from my understanding, and I am sitting in my FI office right now, is that a auto credit pull is a "soft" pull and is not supposed to change your fico score. you might check with the dealer and the lender, under the fcla anything other than a soft pull is a violation and they can face fines for that. I know that when I hire a credit reporting agency to pull your score, they ask what type of pull we require.
As an "indirect lender", I am required to pull your score before I submit your loan app to my lenders. then the lenders pull your score also. I do not like that I have to run it and pay for it when the lenders are literally going to do the same thing minutes later. but it is what it is. The fun ones are the turn downs. I am required to send a letter and then all of the banks I submitted to send a letter. the customer comes in with a pile of letters and doesnt understand why. Or even better, one lender says yes and the others say no. So we get the deal done and the car is out burning gas. The customer comes back in a few weeks with the td letters and is confused asking if they have to give the car back.
All your government at work to protect you from yourself.
