Should I take car dealer financing for a rebate and pay it off early?

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

1. 1
   paying cash for the vehicle outright
2. 2
   reading and understanding the loan terms thoroughly before signing
3. 3
   getting written agreements from the salesman regarding early payoff
4. 4
   negotiating the car price, trade-in, and loan terms separately
5. 5
   using an online internet department to purchase the car and minimize dealership friction
6. 6
   Reading the fine print of the contract for early prepayment penalties
7. 7
   Paying off the loan within the first few days regardless of dealer requests
8. 8
   Making the required number of minimum payments before paying off or transferring the loan

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.