Inquiries and credit score

[lovelylisa84]

Hi All... I plan to purchase a car in about 3 weeks give or take. I would like to secure financing prior to getting to the dealer and have about 3 places in mind. Will they all count as 1 inquiry since it is for a car loan or will they all count as one hard inquiry and lower my score?

[llecs]

If coded as an auto loan, FICO will ignore all but one auto inquiry within a given CRA within a given time frame and won't score that inquiry until the duplication window ends (14-45 days depending on the score version). 

[kd1989]

I wish I would have known this because I went for 3 personal loans for a car and am now going thorough few car lots that work with bad credit.  I am hoping to get something soon and start paying it off