I'll apologize in advance... this is a bit of a brag post .  

My wife and I had our first child just a little over a week ago.  We had been talking about buying a small SUV/Crossover type vehicle as we both currently drive Honda Civic 2 door coupes.  After a week of trying to lug a carseat in and out, plus fit the stroller and all the baby stuff, I was pretty fed up.  

I called my CU and applied for an auto loan.  They called me back and said that they could not approve me because of "excessive obligations" and "recent delinquency."  I explained the baddies on my report and they said to call back when those were cleared up and they would reevaluate.  

As for the baddies/credit history - I joined these forums about a year ago.  My credit score was a 560.  I had a handful of collections, medical collection, excessive lates on my SL's, defaulted on a few other student loans.  I did lots of work, got quite a few deletes, did a few PFD, and worked on rehabing my SL's (which I learned about on these forums!  THANK YOU!).  I even opened up to secured CC's and was approved for an unsecured $500 limit.  Things started to go up, then they dropped down to 530 and I've been building back up since.  

I spoke to a family member about the denial and she offered to cosign.  We were scheduled to go out the following weekend to "seal the deal."  I decided to go out and look at some cars this past weekend and fell in love with the CR-V.  I found a 2012 Honda CR-V EX and it had the space we needed plus a few extra perks that I wanted.  Since I had already had my CU pull my credit, I knew it wouldn't hurt me to have Honda pull it and see what they could do for me.  I told Honda the payment amount I was looking for and that I didn't want an outrageous APR as I could just come back the next weekend with a highly qualified cosigner and get something better.

They ran the numbers, came back, told me the payments, terms, APR, etc., and to my surprise they somehow qualified me for 4.49% with American Honda Finance.  My Equifax score is a 578 and my Auto Enhanced score is a 601.  I'm completely baffled.  I was able to get the car I wanted ( I would have been happy with the lower LX model, but they lowered the price to make it work), a car payment $5 below my max (hahha.. not much, but it's something), and the APR of someone with far better credit.

(not my actual car)

 Edit:  Double posted image.

---

Starting Score: 560 on 11/1/11
Current Score: 578 on 10/04/12
Goal Score: 650 for starters
Take the FICO Fitness Challenge