What scores do Auto Lenders look at? Fico 8 or Fico Auto? Both?

[Anonymous]

Very confused about what scores Auto Loan Lenders look at to determine if you are eligible for a loan.  Is it Fico 8 or Fico Auto....or mabye both?  Also - does anyone know what your score needs to be in order to get the interest rate car dealers are advertising for their "well qualified customers"?  I mean, really, if you look hard enough you can probably get financing somewhere.....for 22.9%!  How many people actually can qualify for the lowest interest rate.

[0REDSOX7]

Unfortunately, there is no correct answer here.  All lenders don't use the same version of FICO, too, so you have to add that to the mix.  

But, with that said, you can qualify for the top tier financing dealerships offer - usually a score of 720 or higher, however, their finance managers can sometimes pull strings and can negotiate the rate with you...

[FeelingLucky]

My best guess is it depends on the dealer and which version of FICO they're using. I just bought a 2015 E350 through MBFS and neither the EQ nor TU score the dealer showed me matched my FICO 8 auto scores or earlier TU/EQ auto scores available on myFico. The TU score they had was lower than my Auto 4 (717) and the EQ score was higher than my EQ Auto5 (650). I've never had any late car payments so not sure how the auto scores are calculated or why they vary so widely. Anyway, I'm guessing they used an even earlier auto score...I didn't ask a lot of questions once I saw I could get 2.99% financing with EQ of 685 and TU 690.