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