I used to know a gentleman during my student days whom only buy car by full payment in cash and never apply for car loan...lucky guy
However on 2 occasions he didn't bring his chequebook with him. He nevertheless, wanted to complete the purchase and registration of those vehicle on that day itself. So, on both occasions he purchased those cars using his credit/charge card. I thought it was impossible to purchase a car by fully paying by credit card but, I witnessed these transactions going through without any hitches
I later found out from this gentleman that it was possible for him to do so because during one of those purchases, he had used an American Express Black Card (I didn't know the significance of such card back then...now I do
). During the other vehicle purchase, he used his Platinum Visa card. But here's the fact that literally got my eyeballs out...His Platinum Visa had a credit limit of USD5million.
Although I'm a strong believer that money isn't everything, I cannot deny the fact that it's amazing what money can do to these privileged individuals
Nevertheless, relevant to this thread, yes, you can secure your deposit and or downpayment of your vehicle purchase by using your credit card as long as you have sufficient credit and, no, it is not a cash advance. It is a normal charge to your credit card account as how you transact with other merchants using your credit card...therefore you'll not incur cash advance charges and bank interest charge which is charged per day from the day the cash advance is made until the cash advance is repaid IN FULL irrespective of your credit card statement payment due date.
As Bro vettelR2turbo pointed out...some car dealership prefer cash/cheque/wire payment for the deposit/downpayment to maximise their profit by avoiding incurring bank charges for credit card payment. Imagine, when you are paying 10% to 30% of a $30,000 car multiplied by 10 units per day or over a $200,000 car multiplied by 1 to 5 units per day. Though I don't agree and will not bow down with these dealerships' objectives of maximising profit, I can understand their financial justification.