Why car dealer willing do spot delivery when possibly lose money and vehicle?

Spot delivery happens when a dealer has done enough checks, possibly including a soft credit check, to be convinced that you are highly likely to be approved by their primary finance provider. 

That means they already know you have a stable job, an established household (possibly with a family to keep), no obvious financial problems and no history of fraud.

Very few people will totally abandon all of that for a vehicle which retails at a few tens of thousands of dollars. In any case, a car thief who is unknown to whoever they may fence the vehicle onto will be lucky to get 10% of the retail price. 

If you somehow got the car across a US border on temporary dealer tags and possibly whilst appearing personally on a list of wanted suspects, then criminals on the other side who don’t already know and trust you are more likely to just take the car and leave you with your life, if you’re lucky.

But suppose you did all that and simply lived in South America with the car (not sure how you’d pay to ship the car to avoid the Darién Gap) then whoop-de-doo! You can’t eat your car. You’ll have abandoned any chance of living legally in the USA. You’ll have left a good job, a good home, your family and friends behind. And within a few years your car will be worth very little and soon after that it’s junk.

Meanwhile, it’s unlikely insurers would pay the dealer for that loss as they willingly handed over the keys. But it’s no biggie: they’d just write off the loss against profits and pay a little less tax at the end of the year. If they didn’t use the risky strategy of allowing spot delivery then they’d sell fewer cars and make less profit on finance commissions.

Spot delivery works because it satisfies the impulsive nature of many buyers. It also means that buyers are far more likely to accept financing deals they would NEVER have otherwise considered if their credit application fails on the original terms. Not merely because they may have fallen in love with the car, but also because the dealer can charge for the usage they’ve already had, and may already have disposed of any part-exchange vehicle in which case they only have to pay fair market value as compensation.

Note that pretty much anywhere else on Earth where there are proper laws to protect consumers, spot delivery is simply not possible and can be highly illegal for the finance house and the dealer.

So dream on. Your idea is FAR from original and if it was a good one then loads of people would do as you suggest. They clearly don’t.

Dealers won’t spot deliver or let a person test drive off the lot alone without dealer finding out tons of info about the person and deciding they are a) lying and a risk or b) are who they say they are and have community ties (no felonies) and are approved by a bank to purchase if they choose to do so. But it the even a test driver leaves and never comes back, the loss of the car is written off to the dealership insurance company as a theft/loss and the get paid for the stolen car by their insurance company.

Nobody with no money and no credit is getting a car. That's silly.  Spot delivery is for well qualified people to convince them to buy. Not deadbeats who might steal the car.

The insurance will PAY for the loss.  The dealer will still have the money.