I am really not looking to pick a fight. But I am still not getting it.
What is a hard pull telling you that a soft pull is not?
And if you get a check from the bank, not a personal check, how will you not get paid for the car?
I suspect there is much more to the story of the 5 cars "that went away" than just a hard credit pull that was not performed.
Incidents of fraud or trends indicating likely fraud in the past (sometimes it just gets written off for small amounts) or the possibility of fraud may show on a credit report. For instance, if it shows you've got no income, no credit and no history of such, but walk in with $50K cash... hmmm...
That's different than just an OFAC check. Combined, the two allow a dealership to better assess if you're a terrorist, trying to defraud them, paying with money obtained from illegal activities and a variety of other things relevant to protecting themselves as well as relevant to the laws they need to abide by.
If you come in with $40K or $50K in a cash-type form (cash, check, etc), I am going to want to make sure it's not drug money or laundered money from some other illegal activity. Last thing I'd want as a business owner is scrutiny by authorities trying to see if I am involved in those illegal activities.
Most dealerships don't have a "S/he looks like a nice guy, let's skip this stuff" clause, so, the safest thing for them to do is check everyone who tries to pay in such fashion.