Buying two cars in a short time frame?

[Anonymous]

Will buying two cars within a relatively short time frame, say 2 months, have an impact on credit score?  Would the purchase of the first car impact the purchase of the second?  We want to get the best APR possible.

[Anonymous]

Taking on new debt will affect your credit scores, however FICO scoring doesn't ding you as hard for multiple auto loans as it does for having too many credit cards with balances and as the auto loans age, your scores will improve.  

The better question is, Without knowing what you're buying, Can you afford two car loans at the same time?   I know it pains me to shell out $700a month for two cars, But I 'only' have a 10-month overlap left on the two before one car is PIF.

[Anonymous]

Your best bet would be to buy the two cars at once...if they are at least the same manufacturer you could get a fantastic deal!!!

You could probably dupe the FICO process by purchasing the second vehicle within 45 days from the first purchase since it takes that long (on new vehicles at least) for the new loan to post. 

This would not be fraud since I have never been asked by a dealership "have you bought a new car in the last 30 days"?. 

[Anonymous]

We bought two cars in two months last summer & FICO  went down about 20 points overall. But once they aged 1 yr, we gained 20 points back.

So if you can afford to take the short-term hit, as in, no other major purchases planned for the next 12 months, go for it.

We got a really really great deal from the dealership on the second car, because they remembered me so clearly from the first purchase. Heck, they even drove me over to their other dealership waaay across town to see if they might have what I was looking for! Even though the scores had already dropped 15 points by the time they pulled again (first auto had just reported, bringing down avg age of accts), my int rate was lower than the first vehicle..

There def. is something to be said for establishing a business relationship

[Anonymous]

If you are going to wait 2 months between you should be fine because your first payment on the first car will have reported and you won't be at 100 percent util on that loan. You will lose for an additional inquiry and having new credit and a lower average age though. If you aren't at a borderline score for the credit tier you are aiming for you should be fine.