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ds3 wrote:

I have been reading some of the posts today, and am wondering what some of you might think. My wife and I are coming out of a rough patch...she lost her job in the banking industry 5 years ago and just recently got a new job. I have a long (19 year) employment history, but a score in the 600+/- range due to collections and charge offs that are all a few years old because of the loss of income after she lost her job. We now make $130k a year, and have a combined debt to income ratio of 19% or so, which is almost entirely mortgage debt. My last auto loan was 7 years ago. What are our chances of getting a somewhat decent rate on a $35k car with 10% down? It seems to me that we are in ok shape, but I really want to avoid a ton of hard hits to find out. Any help is greatly appreciated...thanks! 

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Honestly, your best hope of getting a decent rate is probably to buy down the loan. Front a larger downpayment and the lender is more likely to reduce the rate. Some captives are locking into a no tier bump policy though (VW Credit in particular), so it pays to shop around. If possible, offer to front a 10% downpayment and have the F&I guy shop it to all of his buyers. See what happens.