and pernicious habit of charging black and Latino customers higher rates than white ones, a study from the Center for Responsible Lending has found. The full report (PDF) delves into the research, methodology, and findings.

It’s not a matter of one group of buyers being less savvy shoppers than another group: white buyers were actually the least likely to try to negotiate the terms of a loan, with only 22% of white buyers giving it a go. In contrast, 32% of black buyers and 39% of Latino buyers negotiated their interest rates.

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