Depends on your current scores, and how long your credit history is. In some cases without mortgage/auto/personal installment loan, an Auto-Enhanced pull for a first-time buyer can be 50+ points lower than the standard Classic scores found here. Anecdotally according to a finance manager who frequents this forum, Student Loans don't count as much, and personal loans are a little unknown too.
Really for auto-financing it only comes down to 3 things:
- Income and Downpayment determine how much loan you can get
- FICO (auto-enhanced or otherwise) determines your APR, with a lesser focus on how much DP you actually need seemingly.
Don't look at it from the standpoint of what you're qualified for, figure out what you can afford instead and then start working from there.
@Mailak wrote:
What I can afford vs. what I am qualified for: aren't these kind of closely intertwined?
Not in every case. At least in my personal experience. I have qualified for several cars in the past that I really couldn't afford. But it sounds like that will not apply to you.
For what it's worth I don't think you will even have an auto enhanced score. If you read about FICO Auto Enhanced Scores you'll see that you have to have a history of previous car loans reporting before an auto enhanced score can be generated.
But I could be wrong about that. I have been known to be slightly less than correct in the past. 
@MarineVietVet wrote:
@Mailak wrote:
What I can afford vs. what I am qualified for: aren't these kind of closely intertwined?
Not in every case. At least in my personal experience. I have qualified for several cars in the past that I really couldn't afford. But it sounds like that will not apply to you.
For what it's worth I don't think you will even have an auto enhanced score. If you read about FICO Auto Enhanced Scores you'll see that you have to have a history of previous car loans reporting before an auto enhanced score can be generated.
But I could be wrong about that. I have been known to be slightly less than correct in the past.
Oh absolutely, I certainly agree that people can get approved for things they truly can't afford. I guess that's at the crux of certain financial calamities in the world
Regarding auto enhanced scores, yes, even I'm not sure I would have one, as I noted in my first post. That's kind of why I'm wondering about what I might be able to qualify for I know already I can afford pretty much whatever I would want (emphasis on what I would want, not what's out there 
)
Hey Maliak,
My apologies, what I meant in my post was how much you can afford to spend monthly for a car, then work backwards in the auto loan caculators to see what APR at what loan values work for you. e.g. Put 20,000 in the loan value, 20% in the APR, and calculate, that's probably absolute worst case on a 20K loan, and I doubt you're in that bucket. Play with the values to get a feeling for what to expect.
Again worst case, if you can get into the 30% DP range, you can be approved for just about anything even with truly awkward things on your credit report, and I don't think you're in that bad a situation if I remember your credit profile from other posts on this forum correctly.
Auto-enhanced is just an industry option, in this case if you have a FICO score, you have an auto-enhanced one too; however, as you noted, the auto-enhanced option does weight things differently than the Classic or other options. Not every lender uses these though, in your case I think I'd try a couple CU's since some at least will pull a straight FICO for their approvals where you won't get the possible "first-time buyer" penalty.
In any event, it's not a huge issue either if you do: just buy the car, and if the rate isn't pretty because they quote their FICO as much lower than your Classic scores, just go refinance after six months and pretty much eliminate that lack of auto-history problem.