Auto Advice

[Anonymous]

I would like some advice from some of you gurus here.

I started rebuilding in September of 2014.  My AAoA is 11 months, oldest card is with 6 inquiries within the last 6 months.  Utilization is right at 30% (but will drop to about 5% in about a week).  My wife and I's combined income is $70k (me $40k and her $30k).  No mortgage, no rent, no loans, and no baddies at all.

My Auto scores are:

Equifax:  672, 694
Transunion:  712, 684
Experian 669, 693

I was looking to buy my wife a mostly loaded MINI cooper, as we have never owned a new car before, and she is awesome.  Using the build your own option on the MINI site, looks to be around $32k



1)  What do you think my chances of getting approved are?  I would like to surprise her with it, so going alone would be optimal, but if I have to use her for income, I will.

2)  If my chances are good, what roughly what kind of interest and payment am I looking at (let's say 15% down)?

3)  I bank at a local CU.  I assume I should hit them up first, and if no-go, try the dealer (I am afraid of being laughed out of the CU  lol).

I know the answers are kind of nebulous, but I am just wanting to know if this is a feasable and/or good idea at this point or not?

[Anonymous]

I would say you have a good chance of getting approved.  They just approved me for 1.9% for a $22,500 car with $3,000 down and $25,000 income.  When I applied they pulled Equifax, and my scores are very similar to yours.

[Anonymous]

On a brand new car, you may be better getting the financing at the dealership as they will most likely have some sort of deal going on. I would also bet that they would be a lot less picky than the credit union you deal with. People are always praising local credit unions and banks, but for me and many people that I personally know, the big lenders are usually better to deal with than the hometown lending places.

[Anonymous]

Cool. I will give it a shot this weekend when I am in the closest city with a MINI dealer

[Anonymous]

BMW financial services will likely approve you,  I would probably get a prequal from a credit union to have in your back pocket but BMW takes pretty good care of folks as long as they have 640 or about their tier 1 is just 670 which is much lower than most.  BTW BMW owns Mini which is why I was reffering to them.

[Anonymous]

Was denied. With BMW they wanted a cosigner. I have none.

BMW, my CU, Cap One and Chase all denied. All say too short of credit history (1 year).

Epic fail. This is depressing. Guess I will have to get a used one, if Carmax will approve me.

[Anonymous]

You should have tried DCU or penfed...the online CU's are more lient on short credit history people like us.

[Anonymous]

If you've never bought a new car, or carried a large auto loan ( >25K) they usually have a max they will lend you. Did you have money down to bring to the table?

Minis are cute and everything, but they are generally awful to maintain. With scores like yours you can easily get good financing on a less >25K new car, which can buy you a lot of car.

The CU thing is really just a tactic. If you have good financing, they have to beat it, as opposed to you being at their mercy. I'll never again go to a  car dealership without it. Since you don't have a lot of auto history, even though your scores are good, ask for less money up front, and buy a little less car. I bought my wife an escape and she's happy as a clam (just because she has a new nice car).