Best way to secure a loan with NO history?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys, I'm fishing for info to help a friend of mine get a decent auto loan. This isn't one of those "put it off until you save up more cash and just pay cash" situations. He needs a car ASAP for work. Even if he has to pay subprime for a while then refinance.

He has NO credit history and literally no credit score. The only thing on his history is a recently discharged bankruptcy (medical debt).

What he does have is about $700 down and isn't looking for more than $6000 in loan. He also has a cosigner that has good to excellent credit.

One bank and one credit union have already turned him down. My questions are:
Is going straight to the dealer and swallowing 18% subprime his only option?
With aggressive credit building, how soon do you think he'll be able to refinance with a lower APR?

Thanks guys!

[Anonymous]

LittleEagle,

If he has a co-signer I would suggest going ahead and utilizing that opportunity to avoid paying high interest rates. As far as financing by himself, I think it will be very difficult to obtain first time car financing on a 6000 vehicle. Many finance companies who specialize in sub-prime market's tend to want to finance newer vehicles with lower mileage as they pose less risk to the lender. A 6000 vehicle will typically be older and have more mileage on it which subprime bank's don't like. However this isn't to say they won't, some lender's like United Auto Credit, Credit Acceptance, Exeter, Westlake, will finance these types of vehicle's.