Auto Loans

[paparoach429]

So as the title says, Im getting closer to getting my new car and am curious to know which banks tend to be the most lenient as far as amount of money borrowed and interest they charge. Id like to hear personal opinions before I start going out and taking on alot of hard hits on my credit. Also, how does combining hard hits for car loans work? Do they all have to be in the same day, week or month?     

[ALLevesque]

When we bought a new Toyota, we financed with Toyota and got 0%(60 months), and we also bought certified used with Toyota for 2.9%.  (60 months)

We bought a new Subaru and financed through Subaru and got 1.9% (72 months)

We bought a truck private sale and got 2.49% through a credit untion (36 months)

It really depends on promotional deals and such... but in our case those have been the best deals we've gotten.

[Jutz]

For the most commonly used FICO models, auto loan inquiries that are coded as such done within 30 days of one another will have the affect of one hard inquiry.  All will show on the credit report of course.

As far as what bank to use, Credit Unions have been the best recently.  I would ask around your local credit unions what their rates are and what scores are needed for particular rates.  If you're buying used make sure you mention the model year you're looking at.

You should take what the best rate is that you can get qualified at based on your credit, and bring that to the dealer and see if they can beat it.  If you're positive you'll get approved at the credit union, don't even take the hard pull, just use the APR as a bargaining point in the dealership and tell them you're preapproved.  The dealer may pull 1-2 bureaus to try and beat it.  If they can, great!  If they can't, you can go back to your credit union and get the loan there.