Auto Loans

[vesper]

So when they ask what I want as monthly payments....what do I say?

[Takunda1]

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vesper wrote:
So when they ask what I want as monthly payments....what do I say?

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"Thats not an issue I am more interested in the total I am going to pay for the car. "

[masdeocho]

Again, you don't tell them what you want.  You ask them what they can offer for (a) interest rate and (b) term of the loan.  

[vesper]

I just called my CU (i just joined a week ago) to get some info about interest rate and how to go about getting the car this weekend, etc. Since it is my first time dealing with a CU, I'm kindof in the dark of how it works. The loan officer was soooo rude to me. I don't understand what her deal was. I really hate that!! She said that I can get 5.75% for a 4 year loan if I have good credit. She says it doesn't matter what my score is as long as I have good credit, the interest is 5.75. Is this a good interest rate or do you think I can probably do better through Honda? My scores are EQ 667, TU 653, EX 639. These are 2 weeks old, but maybe have gone higher because my utilization went down by paying off my CC. I'm hoping to get around $4000 for my wrangler from carmax. So I think I will probably be needing to finance around 12,000.

[RevMen]

Monthly payment and sale price are basically two different ways of saying the same thing. It's generally in the dealership's best interest to focus on monthly payment and it's generally in the customer's best interest to focus on sale price. So if they start harassing you to tell them how much you're willing to pay a month, tell them you're really only concerned with getting a fair sale price and whatever the monthly payment comes out to be is whatever it comes out to be.

When you e-mail dealerships to ask for quotes, don't cc other dealerships. That's just tacky. Besides, usually you have to fill out a form on their website, they don't often have an email address out in the open for you to use. Just keep a separate email conversation going with each dealership. You don't have to tell them you're talking to other dealerships; they know you're talking to other dealerships.

If you don't want them to call you, don't give them your phone number. If they get your phone number they will probably try very hard to get you to come into the dealership to look at the car. If you're looking at a new car it's very easy to work almost the entire deal before you even think about going to the dealership. If you're looking at a used car you absolutely should go look at and drive the car you're interested in.... after getting at least a quote from them via e-mail.

When dealing with multiple dealerships, sometimes you may be getting quotes from different dealers for the exact same car without even realizing it. Exchanges can be fairly common, depending on the relationship the various sales managers have with each other. One time, due to miscommunication at the other dealership and the craftiness of my sales manager, I was able to sell my customer another dealerships car that they thought they were going to sell to this person. The customer had actually been to the other dealership and test driven the car and decided they wanted it, but chose to go to another dealership to see if they could get a better price. I think they told us the price they were going to get there (called "shopping," kind of a dirty practice on the customer's part) and we beat it by like $100 or something stupid like that. Then I drove over to the other dealership, picked up the car, and delivered it to their/my customer.

[Sushi]

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vesper wrote:
I just called my CU (i just joined a week ago) to get some info about interest rate and how to go about getting the car this weekend, etc. Since it is my first time dealing with a CU, I'm kindof in the dark of how it works. The loan officer was soooo rude to me. I don't understand what her deal was. I really hate that!! She said that I can get 5.75% for a 4 year loan if I have good credit. She says it doesn't matter what my score is as long as I have good credit, the interest is 5.75. Is this a good interest rate or do you think I can probably do better through Honda? My scores are EQ 667, TU 653, EX 639. These are 2 weeks old, but maybe have gone higher because my utilization went down by paying off my CC. I'm hoping to get around $4000 for my wrangler from carmax. So I think I will probably be needing to finance around 12,000.

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Call the CU and try to see if you get someone nicer. Otherwise join another CU.

How have you done on past car loans? Any lates or defaults?

Also random Q, what year/mileage is the Jeep? I wanted to buy one, but not anymore with these gas prices .

[vesper]

Call the CU and try to see if you get someone nicer. Otherwise join another CU.

How have you done on past car loans? Any lates or defaults?

Also random Q, what year/mileage is the Jeep? I wanted to buy one, but not anymore with these gas prices .

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I'm just going to send a nice complaint letter

My past car loan I did pretty well on except for some lates here and there due to unemployment. I tried the GW to Trian Financial, but they wouldn't budge. I honestly don't know how the finance manager will look at that since they are 2 years old.

My jeep wrangler....i love it. Last night I got sad thinking about getting rid of it. Now I'm not so sure! It's a 97 and has 114,000 miles on it. I'm vexed on how much carmax will offer me. 97 is actually a very good year for wranglers and so they sell quite well especially to those who love to restore jeeps...they are fairly cheap to fix and they last forever! Depending on how much carmax offers me, I may try to sell on my own. The only reason why I am getting rid of it is because it isn't practical anymore and of course gas prices.

[vesper]

Thanks Rev for the input. I'm glad I didn't cc'd them. I was just curious about it.

[heather76]

I am definately not a pro at car shopping, but I know a couple things:

1) It's not wise to trade in your vehicle if selling it yourself is an option, and

2)  I really, REALLY would not worry about hurting a salesman's feelings, or concern yourself with how you "look" to him (stingy, rude, whatever)... you look like dollar signs, and you aren't there to make friends.

Was that hostile to say?  hee hee!