I learned something about the Patriot Act today
 

Apparently, it allows car dealerships to get credit reports for all customers, even those who are paying in cash, or are not financing through them.

Personally, I'm uncomfortable with that. I don't remember them saying anything about that when they passed the Patriot Act. Wasn't it supposed to help fight terrorism?

Yep, that's true. Dealerships do run credit checks on customers who pay cash for a car.

That is streteching it , I agree. OTH, I can understand the thinking that a terrorist purchasing a car to be used for something other than just driving it on the highways probably wouldn't finance it.

The owner of the Lincoln/Jeep dealership here is LDS and I worked with his son a lot. About three years ago they a Saudi guy buy a pimped out Navigator (~$70K) but at the time the money was supposed to be transferred into his account it was frozen by the govt because it had oil ties and it took a while to check out. Finally, they gave up and he never bought the SUV.

On another occasion, he actually had to take a customer into a back room and help him dry out his cash to pay for his Grand Cherokee. The guy said he kept in a fish tank because he didn't trust banks. People that interact with the public have all kinds of great stories.