Preapproval amounts are "maximum" loan amounts.
A loan amount includes the price of the car (minus any cash down payment or trade in deduction), plus taxes, title fees, registration fees, extended warranties (if any), etc.
Chase is telling you, we'll loan you up to $28K on a new car at 3.29%.
Used cars can have higher interest rates in some cases.
They can also have lower "max loan" amounts.
Every lender has a "max loan" amount on any given car. It is calculated by them by using the insurance/wholesale value of the car, the age and mileage it if is used, and other factors known only to the lender. What that means for a buyer with a preapproval is, don't assume the sticker price on any car - new or used - will be the same as its "max loan" value for your lender. Sometimes the sticker is lower (allowing addition of taxes, fees, etc) and sometimes the sticker is actually more than the lender is willing to loan on the vehicle - and in these cases, the difference must be paid in cash down, or eliminated by rebates, or whatever, to bring the total loan package number under the "max loan" amount set by the lender for that vehicle.
Cash down payments can help keep the total u nder hte "max loan" amount - and on used cars, those max loan amounts are lower, naturally, than on new cars. Skipping GAP insurance from the dealer can help too - you can get this from your car insurance provider for less, anyway, if you want it - as can skipping extended service packages or extended warranties - again, you can buy these outside the dealer if you really want them.
