Glossary
Dealer finance
A car loan arranged at the dealership as part of buying the car. Convenient, but the loan is chosen from the dealer's panel, not the whole market.
By Leverage Finance · Updated 17 July 2026
Dealer finance is how a large share of NZ car loans begin: you pick the car, and the dealership's business manager arranges a loan on the spot. The convenience is real. The trade-off is that the loan comes from whichever lenders the dealer works with, priced in a moment when your attention is on the car, not the contract.
Historically, some dealer-arranged loans also carried flex commission (dealer margin loaded into the loan's pricing) and bundled add-on insurance products. Loans that started life on a car yard are, for these reasons, the most common candidates for a refinance re-check once the buyer has time to compare.
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