Sorry that they will not remove it; I myself have been persistent with Old National Bank to remove a 30 day late (with a valid excuse), but they will not budge.
Surprisingly, an old 30 day or even 60 day late payment is not that damaging to your credit score. However, so long as the late payment was an isolated incident; are these your only late payments on your report? Frequent lates, or recent lates will cause your scores to plummet.
Its the 90 day late payment threshold that you need to watch out for; supposedly a 90 day late will damage your credit for up to 7 years (where then all late payments are legally required to be removed from reports).
Now, for manual reviews (I'm thinking Credit Unions) I'm not sure how they will react to a 90 day late span. Since it was over 3 years ago with the following payments being made on time, they may not be that concerned about it. Heck, they may be more concerned about your debt-to-income, cars value vs. requested borrow $ amount.
Also, I don't have the answer if a 30/60 day late will disqualify you from the bank's advertised interest rate.
Forwarning, dealership F&I office will use this against you, play ball and don't fall for it. You should get pre-approved before walking into the dealership office anyway.
