topic Length of Employment for Car Loan? in Auto Loans

Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 22:57:45 GMT

My car has been giving me major problems lately. The check engne light keeps on coming on. It's a 2005 Toyota Corolla with 275,000 miles on it. I've owned it for 10 years. We've had record lows here in Texas and my car was having issues turning over (sometimes it would, some times it wouldn't). Tempertures have risen and the car is still having issues. I'm afraid I will go outside, try to start the car and it will be out for good. I use my car for work (I drive to people's homes) and no car means no work. I've been at this job for 3 months. The timing couldn't be any worse because I am in the process of buying a home (we hope to close around 1/16). I had plans to buy a new car but I didn't have plans on doing so, so soon.

I was wondering, how long do I have to be at this job in order to be approved for a car loan? 3 months? 6 months? A year?

TIA

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

lexus829 — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 01:33:59 GMT

I think with your score and limits on your card you should be ok.. you mean you didnt have this issue with the house loan? Is your employment continuous? shouldnt be a problem if it is, hopefully not a big gap..

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 02:16:14 GMT

Thanks for your response.

I just graduated with my masters degree in August of last year and was able to obtain a full time job in the field I went to school for. When getting hte house loan, they counted the time that I was in school as my 2 years of required employment. I am thinking along the same lines as you-- since I was able to secure a home loan, then I should be able to get a car loan. However, I am having some doubts about this.

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Kree — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 14:04:27 GMT

I've gotten car loans with offer letters. So 0 months is probably the answer.

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 15:29:11 GMT

Don't panic and buy a new car. You seriously might only need a $75 battery. Get it tested. (free) Have your check engine light read. (free) If repairs are a few hundred bucks, ride it out.

When the car does die for good deal with it then.

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 15:41:47 GMT

Spend $100 on a new battery and a new gas filler cap. Cold weather can make old batteries crank slow or not at all, and cold weather can cause the gaskets on your gas cap to be brittle. Replace both, problems may go away.

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Kree — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 16:21:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Spend $100 on a new battery and a new gas filler cap. Cold weather can make old batteries crank slow or not at all, and cold weather can cause the gaskets on your gas cap to be brittle. Replace both, problems may go away.

I don't know how often I've seen people get quoted $1000 dollar repairs for check engine lights problems, usually codes like "fuel system leak", and a $15 gas cap fixes the problem. Biggest scam in the industry, and the sad thing is 50% of the time, they really do replace the fuel tank or something, because mechanics can be idiots too.

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 17:24:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Don't panic and buy a new car. You seriously might only need a $75 battery. Get it tested. (free) Have your check engine light read. (free) If repairs are a few hundred bucks, ride it out.

When the car does die for good deal with it then.

I definitely agree with this. I'm thinking worse case scenario here.

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 17:26:38 GMT

It wasn't the battery. Had that tested. I have an appointment at the toyota dealership in Wednsday. Now, I'm thinking of taking it to auto zone first.

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 18:04:41 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It wasn't the battery. Had that tested. I have an appointment at the toyota dealership in Wednsday. Now, I'm thinking of taking it to auto zone first.

It wouldn't hurt and will take 5 minutes for them to tell you what code the light is throwing.

Also, unless you've been going to the dealer for regular service all of this time, I would really find a private shop with good reviews (from family, friends, or even Google/Yelp) and go there. Dealerships tend to throw a huge list of stuff that needs done at you that is often waaayyy beyond what you *need* to do to keep a high mileage car on the road. (They also sell the shiny new cars there. Coincidence? LOL)

The last time my car was taking forever to turn over, a new fuel filter fixed it. Old one was clogged and it had plenty of crank but wasn't getting the gas it needed to turn over regularly. It was noticeably worse in cold weather. The filter was probably $15 and I paid an hour's labor to have it done since I don't have anywhere to work on my car in NYC. Ended up being $100 total.

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Kree — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 18:31:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
It wasn't the battery. Had that tested. I have an appointment at the toyota dealership in Wednsday. Now, I'm thinking of taking it to auto zone first.
It wouldn't hurt and will take 5 minutes for them to tell you what code the light is throwing.

Also, unless you've been going to the dealer for regular service all of this time, I would really find a private shop with good reviews (from family, friends, or even Google/Yelp) and go there. Dealerships tend to throw a huge list of stuff that needs done at you that is often waaayyy beyond what you *need* to do to keep a high mileage car on the road. (They also sell the shiny new cars there. Coincidence? LOL)

The last time my car was taking forever to turn over, a new fuel filter fixed it. Old one was clogged and it had plenty of crank but wasn't getting the gas it needed to turn over regularly. It was noticeably worse in cold weather. The filter was probably $15 and I paid an hour's labor to have it done since I don't have anywhere to work on my car in NYC. Ended up being $100 total.

Oh, it could also be improper gapping in a spark plug. Thick cold gas could not be lighting properly with a weak spark. Fix is a $1.99 gap ring. Could have been wrong for years and never noticed. Or the plugs could have gotten dirty. Fix is a $.99 wire brush and/or the gapper if a twofer problem.

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 06:13:13 GMT

I agree I would first take it to Autozone or one of the auto parts stores and have them pull the codes and tell you cost of the parts. They will do for free.. I would try to find a good non dealership repair shop. At 10 years old the card probably has seen its better days. But you would be suprised what $500 will do in repairs

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 00:57:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
It wasn't the battery. Had that tested. I have an appointment at the toyota dealership in Wednsday. Now, I'm thinking of taking it to auto zone first.
It wouldn't hurt and will take 5 minutes for them to tell you what code the light is throwing.

Also, unless you've been going to the dealer for regular service all of this time, I would really find a private shop with good reviews (from family, friends, or even Google/Yelp) and go there. Dealerships tend to throw a huge list of stuff that needs done at you that is often waaayyy beyond what you *need* to do to keep a high mileage car on the road. (They also sell the shiny new cars there. Coincidence? LOL)

The last time my car was taking forever to turn over, a new fuel filter fixed it. Old one was clogged and it had plenty of crank but wasn't getting the gas it needed to turn over regularly. It was noticeably worse in cold weather. The filter was probably $15 and I paid an hour's labor to have it done since I don't have anywhere to work on my car in NYC. Ended up being $100 total.

I've been taking it to a local guy that my mom used for repairs on her vehicle. I stopped doing that about 9 months ago. Guy seemed shady. He;d fix someting but no soon afte the car would have another issue. I haven't gotten around to finding anyone else.

Re: Length of Employment for Car Loan?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 17:00:14 GMT

To answer your original question regarding length of employment, It really depends on your credit/credit history. Someone with good-excellent credit with past Auto loan history will have no problem regardless of a short job time, getting approved. Job time and residence time is really only a big factor in approval when it comes to subprime financing. People who have a history of bad credit and not paying things satisfactory, have a rough time getting approved with short job/residence times. Subprime banks look for two things, along with your credit history, they look for Stability (someone who moves to a new residence every few months or who has had 7 jobs in the last 2 years doesn't have stability, they're looking for someone who's been on the job for a year+ and been at a residence for a year+) and secondly they look for ability, meaning the ability to repay the debt by having a stable job, with income that meet's the PTI and DTI limits. Most subprime banks limit PTI to 10-18% of gross income depending on the lender. Subprime lender's like to keep DTI usually under 45-65% including the new payment.